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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

Here’s an interesting graphic that suggests a phenomenon that my colleague Jeff Siegel calls “peak car” – a definitive decline in the number of vehicle miles traveled in the U.S.  Granted, there are numerous factors that come together to push a change like this, and there is no guarantee that the trend will continue.

But it sure makes one wonder: Is the “bloom off the rose” for the concept of individual vehicle ownership?  Has the combined impact of concepts such as mass transit, car-sharing, ride-sharing, micro-rentals, small urban commuter and package-delivery vehicles, redesigned cities, environmentalism – perhaps even the health aspects of biking and walking – begun to touch a chord in the American psyche?

We’ll see.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Solar Thermal

Here’s an article that suggests that concentrated solar power (aka solar thermal) may be on its way to greatness in Africa, and discusses the path by which CSP can achieve that stature.  In terms of renewables generally, the author points out, “Africa attracted about $4.3 billion of the $268.7 billion invested worldwide in renewable energy last year. It signed up 36 projects, 28 of which were in South Africa, with Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe accounting for the rest.”

If our civilization is to adopt a sustainable energy policy, it’s especially important that the developing world leapfrog the fossil fuel “experience” and go immediately to solar, wind, etc.  At the same time, this deployment should bypass the old paradigm of centralized generation from power generation monopolies, and implement distributed generation and microgrids. 

This is by far the best and most immediate way to bring electrification to the rural parts of the developing world, which is so essential in bringing along better healthcare and education.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels

Here’s an article by Peter Lehner, Executive Director of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), who writes on the levels of air pollution in Beijing, which last week reached a level of 755–on a scale of 0 to 500 (the  scale on which our Environmental Protection Agency here in the U.S. rates anything over 300 as “hazardous.”)  The Internet is littered with vivid descriptions and photographs of the viscous brown haze that hung over the city (this taken from the BBC), the terrifying statistics of people of all ages who became acutely sick from the pollution, and of the dire predictions for a future in which China’s consumption of coal (currently half that of the entire planet) continues to grow unchecked.

Lehner suggests: (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainable Building

I just had a terrific conversation on the subject of energy efficiency, where the caller wanted to know why businesses don’t invest in capital improvements that will lower their utility bills at such rapid and proven rates that the pay-back period is incredibly attractive.  CalTech is getting a 22% IRR (internal rate of return), simply by ”doing the right thing” with respect to the efficiency of their buildings here in Southern California, but they’re one of few businesses/institutions that have taken the plunge.  Why is this so hard to sell?

Well, obviously, many businesses don’t own the real estate in which they operate, so you have an issue there.  The only other answer I can discern is a matter of priorities.  Regardless of the IRR, some companies would rather invest in their core businesses than in capital equipment that lies outside what they actually do.  Energy efficiency isn’t a visible, top-of-mind subject.  Yet. 

I think we’re close to a huge boom in efficiency, as more of the case studies like CalTech make the rounds.  Let’s hope so, anyway.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Here’s a piece from the Executive Director of the Sierra Club, announcing that, after 120 years of endorsing only strictly legal actions, the organization for the first time will be embracing civil disobedience.  Two quick observations, if I may:

• It’s interesting that most Americans embrace the notion of civil disobedience as it applies to the past; we regard a great many of these people all through our history as heroes – starting, of course, with the Founding Fathers of the U.S. — and we have similar feelings of warmth for the people who followed their path – the Thoreaus and Abolitionists of the 19th Century and the women suffragettes and M.L. Kings of the 20th.  Our current president talks about the glory of Seneca, Stonewall, and Selma.  Yet some of the same supporters of past disobedience are prone to regard the present-day “Occupy” people or those blocking the Keystone XL Pipeline as “rabble-rousers” or “socialists” or worse. I find this curious.

• This announcement from the Sierra Club is one of hundreds of news stories appearing over the last couple of years that indicates a rising tide of anger against the direction that civilization is taking. As readers have come to know, I think this anger is well-placed.  We live in a world that is utterly dominated by the corruptive influence of Big Money, and there seems to be no way to revert this trend.  Want an example?  If you’re in Congress, insider trading is perfectly legal!  Want another dozen examples?  Just write me and ask.

I’d like to see your comments on the subject.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Whenever I come across an article like this on microgrids, i.e., “islands” of distributed energy generation, storage, and consumption that are not connected to a power utility, I look at the numbers. If I were a utility exec, how scared would I be about the incursion of microgrids into my turf?

This article projects that by 2022, microgrids worldwide will total 15 GW. Note that our current generation capacity is 15 terawatts, 1000 times that much. I suppose, putting this in perspective, that if you told me that I would lose 1/1000th of my market to an interloper over the next ten years, I could live with that without too much heartburn – especially considering that the total market itself will grow considerably over that period of time. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

For readers who may feel a deep-seated feeling of grief associated with the environmental devastation that our society is visiting upon its home planet, this “train wreck in slow motion,” as it’s so often been described, here is a breathtakingly beautiful piece of writing from Carolyn Raffensperger, Executive Director of the Science & Environmental Health Network.

Whether it’s a book project or a blog post, I spend several hours every day trying to find the words that will best communicate the urgency of the environmental situation in a way that will inspire people to take on a spirit of hope and a commitment to action in a world where hopelessness and apathy seem to make more sense.  So, when I come across language with this level of power and brilliance, I don’t mind making a heartfelt recommendation. Trust me on this one, and check out this fabulous short essay. 

 

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

It’s so easy to look at the levels of stupidity and corruption that have so overwhelmed the U.S. democracy over the last half-century and conclude that there is no hope.  Some of us may have thought that perhaps the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision “Citizens United” (granting corporations the right to spend as much money as they want to manipulate our elections in whatever direction suits their purpose) might have been the final nail in the coffin.

But then we look at the actual statistics associated with the movement to forward a Constitutional Amendment that would overturn Citizens United, and we see that it’s sailing right along!  (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainable Building

I just got back from Crestron Masters programming training where I learned about all of their new products coming out and currently available.

Crestron got its start doing programmable controllers and touch panels for the AV industry. In the process they created some very versatile controllers that allow for control over some very disparate and unrelated pieces of equipment. While controlling projectors/displays, screens, video switchers and audio equipment was their focus in the beginning, that rapidly grew into controlling lighting and HVAC also which then gave them control of over whole building lighting and HVAC systems. There is also interfacing with entry control and security systems. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

A reader points out:

French automaker Peugeot Citroen has invented a brand new air-powered hybrid. The ‘Hybrid Air’ system uses compressed air to move the car’s wheels when driving under 43 mph. Peugeot says the new hybrid system should get up to 141 miles per gallon of gas. Models should roll out as early as 2016. Man, we hope it’s not all a bunch of hot compressed air!

So the car is powered by an internal combustion engine (at ~ 20% efficiency) that compresses the air, which then suffers huge efficiency losses when it’s decompressed?  That sounds like a terrible solution to me, and I find their claim dubious (unless the “car” weighs 80 pounds, or there is some other wild variable I’m not seeing).   

This, btw, is what has people enthused over EVs; the efficiencies of charging and discharging batteries are in the 90s (as high as 99%), and the efficiency of the motor itself, i.e., the conversion from electrical to mechanical energy, is in the low 90s as well.  Of course, the issue here is how the electricity is generated; if it comes from coal, that’s bad.

 

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