Blog – Page 1498 – 2GreenEnergy.com

From Stanford University: Peel and Stick Solar Photovoltaics

craigshieldsPosted on December 30, 2012 Posted in Photovoltaics

A friend sent me this article on “peel and stick” solar PV, and asked what I thought. In particular, he wanted to know if it has implications for transportation.

I think the future will bring us all manner of applications for PV that we don’t have today, including:

• Building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV), where roofs, and even the walls and windows, are made with PV, as opposed to solar panels being installed on top of traditional construction materials. (more…)

Tagged with: BIPV, building-integrated photovoltaics, does PV apply to transportation?, environment, gasoline energy density is 35 kilowatt-hours/gallon, peel and stick solar PV, solar energy, solar power, thin-film solar

"Pull-Through" Marketing for 2GreenEnergy Client WindStream, Leader in MicroWind

craigshieldsPosted on December 30, 2012 Posted in Wind Energy

Over the 30 years I’ve been a business consultant to the large tech companies of the world (H-P, IBM, 3M, Sony, Philips, FedEx, Agfa, Microsoft, Oracle, Litton, etc.) I’ve seen the value of selling through sales channels of various types: value-added resellers, dealers, and distributors of various types. I’ve also seen how easy it is to fail with strategies that don’t provide adequate incentive for these channel partners.

By far, the single best motivating force that I’ve utilized is demand generation. For instance, when my team and I launched Philips Electronics’ line of LCD projectors into the United States, we didn’t just hand it to their existing network of about 75 professional audio-video dealers around the country and hope for the best. (more…)

Tagged with: 3M, Agfa, coal-fired power plants, dealers, distributors, FedEx, H-P, IBM, incentive for channel partners, LCD projectors, leader in microwind, Litton, Microsoft, microwind, Oracle, Philips, Philips Electronics, pull-through marketing, reduce the burning of coal, sales channels, Sony, value-added resellers, Wind Energy, wind power, WindStream

Developing a Reseller Strategy for WindStream, Leader in MicroWind

craigshieldsPosted on December 30, 2012 Posted in Wind Energy

Anyone who’s ever used a reseller channel (dealers, retailers, VARs, distributors, mass merchandisers, etc.) knows that this whole approach to marketing and sales is the ultimate “double-edged sword.” The most obvious benefits include an enormous and more-or-less instant expansion of your sales force with very little overhead, and thus a huge amount of leverage in terms of reaching your target end-user customer segments. Where it would require eons for you to develop these relationships from scratch, resellers come with them neatly tucked into place.

The most obvious downside is lack of mind-share. These people don’t work for you; you cannot manage them directly, so if you don’t provide them adequate training – and, more importantly – incentive, you’re headed for certain failure. (more…)

Tagged with: clean energy, dealers, development of sales channels, distributors, Electric Vehicles, EVs, Hewlett-Packard, internal combustion engine, leader in microwind, mass merchandisers, microwind, renewable energy marketing and sales, renewables, reseller channel, reseller strategy, retailers, VARs, Wind Energy, wind power, WindStream

WindStream, Cost-Effective Breakthrough in MicroWind, Targets Schools

craigshieldsPosted on December 29, 2012 Posted in Wind Energy

It looks like I’ll be taking on some marketing responsibilities for my client WindStream, a start-up with a fabulous breakthrough in “microwind,” i.e., small, inexpensive, easily installed wind turbines. I certainly won’t be able to publish every aspect of the strategies I evolve for them, but I don’t think they’ll mind if I provide an example of my current thinking, so here goes:

I propose to target schools in a big way. (more…)

Tagged with: and drag vs. lift fluid dynamics, astronomy / the solar system, conservation of energy, cosmology / The Big Bang, electricity and magnetism, marketing, microwind, photo-electric effect, the particle nature of light, wind as part of meteorology, Wind Energy, wind power, wind turbines, WindStream

Like Big Energy, Big Food Needs to Shoulder Responsibility for Its Effects on Society

craigshieldsPosted on December 28, 2012 Posted in Sustainability

Frequent commenter Frank Eggers writes in response to my recent piece in which I railed on the food industry. I suggested that Big Food – or Big Anything – needs to shoulder some responsibility for the effects that its actions create on our civilization. Frank writes:

Good food is readily available; people do not need to buy junk food. If people stopped buying junk food, the manufacturers would stop making it.

