I love these people who claim that their report/infographic/whatever is the one “the government doesn’t want you to see.” Here’s an infographic that makes the point that we can generate more power per acre with nuclear than we can with wind or solar — and, of course, government is hiding it from you. (more…)
A reader sent me this just now:
I’m a member of Citizens for Green Nuclear Power on the mid California coast.
My wife and I lived on our sailboat, Gaia, for about 18 years (average time out at sea – 6 months traveling from port to port in Central America, the Caribbean and Bahamas)
We had three 75 watt solar panels and a powerful wind generator. In the windy section of the Caribbean we did fine. The Trade Winds are reliable. But we had a tiny need for electric power (refrigerator, water maker, a few lights, GPS, etc.)
The wind generator did 2/3 of the work and solar the rest. I liked the fact solar needed no TLC. The KISS wind generator did need some.
Wind and solar just won’t cut it to run mega factories, New York City, and so much more in America. The sooner we face that and educate about that, the better. Wind and solar are a “boutique” power source, fine for our sailboat, but not for a large modern nation.
That’s my feeling after living on wind and solar for a long time. If we hadn’t been in a reliably windy zone, not sure we could have survived on these alternatives.
Best regards (where do you reside? Silicon Valley? I lived for 30 years in San Jose and now live in Santa Maria)
I happen to be in Santa Ynez, just south of you! What a coincidence. Wow, I envy you; you must have seen some incredible beauty.
Re: your comments on energy, you may be aware that wind power constituted 4.18% of the U.S. grid mix last year. True, that’s not huge, but it’s not nothing either. 160 billion kilowatt hours in the U.S. alone. Based on the needs you describe here, that’s enough to power at least 400 million such sailboats six months of the year, probably closer to 700 or 800 million. (Yes, I know this is a rather pointless comparison, but I bring it up to show that we’re talking about an enormous amount of power.) I’m always amazed when people say that renewable energy is a hobby/boutique enterprise; it’s not.
If you want to get together for a beer sometime, I’d like that very much.
According to my calculations, I just passed the one million word milestone in terms of blog posts here. The books add another 400K or so. I’m reminded of the great Gary Larson and his famous installment of “The Far Side,” shown here.
Seriously, I’m happy to have stimulated what I believe has been some very productive conversation—and action—in terms of fostering the rapid migration to renewable energy.
Here’s a petition to ask (U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives, right-wing climate science denier) John Boehner to: “Act on Climate Change!” I often sign things like this, but this one’s a bit like asking Hitler to support the Anti-Defamation League; it’s not going to happen.
As I wrote back in 2010: (more…)
In response to my piece: How Dangerous is Fracking? my friend and colleague Glenn Doty makes some excellent points:
The question is not “is fracking safe”. The question is: “given what we know, how likely is it that fracking would cause more net trouble to society than not fracking”? The answer to that is: 0%. (more…)
Here’s something new for you fans of statistics: Through the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP), the U.S. Department of Energy provides a “Comprehensive Annual Energy Data and Sustainability Performance including FY 2013 reported findings.”
According to the site, it: …offers complete annual data sets of agency aggregated annual energy and water consumption and costs by end-use sector, efficiency investment information, and progress toward key goals outlined in the National Energy Conservation Policy Act.
This is actually a very good thing. If you can’t (or don’t) measure something, it’s hard to improve on it.
Sorry for the bait and switch, but I don’t know; no one does. In fact, I hope to live long enough to be here when we learn the truth. In particular, what is the result of squirting hundreds of billions of gallons of water and sand that contain a mixture (that the oil/gas companies refuse to disclose) of toxic, carcinogenic chemicals into the Earth each year? (more…)
The people at the Hedge Connection in New York City have asked me to make a monthly contribution to their newsletter “The Edge” (a clever name, IMO).
Here’s this month’s installment, in which I write about Ocean Thermal Energy Corporation (OTE), the leader in OTEC. By way of disclosure, I own stock in the company; it’s traded on a small exchange in Europe called the GXG, and the executive team plans to uplist it to the NASDAQ soon.
In short, I like OTE because a long list of governments and large private sector entities in the tropics have expressed keen interest in the technology, and the company is in a unique position to scale in order to meet this surge of demand.
I make very few comments on the subject of religion here, but I sure am pleased to see here that this coming Sunday in New York City, September 21, the Interfaith Contingent will be among more than 1,000 organizations participating in the People’s Climate March, demanding progressive action at the United Nations Climate Summit that is scheduled to commence the following day.
It’s great to see that the religious community is acknowledging the challenge of climate disruption; the National Catholic Reporter proclaimed the “number one pro-life issue” of our time. Valla con Dios.
If I had to identify a single pet peeve of mine, I might say that it’s people in the energy industry who don’t know the difference between power and energy. Power is the rate at which energy is generated or consumed, or more accurately, is changed from one form into another. (more…)
