Amidst all the world’s woes, renewable energy continues to make progress—even in the good ol’ USA. In fact, this report covers a record-breaking event out here in California: the coming online of the world’s largest solar PV plant, consisting of nine million solar panels.
For many years now, frequent commenter and senior energy analyst Glenn Doty has been offering readers a level-headed, no-nonsense understanding of the basic economics facing the energy industry. I recommend checking out the remark he made to my recent post: What Will It Take to Mitigate Climate Change?, in which he discusses the invariable result of developing an alternative to an existing (especially large) supply chain, in this case, energy. (more…)
Should we be optimistic about the overall future of humankind vis-à-vis energy and the environment? True, not too many people walk around pondering this question. Of course, stock market, weight loss, professional football, and our other present-day fascinations won’t mean much if our scientists’ theories turn out to be correct, but we happily overlook that.
When we hunker down and concentrate on this larger subject, however, we see that there are two basic and contradictory concepts (actually three if you count: “do nothing and see what happens”). I’ll summarize the two main contenders that exist among leading economists:
• Idea “A”: (more…)
Introduced by a mutual friend, I had a good talk earlier today with one of the East Coast’s top players in clean energy merchant/investment banking. Like us at 2GreenEnergy, her firm works hard to unite investors with the world’s top business concepts/models in this space.
It’s always interesting to compare notes with other people who are trying to keep their fingers on the pulse of investor appetite in this space. My new-found friend makes two observations I thought merited comment here: (more…)
In response to my post We All Wield Tremendous Power to Restore Environmental Justice, frequent commenter Robert Stang, an extremely senior player in sustainable real estate development, adds:
I assume that you recognize the benefit of celebrating and having networks of those individuals who are effecting change every day, like the Bioneers.
Oh, absolutely. (more…)
Longtime 2GreenEnergy commenter Brian McGowan offers this note about the merits of a biodiesel business that is local to him in the suburbs of Philadelphia:
Based on Craig’s description (of the term “sustainability), i.e., “We can all agree that sustainable processes are those that, a) can be continued indefinitely through time, b) result in a minimum of toxic byproducts, c) don’t abuse or exploit members of the human race, d) don’t pose a constant drain on finite natural resources without a way to replenish them and, e) don’t cause unacceptable amounts of damage elsewhere in the ecosystem.” (more…)
As suggested here, the rabid anti-nuke people are meticulous in reporting every accident/mistake that happens around the globe.
While it’s hard to object to any report that is based on the truth, I believe that these concerned and goodhearted people have inadvertently created a world in which most environmentalists lack a scientifically accurate and balanced understanding of the subject. In particular, there is a lack of comprehension of a) the overall science and math that should inform our energy future, and b) the advancements in nuclear that have been made over the last half-century—and that continue to unfold every day.
Getting rid of coal before it gets rid of us is an absolute imperative, and it’s hard to see how this can happen without nuclear.
As I wrote the other day, the concept of environmentalism in Western culture (or at least any real popularizing of the idea) is almost brand new. It dates to the mid-20th Century, and can be said to have begun with the publication of Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring in 1963. Until that time, there was essentially no recognition among those of European heritage of the fact that humankind is capable of inflicting permanent damage to its home planet, and therefore carries a vast set of responsibilities to restrain itself accordingly. (more…)
As more and more car makers seem willing to embrace hydrogen as the fuel of the future and start to increase investment in fuel cell technology, the issue of scarce refueling infrastructure becomes ever more pressing. Although automakers like Toyota – which has been at the forefront of hydrogen fuel cell technology for a while now and will continue to try to push fuel-cell cars to market – certainly have to contribute to building a supporting infrastructure, it’s clear that they can’t solve the classic chicken-and-egg dilemma by themselves, and will need help from government agencies, as well as from energy companies. (more…)
I wrote a post recently in which I mentioned the Black Swan effect, i.e., the tendency of human beings to underestimate the importance and frequency of unforeseeable events in the future. This concept, popularized by Nassim Taleb in his 2007 masterpiece, has implications in many different arenas of human activity, principally economics/investments, where we tend to make long-term bets with little appreciation of the huge potential impact of the unanticipated and unknowable.
Part and parcel of all this is the effect that one person can have on human civilization as a whole. Needless to say, there have been many such examples throughout history. (more…)
