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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Biofuels

I support a few clean energy projects that will benefit from this recently approved U.S. Senate bill that includes a wide variety of tax incentives that would help the biorefining and biopower sectors, including those related to cellulosic biofuel, algae, renewable diesel, biogas and biomass power.

Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but, obviously, these favorite projects of mine would enjoy even greater support if the incentives in question were not subject to cancellation at the whim of a Congress that may look at things differently a year or so down the line.  I’m reminded of a conversation I had with a guy at a conference a year or so ago; he looked down his nose at me and said, “I wouldn’t want to work in any industry, for instance clean energy, that receives federal subsidies.”  When I pointed out that fossil fuels receive several times that amount of subsidies, he modified his position: “I guess what I mean is that I wouldn’t want to work in an industry that receives federal subsidies that might go away.”

It’s so invigorating to see raw courage like that. 🙂

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Wind Energy

In a few hours, we’ll bid so long to another summer Olympics.  I always hate to say goodbye; I sorely miss them when they’re gone.  The concept of being that good at anything is so impressive to me; I have to think that we all feel the same type of inspiration. 

I’ll leave this subject with a couple of notes, both of them items that appear to be gone forever in the televised coverage of the Games:

Gone are the days of controversy.  We didn’t detect a nanosecond of an American calling himself the greatest (or even good), or suggesting that one participant was sure to win or lose, or, God forbid, of bringing up an issue that could have the most remote political implication.  In interviews in which two people from the same team were interviewed on camera, we could plainly see the one who was not speaking looking expectantly and fearfully at the other, as if to say, “Please be careful; PLEASE don’t say anything wrong here.”  Perhaps the 1968 Games in Mexico City was the high-water mark of using the Olympics to make such statements.  London was distinctly the low-water mark.  It’s not a great reflection on our times that this needs to be such a sterile experience. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Biomass

Some of the waste-to-energy concepts I’ve come across recently should not be discussed over dinner.

One contemplates fish-waste in British Columbia that comes from the significant percentage of the fish that is unusable: the head, tail, guts, and spine.  Currently, these parts are shredded and reintroduced to the rivers from which they came, eventually, I suppose, winding up in the ocean.

In addition to recapturing the energy, one would think that there would be a significant ecologic benefit to making this cease.  Processing fish waste, however, is not without its challenges.  Most of the fish in this part of the world are caught and processed within a fairly short period of the year; the waste, therefore needs to be dried (most of it is water) and frozen until needed.  (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Wind Energy

I heard a really good talk about lifecycle analysis (LCA) yesterday that took wind energy as an example, and examined the overall ecological footprint associated with an individual large turbine.  On average, about 7.8 megawatt-hours of energy goes into extracting the materials, forging the pieces, transporting, assembling and installing the device, maintaining it through its lifetime, and then dismantling and recycling it when it is no longer useful.  However, it will produce, on average, 157.8 megawatt-hours of electricity in the course of its 20-year lifespan, a return of a bit more than 20 to 1. 

Although there are additional considerations in the form of land use and ecological impact to birds and bats that complicate matters, wind remains attractive overall from an LCA perspective.  Concerns about land use, it seems to me, need to take into consideration that turbines can be deployed in pasture land, orchards, etc.  And while it’s true that birds are occasionally killed, they’re many thousands of times more likely to die at the hands of cats, automobiles, and plate-glass windows. 

From a cost perspective, mid-sized approaches on the order of a few hundred kilowatts that may be appropriate for corporate campuses, factories, schools, and so forth pay themselves off in a period of three to eight years, depending on incentives, the prevailing rates for electricity from the local utility, and wind characteristics.  My friends at Continental Wind offer a good solution in this space, for anyone who may be interested. 

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

If we are to achieve a sustainable energy future, it will come as a result of our having found a way to create a viable working relationship between the public and private sectors.  The private sector alone will not make any more than a token investment into enterprise whose upside potential is purely long-term, as doing so will not achieve the demand for quarter-to-quarter earnings required to keep its management team employed.   Moreover, the most powerful forces within the private sector stand to lose far more than they will win in the face of a migration from fossil fuels.

But how credible is it that government will participate in an honest and helpful manner?  I hate to sound cynical, but I’m not a believer.  Government has its own incentives and motivations that run counter to the public it ostensibly serves; its short election cycles mean political death for anyone brave, honest, or foolish enough to stand up for a long-term energy policy that will provide overall benefit to society.

It’s also true that government in today’s world operates unfettered by the checks and balances of old; one of the aspects of our current culture that frightens me most is how the media seems to go along with the most outrageous actions coming from the public sector.  All around us, we see ridiculously shameful behavior that the media seems to either ignore or actively embrace.  Are they asleep?  Incompetent?  Controlled?  Some combination?  I’m not sure. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

I’m frustrated at one source of energy which is not being used, almost at all, and yet, there is an endless supply — methane. I have passed sewage treatment plants in some medium-to-small cities, and they have ‘flare-off” pipes going! Oil drilling platforms flare off gas and methane, too. My father came close to getting killed while working on a tunnel in Santa Barbara — he had been telling the bosses that there was methane in the tunnel, and so far, they hadn’t given the drillers and blasters so much as a canary for early warning. The tunnel was so hot, the managers rolled ore cars full of cold water back to them, and when someone couldn’t stand the heat, they would jump in the ore cars to cool off! But the tunnel blew anyway — Dad was lucky, as he was walking OUT of the tunnel at the time, carrying a large wooden beam on one shoulder. The explosion knocked him flat, the beam came down and broke his tailbone. He also had a colorful collection of bruises and scratches. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

I’m at the Clean Business Investment Summit, checking out the entrepreneur presentations, where I volunteer to function as a mentor to the presenters and to moderate discussions between entrepreneurs and cleantech investors.  I’ve seen a few really interesting concepts so far this morning.

Ooops, here’s one that’s a poster child for a business plan flaw I call “Limited Total Market.”  It’s dehydrated baby food for backpackers.  How many people went backpacking last year with their infants?  Of them, how many resented the extra few ounces their baby food weighed? Sorry.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

I look at Michael Klare (Professor of Peace and World Security Studies at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts) as a kind of Craig Shields on intellectual steroids.  He and I agree on essentially everything; the only real difference is his super-extensive command of the facts, and his ability to draw bold and important conclusions from dozens of different data streams.

Here’s a great article on climate change, the 2012 drought, and its implications for the stability of our civilization.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

If you’re looking for yet another example of how greedy pigs have worked around a well-meaning attempt to protect the environment, you’re in luck. 

I believe that government can, and in fact, must help in driving environmental reform, but it’s not an easy task – even in the absence of corruption.  Without some level of decency on the part of the private sector, it may be impossible.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Energy Storage

I brought an associate to make a brief presentation to my friends at Eos Energy Storage yesterday.  As I’ve mentioned, Eos represents a breakthrough in zinc-air batteries that will soon culminate in electrical storage at $160 / kilowatt-hour, about one-third of what we’re paying now for lithium-ion.  Eos chairman Michael Oster, its president Steve Hellman, and I have become “fast friends” by virtue of the interest I’ve taken in the company and its work, and the efforts I’ve taken to find them an appropriate set of strategic partners. (more…)

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