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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

Yes, Global Warming Is Real, But Where Is the Heat Going?Much has been written about the potential causes in the slowdown of the warming of the Earth’s atmosphere.  Climate scientists are quite confident in the validity of the greenhouse effect, but they’re still trying to account for all the heat that the Earth is retaining, and they have a few different ideas as to where it’s all going.

There seem to be two main theories: a) it’s going into melting part of the enormous volume of Arctic ice, and b) it’s warming the oceans.  Here’s an article/graphic on the latter concept that I received earlier today from an extremely senior scientist in this arena, Dr. Alexander Cannara.

 

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Solar Thermal

Unlike Solar PV, A Concentrated Solar Power Plant is a Real Edifice I laughed out loud when I read Glenn Doty’s comment on my piece in which I mentioned the levelized cost of energy of both solar PV and CSP. After an analysis of some of the engineering details, he writes:

I think I like CSP because there’s a sense of stately power to it… It’s an obelisk – an ancient symbol of power shining brightly, the tip visible for a hundred miles. It’s a testament. We built something… It’s kind of the same feeling that I have about the Grand Coulee Dam (pictured), or the Empire State Building.

I found it funny for this to come from such a man of science—but he certainly has a good point to make here. I’m reminded of the conversations I had with solar historian John Perlin, in which he explained that there are people who are unimpressed with PV because it lacks a certain masculinity: it doesn’t feature molten metal, crunching gears or pounding pistons. It just sits there; it doesn’t even get hot!

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

World’s First Solar Road

Here’s a topic that’s gotten a fair amount of play over the years: solar (PV) roads.  Finally, the first such thoroughfare is open to the public—in the Netherlands: land of tulips, windmills, and yes, if you get far enough off the beaten track over there, you will find people wearing wooden shoes.

As I’ve mentioned before, I can’t imagine that this represents a cost-effective way to lay down PV.  Even the number one thing to like here, i.e., land use, isn’t really the bonanza that it seems, due to shadows.  A shadow the size of a pack of matches on a 15-square-foot panel will knock over one-third of its power out.

I have a feeling this is of symbolic value only.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Solar Thermal

Can Solar Thermal Compete in the Pantheon of Renewable Energy “Flavors?”I took a nice hike with a friend last weekend, during which we had lots of time to talk about the important issues of the day; we’re out there long enough that there is no reason to rush from one topic to the next.  This was good news for our discussion from the various flavors of renewable energy and each of them is coming along.

My friend is an advocate of solar thermal (aka, concentrated solar power/CSP).  My personal concern is that its levelized cost of energy cannot approach that of solar PV and wind, and that, therefore, it may be doomed to obscurity.

Not everyone sees it that way, however.  Here’s good news from the people running the huge (377 MW) Ivanpah facility in Eastern California.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

War and a Sustainable SocietyI had a strange experience yesterday that I thought I’d share.  It had nothing to do with renewable energy, but it lies at the core of our notion of a sustainable society.

I attended a wonderful staged reading of four passages of the ancient Greek tragedians at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.  In deference to Veterans’ Day (which we celebrate in the U.S. each November 11th ), each of the passages dealt with war: how warriors of old dealt with the physical and emotional traumas of combat, and how their lives changed once they returned home.  (more…)

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainable Building

Collecting Rainwater For Your Container HomeHave you heard of rain water harvesting? It’s simply the act of catching water in a container system to use for other purposes. And this is exactly what you can do with your container home.

Who Exactly Would Harvest Rainwater?

Harvesting rainwater is by no means a new concept and has been practiced since the 3rd century B.C. (more…)

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

Earth: A Pale Blue Dot

I met a fellow yesterday who was in the control room in Houston in 1969 when the first man walked on the moon. I asked him if he was aware that there exists a conspiracy theory to the effect that the whole thing was staged in a Hollywood film studio. He smiled and nodded his head, but quickly added, “I’m not sure all conspiracy theories are false, but that one certainly is.”

He went on to talk about the deep personal changes that astronauts often experience as a result of taking leave of Earth’s boundaries. “Some of them get religion,” he told me. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Smart Grid

Microgrids Need To Adopt Standards In Order To SucceedWhen one thinks back across the last 100 years of world commerce, one finds numerous junctures at which the subject of technical standards was extremely important.  Those of us old enough to remember will tell you that IT standards were a big deal in the late 20th Century, e.g., the IBM 370-architected mainframe vs. open systems, Microsoft vs. Apple, UNIX vs. the numerous proprietary operating systems, Token Ring and Novell vs. Ethernet, etc.).  All that’s fairly old hat now, but look at all the present-day hub-bub surrounding clean tech: standards for electric vehicle charging, standards for communication among devices in the “Internet of Things,” and so forth.

According to this article, microgrids will not and cannot be successful until decisions are made about a certain issue.  Guess what?  It’s standards.

 

 

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

There is a lot of talk around being environmentally conscious and all of us being responsible for both the problem of and solution to global warming. Now, at the risk of sounding like a crazy tree hugger, the world’s most powerful governments have done little to curb global warming. There has been a lot of talk and not much action, and most green development reviews agree on this.

The time is now! (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Nuclear

Advanced Nuclear and Climate ChangeI’ve been lucky enough to have been included in a long-running discussion among some of the high-level proponents of advanced nuclear.  As most of these people are senior scientists, many with PhDs, the lion’s share of the conversation is on the science, some of which is fairly daunting.  Once in a while, however, someone will throw in a comment that gets into the sociological and political context for all this.

A gentleman named “David” writes about the imperative for nuclear: (more…)

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