The solar PV growth curves illustrate the rapid expansion in the deployment of this form for distributed generation (DG). The only conclusion one can draw from looking at these graphs is that, after decades of customers’ putting their toes in the water, they’ve begun to take the plunge. Solar has arrived as a mainstream force, dramatically reshaping the way we power our homes and businesses.
I’m on the Outer Banks of North Carolina for the wedding of my eldest nephew. I’d never been here before, and I was expecting a stretch of land so desolate that I’d have trouble getting online or finding a good newspaper.
For better or worse, that’s not the case. I delighted in Sunday’s New York Times, which featured a front-page article on California’s new-found budget surplus, totalling somewhere between $1 billion and $4.4 billion. Of course, this is welcome news in a state run largely by Democrats who hated being forced to slash the social services to recover from the state’s huge deficit ($60 billion) that existed as recently as three years ago. (more…)
Frequent commenter Tim Kingston sent me this article from a solar energy nay-sayer and asked my opinion.
Tim: I come across this stuff a lot. As I’ve often written, Germany has quite clearly made a mistake with their fantastically large feed-in tariffs from which they abruptly backed off; I don’t know anyone who denies that. The migration to clean energy will have some “fits and starts,” though I don’t see how that nullifies the whole enterprise.
I know people who have solar on the roofs of their homes and office buildings who draw net zero power from the grid, and who drive electric vehicles charged from those sources. I wish this guy good luck trying to convince me that this style of living isn’t making a difference to our environment.
Here’s an article that provides some cheery news about the cost of energy in California: due to the early start we got in wind and solar in the 1980s, and the learning curve that we’ve applied over these decades, the cost of electricity from renewables and natural gas are very close to one another.
There are a great number of “apples and oranges” issues, here, however, many of which are unavoidable: (more…)
Well I took the plunge and ordered a nickel iron battery pack. There was a lot of hemming and hawing but after a huge amount of research and calculating, I could find no better alternative currently available and no new technology shortly forthcoming that was worth waiting for.
The 500Ah 12V pack will cost me $5200.00 shipped to my door with everything I need to set it up. This pack will last 25 years before the fluid needs replacing and then another 25 years after that. I know people with packs of original Edison batteries passed down from generation to generation that are in the range of 75 years old and still functioning at full capacity. (more…)
Ever since I interviewed Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) ace Johanna Wald for my first book (Renewable Energy – Facts and Fantasies), I’ve had only fond respect for what these fine folks do: use the legal process to protect the natural environment. And of course, this often takes the form of building a level playing field on which renewable energy can compete fairly with fossil fuels.
Here’s an article by Peter Lehner, Executive Director of NRDC, which suggests that the new Energy Secretary, Ernie Moniz will be terrifically effective at promoting energy efficiency and renewables in President Obama’s second term. He mentions that, despite the politically-motivated rancor around the failure of Solyndra, the Department of Energy has a 98% track record of success in backing efforts in clean energy, and should be supported and expanded.
Here’s an article suggesting that electric transportation saves lives insofar as its environmental benefits reduce global warming, and heat causes more deaths each year. Sadly, this is an oversimplification. As long as coal is our lowest-cost base-load energy source, EVs will remain of dubious benefit vis-à-vis climate change (and the dozens of other environmental/health issues). We really have to turn off coal.
Yet I remain a fan of EVs, even in the near-term, since they will enable us to integrate more renewable energy — wind in particular — which, ironically is what will eventually enable us to decommission the last coal plant. (more…)
Hurricane Sandy was one of the deadliest and costliest hurricanes to ever strike the United States. Images of flooded subway tunnels, destroyed boardwalks, and millions without power will not soon be forgotten. The storm was also a reminder for people all over the United States, but particularly along its Atlantic and Gulf coasts, of the terrible impact a storm like Sandy can have on properties. Because of Sandy’s unique combination of damage from both wind and water, homes suffered massively, which helped make Sandy the second costliest hurricane in United States history. Here we will take about how wind and water are a double-threat to homes in any major storm’s path. (more…)
Here’s a very scholarly publication documenting a broad consensus on AGW (anthropogenic global warming) in scientific literature. Maybe it’s just a personal thing, but I’ve always hated articles like these. An article about articles? A “meta-article,” I guess it could be called? Eww.
In addition to not liking overly academic treatments of any subject, I point out that, even though there is very clearly a consensus in the subject, I’m not sure what that means. When Copernicus published his work on heliocentrism in 1514 there was consensus that the Earth was the center of the universe; the fact that Copernicus was the sole dissenter didn’t mean that he was wrong.
Having said that, the evidence surrounding AGW is overwhelming, and we’re certainly not doing ourselves any favors by pretending the matter is in doubt.
Here’s an article that suggests that a carbon tax could raise trillions of dollars in revenues, but would harm the economy. According to the report from the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) “Without accounting for how the revenues from a carbon tax would be used, such a tax would have a negative effect on the economy.”
Obviously. What’s the matter with a revenue neutral tax that provides incentive for everyone to reduce carbon, while fostering innovation on energy efficiency and renewables? This really isn’t rocket science. It just takes a will to do the right thing, which is glaringly absent.