Thanks for your viewpoints, Frank. I’m anything but an expert on this topic, but I don’t believe the situation is quite that cut and dried. Here are a couple of things you may want to consider: (more…)

Tagged with: Big Anything, Big Food, childhood diabetes, childhood obesity, food deserts, Frank Eggers, heart disease

From Guest Blogger Mathias: Kyocera's Solar Panels Seems to Degrade Slower

craigshieldsPosted on December 28, 2012 Posted in Photovoltaics

Solar panel systems from the Japanese manufacturer Kyocera that were installed in a small French near Lyon has been up and running for exactly two decades now.

This about how long the warranty for solar panels lasts. What is remarkable about the 20-year old solar panels is that they show much less degeneration than what is expected – 8.3% reduction in performance when output levels were measured and compared to original levels. In other words, these solar panels still performed at 91.7% of their original maximum power output! (more…)

Tagged with: degrade, kyocera, photovoltaics, solar energy, solar panels, solar power, warranty

Neither Big Energy Nor Big Food Are Behaving Princely Re: Public Health

craigshieldsPosted on December 27, 2012 Posted in Sustainability

I’ve often written that Big Energy is on the same path that Big Tobacco chose to take in the mid 20th Century: knowingly causing significant damage to the population’s health and safety, but covering it up as long as possible. In fact, here’s a piece summarizing the huge financial forces behind climate change denial. (more…)

Tagged with: big energy, Big Food, Big Tobacco, childhood diabetes, childhood obesity, cover up, egregious corporate behavior, financial forces behind climate change denial, food industry, global climate change, global warming, inner-city kids, lack of decent nutrition, National Public Radio, NPR, population’s health and safety, public relations obscure damage, tobacco industry

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson Steps Down

craigshieldsPosted on December 27, 2012 Posted in Climate Change

After four years of service as administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Lisa Jackson is stepping down. Thus far, she has provided no reason for her decision to leave.

Let me go out on a limb and suggest one: she’s tired of the 24/7 hassle from the right wing, which has fought every single effort she’s taken to mitigate the vast ecological destruction we’re wreaking on our earth and skies, and the consequent damage to our health. (more…)

Tagged with: 97+% of climate scientists, CAFE standards, coal ash spill in Tennessee, Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, fossil fuels, Fred Upton, fuel mileage standards, global climate change’ global warming, GOP, House Energy and Commerce Committee, Huffington Post, Lisa Jackson, Mitt Romney, Republicans, toxic coal ash

From Guest Blogger Alia: Solar Energy Panels for Your Home

craigshieldsPosted on December 27, 2012 Posted in Photovoltaics

It is not too difficult to convert your house in a solar-powered one. If you have made up your mind about installing solar energy panels, then the first place to start with would be to check your roof for inclinations. If your roof is not inclined or oriented to make optimal use of the sun’s rays then, the solar panels would have to be inclined and oriented accordingly. If your house does not receive a lot of sunlight for some part of the year, then the PV solar panels would have to be designed in a way that it provides you electricity throughout the year. (more…)

Tagged with: photovoltaics, solar energy, solar panels, solar power

Social Consciousness and Civilization's Sustainability

craigshieldsPosted on December 26, 2012 Posted in Sustainability

Yesterday was the birthday of Rod Serling, creator of the iconic mid-20th Century television program “The Twilight Zone.” According to the Writer’s Almanac, “Serling believed it was the writer’s job to ‘menace the public consciousness’ and considered television and radio as a means for social criticism.”

And what a terrific job he did. Those of us old enough to remember will call to mind episodes whose premises included the implication of mindless conformity, the horrors of mob rule, the potential for cruelty that lies within all of us, and our tendency toward xenophobia – all presented with terrifying realism, normally with a brilliantly clever ironic twist at the end. (more…)

Tagged with: sustainability