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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

Maintaining a Sense of Humour about Eco-Friendly TransportationI’m still in touch with a decent number of my friends from college, and my communication lines here are further strengthened by my service as “class secretary,” meaning that I collect and edit submissions from my classmates for the school’s magazine.

I take a fair amount of abuse from people who make fun of my overt environmentalism, which ribbing, to be honest, I actually kind of enjoy.  It’s all good-natured, e.g., when my friend from the Boston area, Rob Buffum (pictured lower right — we don’t look like that anymore) , invited me to stay at his place and wrote me, “Sure thing!  Just rent a hybrid at Logan and shoot on over.”

Some of this ragging is downright hilarious, e.g., this piece that another old friend sent on the role of government in auto design; I hope you’ll enjoy it too.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Hydrokinetics

A Fond and Sorrowful Goodbye to Tidal EnergyHere’s a question I was asked earlier today.  If the average ocean depth is two miles, and 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered in water, that means that there are tens of millions of cubic miles of water bobbing up and down due to the tides. Doesn’t that represent far more energy than we need?

There are two issues here.  (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

House of the Future?  Let’s Hope NotHere’s a vision of the house of the future that I wanted to share, largely to make this point:  it’s 399 square feet.  That’s only a little larger than the size of a prison cell for the top white collar criminals favored by our “justice” system. People don’t like being confined to small spaces; that’s why we use this as punishment.  Are we expecting this aspect of human nature to change?  (Read more, and see larger version of graphic below.) (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Biomass

Why Anaerobic Digestion Is Environmentally FriendlyThe constant battle to reduce greenhouse gases has resulted in a constant search for more environmentally focused waste disposal systems – from an influx of recycled materials being crafted into other useful objects, through to sourcing eco-friendly treatment systems for our waste water  – finding new ways to protect the environment is high on everybody’s radar. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

Could Catastrophic Climate Change Lead To Falling Real Estate Values?(Note: Why not ask the owner of the place pictured here, whose pool is normally 8 – 10 feet above sea level?  -ed)

When you are searching for prime real estate property in the United States, you will certainly not lack for opportunities to discover plenty of them. Many of the world’s finest and most renowned property developers are located here. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Nuclear

Nuclear Advocates Are Rabidly Hostile to Renewable Energy—But Why?To their shame, many pro-nuclear groups spend more of their resources tearing apart the wind and solar industries than promoting their own.  Here’s a great example, a graph that shows that solar and wind are too expensive.

But there are two problems with this: (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainable Building

Identifying Common Fire Hazards in Your Building Is An Environmental IssueA fire in your building can have a devastating effect on your property and the surrounding area; and can even place people’s lives in danger. When a building blaze occurs, the fire produces not only heat and smoke, but also toxic emissions and gases harmful to the environment. Buildings contain a wide variety of synthetic materials, including insulation, electrical equipment, carpeting, and soft furnishings and, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), the potential for severe health impacts from smoke inhalation during building fires is continuously increasing. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Regulating Emissions: In the US, Nothing Comes EasyYesterday morning, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey led a coalition of 24 states in filing a lawsuit to prohibit the EPA from implementing its groundbreaking limits on the amount of harmful carbon pollution power plants can spew into our air.

Now I’m sure that those (38%) of 2GreenEnergy readers residing outside the US may think that this is impossible, that perhaps I just tried to slip one in on you to see if you were paying attention.  I only wish that were the case.  West Virginia (pictured) is arguably the most scenic state in the union; it’s a shame it doesn’t share the same beauty in terms of wisdom and morality.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

photo UC_Santa_Barbara_zps8a51d53b.png2GreenEnergy intern Fabio Porcu and I spent a good portion of the day yesterday with my colleague John Perlin, scholar in residence at the University of California at Santa Barbara.  Last year, I conducted a series of interviews with John in which he walked me through the highlights of his popular book on the history of solar power:  “Let It Shine, the 6000 Year Story of Solar Energy.”

In our talk with him yesterday, John not only showed us UCSB’s new 420 KW solar PV array whose construction he had overseen, but he walked us through some of the peripheral technology that enables huge quantities of solar to be integrated into the grid mix, e.g., this energy storage device, the “charge controller.”

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Glenn Doty: As a Senior Energy Analyst, He’s No Stranger To Doing the NumbersI’ve had the pleasure of hanging out with some enormously bright people in my day, but I’m not sure I’ve ever met someone with a stronger facility for math and science than our frequent participator here Glenn Doty (though a possible exception is Glenn’s father David).  Numbers play a big role in almost every conversation that I’ve ever had with Glenn (pictured); normally we’re discussing things like gigatons of CO2 emissions, terawatts of energy generation, or stoichiometry (the part of chemistry that uses quantitative data to understand chemical reactions). (more…)

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