Don Harmon's Eco-Friendly House
Longtime 2GreenEnergy supporter Don Harmon wants to live in an eco-friendly house of his own design, and, according to this article, it seems that he’s making great progress in that direction. Go, Don!
Apple Looks For New Renewable Energy Procurement Methods
According to this article by Renewable Energy World’s Meg Cichon, Apple is replacing a great deal of the energy it consumes with renewables. That’s hardly shocking; the company’s entire brand is built around living harmoniously with its customers. What surprised me is a) that they have apparently patented a proprietary form of energy storage (an area far outside of their core business), and b) the description of this patent sounds extremely inefficient. Check this out: (more…)
"Climate One" Produces Fabulous Conference on Consumer Adoption of Green Products
I attended a terrific conference on Friday produced by “Climate One” at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. For those who may not be aware of this incredible organization, formed 88 years ago, “The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation’s oldest and largest public affairs forum.”
What does that mean? Think: “TED Talks” – “ideas worth sharing” – talks LONG before there was an Internet by which they could be shared so easily. And think: no political spin, as hard to believe as that may be to comprehend. There are democrats and republicans, liberals and conservatives, scientists and politicians; there is UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Vice President Dan Quayle. Just important ideas, good reasoning, and great communication skills (OK, I know what you’re thinking about Dan Quayle, but you didn’t hear me say it, did you?) (more…)
Tagged with: adoption of eco-friendly products, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, bashtags, BP oil spill, car-sharing, Chevron does, Climate One, coal-fired power plants, consumer acceptance of environmentalism, disaster at Fukushima, early adopters, eco-friendly, Electric Vehicles, externalities of coal, externalities of fossil fuels, Federal Trade Commission, FTC, green brands, green fatigue, green-washing, Hybrid vehicles, ideas worth sharing, Lexus SUV hybrid gets worse gas mileage than the non-hybrid version, TED Talks, The Commonwealth Club, Toyota’s PR coup with the Prius, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Vice President Dan Quayle, Who profits at the expense of our health?, Who ruins the Ecuadorian rainforest?, Zipcar, Zipcar sold to Avis, “green” messaging
Does Exxon Really Hate Your Children?
Holy cow! Just when I thought I may have crossed the line in my calling out the oil companies for their rapacious greed as they rake in record profits by destroying our planet, a friend sends me this, proving that I’m a rank amateur.
Looking for a Material Difference in Barack Obama’s Decision-Making in his Second Term? Bad News.
I remember with a proud smile how exuberant my little daughter was about the 2008 presidential election. It did my heart good to see the 13-year-old I loved so engaged in our democratic process; she had “Yes We Can” posters all over the house, and I encouraged her all the way. How delighted she and I were in his victory!
Then reality sank in. We quickly saw that there was nothing really “enlightened” about this guy at all. He had been elected with Wall Street and Big Pharma money; just like anyone who succeeds in American politics, he was owned by special interests (though I guess we were fortunate that it wasn’t Big Oil yet again). And his decision-making reflected this at every turn — especially when it came to protecting Wall Street from the shambles it had made of the world’s only remaining super-power.
In any case, those looking for some material difference in Barack Obama’s decision-making in his second term are understandably losing hope, given his nomination of Jack Lew as Treasury Secretary. Lew is a virtual clone of Timothy Geithner, architect of the tax-payer bailout of Wall Street, supporter of reckless profiteering in a deregulated financial environment. Our nation’s people live on the precipice of a further and far deeper financial collapse so that our multibillionaires can get richer.
Most Americans think they wake up each morning in a democratic republic, because that is what Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and their fellows bequeathed us. They think there’s meaning to the vote they cast every four years, in which they’re asked to choose between two politicians with nearly identical ideas, and, more to the point, each of whose candidacy exists solely with the backing of certain gargantuan industries. They’re mistaken.
Btw, my daughter has found a new interest: boys! I suppose I should have seen that one coming.
From Guest Blogger Stephan Williams: Integrated EV/Distributed Energy Proposal
This proposal involves a simple synergy of government incentives and distributed energy storage applications. But first, I’d like to briefly discuss some of the issues that this solution addresses.
The Issues
Climate Change
Humans are releasing too much CO2 and other gases into the atmosphere. (more…)
Scientists Warn of Climate Disaster – But Are They To Be Trusted?
I marvel at the insanities of our 21st Century existence in so many ways – perhaps the greatest of which is how we’ve used the media to drive the common person to question the judgment of the scientific community. Just when you might think we’d be grateful to the people who had materially helped us double our life expectancies over the last 120 years (the blink of an eye for a species that’s been around for at least 100,000 years) we find reasonably well-educated people reclassifying an entire community of our most learned people and proven problem-solvers as frauds, because of their near unanimity in their concern over anthropogenic global warming (AGW). (more…)
Demand Response Will Be Key If We’re To Integrate a Large Percentage of Renewable Energy
Here’s a wonderful article that deals with a subject that is of significant concern: the intermittence of solar and wind energy. It provides an interesting case study of how demand response can figure into the equation, a phenomenon that will play a huge role in a future in which we try to integrate a growing percentage of renewables.
Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator Doing Great Work
I just got off the phone with Fred Walti, the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator, a terrific non-profit whose purpose is to foster the development of cleantech start-ups by offering flexible office space, CEO coaching and mentoring, and access to a growing network of experts and investment capital. I had come across a few of the participating companies through my connection with the Maverick Angels, and also through the Clean Business Investment Summit, where I function as a member of the board of advisors.
This is really a can’t-miss organization, as it has so much going for it: (more…)
Tagged with: Cal Tech, CBIS, Clean Business Investment Summit, cleantech start-ups, dependence away from fossil fuels, energy infrastructure, fossil fuels, Fred Walti, investment capital, JPL, Los Angles Cleantech Incubator, Maverick Angels, rocket scientists, sustainable energy sources, transportation infrastructure, UCLA, USC
New Jersey Installing Solar Photovoltaics Atop 175,000 Power Poles
In response to my rant on New Jersey’s decision to put tiny installations of solar photovoltaics atop 175,000 power poles, at a cost of $200 million, senior energy analyst Glenn Doty writes:
The LCOE (levelized cost of energy) gets really interesting when you consider the potential lifespan. A “pole-top solar panel” is not too different from a “kite” if the winds rise too high. It’s a truly bizarre decision right after the entire state was pounded by near-hurricane force winds for nearly 24 hours just a couple of months ago.
Glenn: It’s funny you mention that. When I talked about maintenance at the end of this post, I was tempted to ask, “In addition to the dirt and bird crap that couldn’t possibly be cleaned from the top of 175,000 of these installations, isn’t there some recent evidence that they could get blown off their poles and wind up in tiny pieces all over a dozen different zip codes?”
I love clean energy, but I hate stupidity.
Tagged with: corruption, Glenn Doty, LCOE, levelized cost of energy, New Jersey, solar photovoltaics
