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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Saving American Democracy--A Good Idea If You Care About Clean Energy--Or Anything ElseIt’s been a while since I’m mentioned the corruption in the U.S. government brought about by the Citizens United decision that, coincidentally, was handed down exactly five years ago.  Long after it is overturned by what’s left of our democratic process, it will be remembered as a huge impediment to the will of the people of the 21st Century regarding everything we really care about:  a sane energy policy, Wall Street reform, a return to quality public education, and so forth. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

Rising Seal LevelsI mentioned just the other day that sea level rise is arguably the most frightening aspect of climate change. In a comment to this post, I wrote: Of all the terrifying aspects of climate disruption, sea level rise is the one that scares me most, because the new shorelines aren’t permanent. Imagine that Boston is underwater. Where are you going to rebuild it? Framingham? Worcester? Springfield? The Berkshires? It depends on how much ice you think is going to melt.

Here’s an article in the Economist that addresses the science here.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Solar Thermal

Concentrated Solar Power: Is There a Reason To Stay Hopeful?When I conducted my “25 interviews with subject matter experts” for my first book on renewable energy (Renewable Energy – Facts and Fantasies) in 2010, I came away with a fairly exuberant viewpoint on CSP (concentrated solar power, aka solar thermal).  But it hasn’t been a good five years in the interim, largely due to the unforeseen and precipitous decline in the costs of solar PV.

Here’s an American company that just announced that it’s giving up the ghost on CSP.

I remain hopeful that this technology will be given the same chance that was afforded to PV and wind, i.e., several decades of intensive R&D, before our civilization finally makes a decision on it one way or the other.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Energy Storage

What’s the Status of Battery Technology for Utility Scale Energy Storage?Up until a few years ago, I regularly attended the advanced battery conferences, trying to figure out the state of battery technology  vis-à-vis its most important applications:  a) storing variable sources of energy (wind and solar) for utilities and consumers, and b) electric transportation.  (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Branding – What We Hold In High Regard -- and WhyI heard a wonderful radio show this afternoon that discussed the human perception of value.  Is a $200 bottle of wine really better than a $20 bottle?  We certainly think and behave as if this were true.

Not only do we say, if asked, that the wine coming from a bottle that we believe costs $200 is better, but we physiologically react that way.  In fact, this is proven in numerous studies in which wine-tasters were hooked up to electronics, enabling researchers to see actual stimulation of pleasure-related parts of our brain.  (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Proud to Write for the Financial Prognosticator "The Hedge Connection"My fourth book, Bullish on Renewable Energy, is now up on Amazon.

As the subtitle suggests, I present:

• Fourteen reasons that I believe renewable energy is rapidly becoming the deal of the century,

• The way in which the forces of pure market economics are rapidly conspiring to make fossil fuels comparatively unattractive, and

• Evidence that all this is happening far faster than most people understand.

Yes, (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

Vermont’s High Concentration of Enlightened and “Authentic” People

I was surprised and delighted when a cousin I hadn’t seen in 35 years called me out of the blue from her home in Northern Vermont over the weekend. No surprise here: her town has a fairly decent sized (1 MW) solar array, pictured here.

Apparently, the photo here is the front of a postcard. Typical Vermont. They could have shown off their maple syrup or their fabulous autumn leaves or any of hundreds of bucolic old churches that dot the stunning landscape. Of what are they proudest? Their commitment to a sustainable energy future (though they did manage to throw in a few sheep).

I wrote to my cousin later thanking her for reaching out, and suggesting: You can tell your fellow Vermonters for me that I appreciate their self-styled approach to life, and to American energy politics in particular.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

"Discontinuous" Climate ChangeHere’s a “Ted Talk” that outlines the worst-case climate change scenario.  The presenter is correct in that the IPCC’s projections are very likely on the conservative side, insofar as they need to be accepted by many hundreds of scientists before they’re released. When I interviewed IPCC chairman Dr. Rajendra Pachauri as part of my second book (“Is Renewable Really Doable?”), he told me that publishing one of these reports is an extremely demanding and rigorous process.  I don’t doubt it for a second.

Having said that, the notion of  “discontinuities” doesn’t make much sense.  Yes, we face melting permafrost, decreasing albedo, the increase of insolation due to the sunspot cycle, etc.  But the Earth’s climate is a sufficiently large network of systems that abrupt changes in anything are not at all likely.

The problem isn’t that Italy is going to turn into a desert in twenty years; it’s that slow and horribly damaging change is inevitable if we do nothing to avert it.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Warring Over Natural Resources May Be With Us for a WhileHere’s a video featuring two people, both, in my opinion, among the world’s ten most talented people.

Most of it is about religious wars, but is made relevant to our environmental theme by this suggestion as to what comes after we cease to battle one another because of insults we’ve received to our faiths.  At that point, we’ll be able to get back to fighting about what really matters:  natural resources and arbitrary lines on maps.

I howled with laughter, and I hope you will too.

 

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

The Evolution of SustainabilityHere’s an infographic on the subject of sustainability that a reader sent me.  I hope readers will appreciate it, even though I’m glad I’m not the one who has to tell the world’s indigenous people, John Muir, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Donella Meadows, Rachel Carson, and the rest that “sustainability” began in 1970: (more…)

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