The reader who sent me this piece in Eestor notes: Thanks for your insight Craig. With the claim of a millisecond to recharge is a game changer plus almost unlimited recharges. All we can do is hope it is real.
I respond:
Keep in mind that the time required to recharge is a function of the power applied. (more…)
A reader notes:
Craig, you might want to look at Zenn Motors (majority owner of Eestor supercapacitors) again. Their annual meeting March 31 was interesting. Eestor has two outside testings and verification of their game changing technology. One of the top experts in the world has written a substantial report on the findings for the capacitor market. They are lining up partners as we speak. I know you like to be on top of things in the electrical market.
I respond: (more…)
courtesy: Blendspace.com
A long-time skeptic of the whole climate change / renewable energy enterprise writes: The actual science behind “climate change” has become lost in a cacophony of self-interest and distortion. A vast industry has emerged, mostly funded by taxpayers, to create a new social movement, with semi-religious overtones. Rationality, has largely disappeared, replaced by a cornucopia of public finding for a new environmental industry based on an illusion.
I respond:
I believe you’re over-analyzing the situation here. (more…)
What a topsy-turvy world. Here we have a Republican senator bawling out Koch Industries front-group “Americans for Prosperity.” Nancy Detert (R-FL) voiced her displeasure with the AFP for aggressively targeting her for replacement because she isn’t far enough to the right: (more…)
Given that the two least expensive forms of renewable energy (solar PV and wind) are variable in nature, common sense tells us that large-scale storage of energy will be required if we are to have large rates of integration of these resources into the grid mix. (For what it’s worth, not everyone agrees with this, as I noted here.) But in any case, the world is working hard to bring along a number of modes in which large amounts of energy can be stored during periods of reduced load, and then brought on the grid to address peak conditions. (more…)
When I pointed out the drawbacks to the nonsensical business plan described here, the woman who sent it to me immediately followed with another, accompanied by this hopeful note: “How about this one?”
I wrote: (more…)
The authorities have rightfully been pushing for us to turn green over the years. While they have their eyes firmly set on the environment, the carrot dangling (pictured) in front of homeowners is that they can shed their energy bills in the process.
However, a lot of the time the suggestions which are put out there revolve around mammoth home improvement projects. New boilers are probably the preferred choice for most authorities, simply because the newer models can reduce carbon emissions by such huge amounts compared to some which are a decade or so old. (more…)
As a result of my expressing my willingness to review any and all clean energy business plans for free, I’ve received some doozies.
One I got the other day caused me to think: exactly what works in terms of gaining acceptance from the investor community? What doesn’t have a chance? I’ve laid out my response below.
First, however, here’s a summary of the business plan in question. It came from a woman who claims that her team will take a part of the U.S. desert, build and operate a megawatt of geo-thermal power systems, build a 250 mile pipeline for water that they can extract somehow, help out an Indian tribe with water while cleaning up a river and a lake, implement vast amounts of wind and solar PV, implement algae as a fuel source, build resort dwellings with an institute of healing and a 9-hole golf course.
I wrote back: (more…)
A reader who claims to have a great improvement in wind-turbine design on a per-kW basis sent me a fairly detailed treatment of his invention. I respond:
Thanks for this very interesting analysis. Here’s the problem, to stay with your analogy that you are (and I won’t dispute it) the “Porsche of the small wind industry.” But that’s like being the “Rolls Royce of sealing wax,” or the “Ferrari of buggy whips.” It appears that there is a very limited market here in the U.S., because: (more…)
Here’s a story that illustrates my main contention about renewable energy: the good guys have already won this war; now it’s time to get the casualties off the battlefield and move on with our lives.
Dow Chemical Company’s decision to power its Freeport, TX facility (the largest integrated chemical manufacturing complex in the Western Hemisphere) with wind energy represents some extremely important signals to the world about the validity of renewable energy: (more…)
