Home › Blog › Page 1453

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

War and a Sustainable SocietyI had a strange experience yesterday that I thought I’d share.  It had nothing to do with renewable energy, but it lies at the core of our notion of a sustainable society.

I attended a wonderful staged reading of four passages of the ancient Greek tragedians at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.  In deference to Veterans’ Day (which we celebrate in the U.S. each November 11th ), each of the passages dealt with war: how warriors of old dealt with the physical and emotional traumas of combat, and how their lives changed once they returned home.  (more…)

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainable Building

Collecting Rainwater For Your Container HomeHave you heard of rain water harvesting? It’s simply the act of catching water in a container system to use for other purposes. And this is exactly what you can do with your container home.

Who Exactly Would Harvest Rainwater?

Harvesting rainwater is by no means a new concept and has been practiced since the 3rd century B.C. (more…)

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

Earth: A Pale Blue Dot

I met a fellow yesterday who was in the control room in Houston in 1969 when the first man walked on the moon. I asked him if he was aware that there exists a conspiracy theory to the effect that the whole thing was staged in a Hollywood film studio. He smiled and nodded his head, but quickly added, “I’m not sure all conspiracy theories are false, but that one certainly is.”

He went on to talk about the deep personal changes that astronauts often experience as a result of taking leave of Earth’s boundaries. “Some of them get religion,” he told me. (more…)

Tagged with: , , ,

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Smart Grid

Microgrids Need To Adopt Standards In Order To SucceedWhen one thinks back across the last 100 years of world commerce, one finds numerous junctures at which the subject of technical standards was extremely important.  Those of us old enough to remember will tell you that IT standards were a big deal in the late 20th Century, e.g., the IBM 370-architected mainframe vs. open systems, Microsoft vs. Apple, UNIX vs. the numerous proprietary operating systems, Token Ring and Novell vs. Ethernet, etc.).  All that’s fairly old hat now, but look at all the present-day hub-bub surrounding clean tech: standards for electric vehicle charging, standards for communication among devices in the “Internet of Things,” and so forth.

According to this article, microgrids will not and cannot be successful until decisions are made about a certain issue.  Guess what?  It’s standards.

 

 

 

 

Tagged with: , ,

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

There is a lot of talk around being environmentally conscious and all of us being responsible for both the problem of and solution to global warming. Now, at the risk of sounding like a crazy tree hugger, the world’s most powerful governments have done little to curb global warming. There has been a lot of talk and not much action, and most green development reviews agree on this.

The time is now! (more…)

Tagged with: , ,

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Nuclear

Advanced Nuclear and Climate ChangeI’ve been lucky enough to have been included in a long-running discussion among some of the high-level proponents of advanced nuclear.  As most of these people are senior scientists, many with PhDs, the lion’s share of the conversation is on the science, some of which is fairly daunting.  Once in a while, however, someone will throw in a comment that gets into the sociological and political context for all this.

A gentleman named “David” writes about the imperative for nuclear: (more…)

Tagged with: , , , ,

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

A Few Ideas for Reports on Renewable Energy 2GreenEnergy super-intern Louis de Saint Phalle writes:

Dear Craig: I am out of good ideas for articles, is there anything you would like to dispatch me on?  Hope all is well.

 

I thought I’d publish my response:

Hi, Louis:  Oh, you know me; I NEVER run dry.  🙂  Here are five quick ones off the top of my head:  (more…)

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainable Building

Five More Eco-Savvy Tips for Prepping your Place for WinterIf you’re concerned about protecting your home against the ravages of winter, as well as skyrocketing energy costs, you should begin to safeguard your property now, while the weather is still warm. As a companion to our recent article on winterizing your home, here are five additional ways to save money and stay warm, applicable to both those who own and rent their homes. (more…)

Tagged with: , , , , , ,

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainable Building

Container Engineering--Helping to Build Sustainable CitiesOver the years, there seems to have been a quiet but increasingly popular revolution when it comes to building alternative structures and homes, with shipping containers being increasingly used to build structures in limited spaces. A great example of this is Container City, which is located in East London. This was initially constructed in 2001. This ambitious construction project took just 4 days to put the shipping containers in place and was then fitted out over 5 months.

Since then, container engineering has become popular within the UK, with a number of companies, schools, and charities, all incorporating recycled shipping containers into their design. (more…)

Tagged with: ,

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

The Pros and Cons of the Major Flavors of Solar ThermalTo my surprise and delight, there has been a decent amount of traffic on YouTube associated with the videos I made a few years ago on “the pros and cons” of each of the major flavors of renewable energy.  My piece on solar thermal (CSP), for example has 70,000 views and 66 comments.

Yes, I know that’s two or three orders of magnitude less than today’s blockbusters, and my loving daughter (pictured here) likes to mock me in this regard.  “Are you aware, Dad, that “bananas” has 28 times as many likes on their Facebook page as you do on your famous 2GreenEnergy’s page?  And they’re a FRUIT!”

Oh well, I’m happy nonetheless.  Baby steps.

In any case, a few minutes ago, “Joel F” wrote: (more…)

Tagged with: , ,