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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

How to be Environmentally Friendly at College Moving away from your home is rarely an easy process. With the multitude of items that need to be relocated, on top of severing ties to the old house, it can be quite the upheaval. But moving away to university or college is full of its own unique little challenges.

Not only are you tasked with shifting a lot of items to what is very likely going to only be a temporary residence, but you are usually doing so alone. You’re entering a new social scene, a new location and a new occupation all at the same time. So how can those with an environmental concern possibly continue their efforts during this stressful and sometimes chaotic time? (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

Potential Kryptonite for Solar PV Infrastructure: CorrosionJerry Jones writes a very complete and interesting comment on my post about the corrosion of the metal infrastructure that holds our solar PV in place; I urge readers to check it out.

I respond:  Thanks very much for this.  How interesting; I’ve only recently come across this whole issue.  There’s no such thing as a free lunch, and the route to harvesting the power we need from our nearest star (only /6000th of the total that is incident on our planet) won’t be without its challenges, of which this is certainly one.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

Notes From the Ultimate Renewable Energy Do-It-YourselferMy friend and frequent guest blogger Brian McGowan writes:

Sorry I haven’t written any posts lately. I am in the middle of several projects around the house now, one of which is a low voltage disconnect and dump load controller for my little alternate energy arrangement here. The one thing I have found lacking in off-grid equipment is that there is no way to control the diversion of power to other loads once the batteries have been charged. The common way to do it now is for charge controller manufacturers to simply choke the panels down so the batteries don’t get over charged. Of course this means that the PV array is now not producing at peak capacity anymore and so power is being wasted. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

Coming Soon for Those Who Who Believe the Oil Companies Face Smooth Sailing: A Haircut of Epic Proportions2GreenEnergy supporter Brian McGowan writes: Here is an interesting article. I know you are aware that the military is installing large amounts of solar. With the military installing solar at this rate, South Dakota may not have to do anything to meet the EPA mandated cuts because what the military does in their state to meet its own demand may make all the difference that is needed. Unfortunately the groups that most support the military are also the ones that deny climate change is an issue at all.  Again I say, if the military gets it, why doesn’t everybody else? (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

The Human Mind Has a Tough Time Wrapping Itself Around the Concept of Exponential Growth2GreenEnergy “Associate” Kathryn Alexander sent me this incredible piece on the adoption curve for renewable energy.  I respond:

Thanks very much; this is terrific.  I particularly like the point the author makes to the effect that human beings have trouble perceiving exponential growth.  Most the models we see that describe the migration to renewable energy and other elements of cleantech assume a linear transition,  where,  in fact, this is extremely unlikely given economies of scale and the cost curves they represent.  As you know, that’s the theme of my most recent book, Bullish on Renewable Energy.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Stabilizing Incentives for Renewable EnergyMy colleague Gary Tulie sent me this piece, suggesting a way to prevent the constant whip-sawing of incentives for renewable energy.  Hi Craig,  this looks like an interesting idea.

Yes, this is very interesting indeed.  There is no doubt that the world needs a stable and predictable environment in which to make investment into cleantech,  and this seems as sane as anything I’ve come across.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Solar Thermal

Cost-Effective Solar ThermalMy colleague Gary Tulie wrote a great comment on my recent post on solar thermal,  in which he explains the opportunities for improvement in efficiencies for these technologies.  Here’s something I would add:

I’m betting against tower CSP (shown here) as a long-term scalable approach, as the mirrors located at various distances from the tower need to be fabricated in different shapes, and the tracking mechanisms, of which there are thousands, need to be extremely precise.  All this represents huge complexity and cost. Abengoa, the world leader in CSP, which I mentioned in my post, relies on a proprietary design in parabolic trough, which is far simpler. The challenge, of course, is temperature;  for the reason Gary mentioned,  i.e., the Carnot limit,  high temperatures are required for decent efficiencies.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Smart Grid

The Benefits of Smart Parking in Large CitiesEvery day, a surprising number of people waste their time—and their gasoline—looking for parking. The vehicles looking for parking are an important part of the total traffic in the inner-city environment—as much as 22%.

Especially in large cities, drivers adopt a particular system to find a parking spot: the most common method is to look for parking near the destination, then going to expand the search to find a free parking lot closest to the destination. This research method causes the consumption of large quantities of fuel and also means that the streets are clogged with vehicles looking for spots. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

Porsche Makes the 911 Greener by Adding Turbocharging Engines(At first, I thought this guest post was a joke, or perhaps merely a submission to see whether or not I’m paying attention.  The bottom line: if adding a turbocharger to a Porsche makes it “greener” in any sense at all, it does so in an extremely bizarre use of the word.  In any case, here it is.  -ed)

Porsche has recently mentioned that their newest 911 model has a turbocharged engine. The sports car was conceived to meet challenging CO2 emission rules and demanding fuel economy. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Solar Thermal

Feasibility of Widespread Concentrated Solar PowerMy friend I mentioned earlier writes:

I had the plant construction cost at $600 million per square mile. I figured a few hundred billion more for infrastructure improvements like HVDC grid upgrades and storage. It seems the nationwide CSP solution is far less feasible that I understood. (more…)

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