It’s no secret that U.S. Congressmen routinely act with complete disregard to the interests and needs of the people who elected them; in fact, this sad truth is so pervasive in Americans’ lives that it really doesn’t even make the news anymore, and very few wonder about its cause. (more…)
A young reader asks me about building a car powered by nothing but sunlight.
I happen to be very friendly with the first guy on the West Coast of the U.S. (Wally Rippel) to do exactly that, at least at a working scale. In 1968, he headed up the team at Cal Tech that raced cross-country against MIT with solar-powered cars. (more…)
Fortunately, most of the actions that we take every day to conserve natural resources and reduce our impact on our environment come at little or no cost to us—financially and otherwise. For example, we’ve pretty much succeeded in getting Hummers off our roads, and what did that cost us? (more…)
I want to wish everyone Happy New Year, and at the same time commemorate the birthday of J. D. Salinger, best known for his 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye, featuring the alienated teenager Holden Caulfield. There are two main theories that explain the book’s intense popularity (and then there’s mine): (more…)
As much as I stand behind the developers of solar, wind, and any other forms of renewable energy that can be made cost-effective, it appears that we will be unable to turn the corner on the environmental catastrophes associated with energy without the use of nuclear power. And fortunately, there are some exciting new technologies in this space that need to be understood by our leaders and by the voters who elect them. (more…)
In our discussions of the oil industry and its legitimacy, we occasionally run across people who deny that oil and terrorism have any real link, e.g., this comment to my recent piece on electric transportation:
…. nor has “terrorism” got anything to do with the oil industry! (more…)
(Note: I don’t edit guest blog posts, so as usual, I’ll let this stand as it was written. Having said that, a) I can’t imagine that there is anything eco-friendly whatsoever about signage like this, and b) I came across the collection of signs below, which offers my best advice on this whole industry. – ed.)
With the advent of new technology and software, the traditional printed menu boards are going out of use. The restaurants are using the new menu board software and going green for the society. The software is time saving, convenient and also eco-friendly in nature. It is gaining popularity in the entire restaurant business sector gradually. Let us discuss about all the advantages of using the eco signage software:
Alejandro Manrique is a colleague from Argentina, who, last year, demonstrated his great generosity: he donated a ton of time to translate a great deal of our content here into Spanish. He wrote me just now to wish me a Happy New Year, and to explain the rather dire situation in Argentinian economics. He closed by asking: The oil price is plummeting and it seems that a new era of cheap oil is coming. Do you think that renewables will be affected worldwide by this situation? (more…)
I just heard a snippet from a Bill McKibben speech in which the legendary environmentalist talks about the large and growing campaign to encourage groups (like university endowments) and people (like you and me) to sell whatever holdings they might have in the oil/coal/gas companies.
McKibben said years ago that he doesn’t like public speaking. (more…)
Here’s a note to the readers who believe: V2G will never happen because an EV owner would not want to drain their battery (costing cycle life) leaving them with the possibility that it would not be recharged when they needed it.
If there is an answer (and I think there is), it’s that they will be paid handsomely in that rare event. A huge portion of our grid is built to address the peak load that is achieved less than 100 hours per (8760-hour) year. Shaving that peak with demand response or V2G has enormous value, which means that big bucks can be paid to whatever entities make it possible.
We also need to price in the value of ancillary services, i.e., small amounts of electrical energy that are used to address short-term perturbations in the grid’s wave form and voltage.
