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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

U.S. Federal Government Offers Comprehensive Annual Energy Data and Sustainability PerformanceHere’s something new for you fans of statistics: Through the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP), the U.S. Department of Energy provides a “Comprehensive Annual Energy Data and Sustainability Performance including FY 2013 reported findings.”

According to the site, it: …offers complete annual data sets of agency aggregated annual energy and water consumption and costs by end-use sector, efficiency investment information, and progress toward key goals outlined in the National Energy Conservation Policy Act. 

This is actually a very good thing.  If you can’t (or don’t) measure something, it’s hard to improve on it.

 

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels

How Dangerous is Fracking?Sorry for the bait and switch, but I don’t know; no one does.  In fact, I hope to live long enough to be here when we learn the truth.  In particular, what is the result of squirting hundreds of billions of gallons of water and sand that contain a mixture (that the oil/gas companies refuse to disclose) of toxic, carcinogenic chemicals into the Earth each year? (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Ocean Thermal

“Hedge Connection” Covers Ocean Thermal Energy ConversionThe people at the Hedge Connection in New York City have asked me to make a monthly contribution to their newsletter “The Edge” (a clever name, IMO).

Here’s this month’s installment, in which I write about Ocean Thermal Energy Corporation (OTE), the leader in OTEC.  By way of disclosure, I own stock in the company; it’s traded on a small exchange in Europe called the GXG, and the executive team plans to uplist it to the NASDAQ soon.

In short, I like OTE because a long list of governments and large private sector entities in the tropics have expressed keen interest in the technology, and the company is in a unique position to scale in order to meet this surge of demand.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

Religion Embracing the Challenge of Climate DisruptionI make very few comments on the subject of religion here, but I sure am pleased to see here that this coming Sunday in New York City, September 21, the Interfaith Contingent  will be among more than 1,000 organizations participating in the People’s Climate March, demanding progressive action at the United Nations Climate Summit that is scheduled to commence the following day.

It’s great to see that the religious community is acknowledging the challenge of climate disruption; the National Catholic Reporter proclaimed the “number one pro-life issue” of our time.  Valla con Dios.

 

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

Understanding the Difference Between Energy and Power: Critically Important in Clean Energy DiscussionsIf I had to identify a single pet peeve of mine, I might say that it’s people in the energy industry who don’t know the difference between power and energy.  Power is the rate at which energy is generated or consumed, or more accurately, is changed from one form into another.   (more…)

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Nuclear

To my chagrin as well as my astonishment, the advanced nuclear people I’ve been hanging around with recently love to bash the supporters of solar and wind. Are they hired hit-men for the nuclear industry? I don’t think so; lots of them have PhDs, and I’m convinced that there is no real money-motivation here. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Seattle Tops List of Sustainable CitiesHere’s an article that lays out exactly why Seattle is named as the most sustainable city in the U.S.   There are numerous ingredients that go into this calculation, but among them, of course, are energy and transportation.  From the article: “Seattle is one of only five cities in the nation where less than half of commuters are driving alone to work. Since 2011, Seattle has seen a 59% increase in bicycling and a 27% increase in pedestrian traffic.” (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Biofuels

Could a Variety of Jatropha Play an Important Role in Biofuels?Those of you keeping track of the evolution of biofuels may be interested in this piece on a hybrid variety of jatropha.

Personally, I view the whole biofuels enterprise as a snooze.  We’re trying to replace the source of the 15 terawatts of energy we Earthlings consume, 80% of which currently comes from burning hydrocarbons, a process that is rapidly destroying our planet. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Energy Storage

Underwater Compressed Air Energy Storage (UW-CAES)Here’s an idea that shows the enormous range of thinking outside the box of which clean energy inventors are capable.  Use off-peak energy to compress air into a submerged bag.   My reaction: Can this be done?  Sure.  Can it be done cost-effectively?  Not in a million years.

Frequent commenter and senior energy analyst Glenn Doty should be along here any minute.  I’m sure he’ll agree, given his position on even the best-case scenarios for CAES.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

What We Can Learn About Solar Tech From Big BusinessApple is a well-known consumer tech company, but it is also a corporation that has its stakes in major areas of solar tech. On the one hand, the company has been working hard at figuring out how to embed solar tech into its consumer products to make them better. At the same time, the company is also focused on developing working power grids, starting with singular solar farms and then expanding to networked farms. So how is it that Apple is doing something with solar power better than what others have done? After all, solar tech has been around for a while; it’s not a new invention just created a few months ago.

What Makes Apple Shine (more…)

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