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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I thought I’d publish this letter that my dear friend Ray Korns sent to a bazillion government officials, expressing his outrage as to what’s happening here in the U.S. with respect to NSA spying and the manipulation of the Internet.

As a constituent, I insist that you oppose any attempts to undermine Internet freedom.  My government is supposed to protect my rights, not violate them. Yet the NSA has done the exact opposite.

 I am demanding that YOU remedy this by: (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

Everyone is towards being the leader on everything. Talk about globalization, every country wants to take the lead and become the leading country. Because of this, workforce and industrialization are set on fire with no reasons to hold back, and with no slight regret if there are other concerns being detoured. And by that concern, we mean—the environment.

On a smaller scale, people are also living in a swift running life; all aiming to live in the middle of a developed city, and attain the popular trend of contemporary living. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

It saddens me when I hear someone say something like, “Oh, I’m not into politics.”   While I deeply sympathize with folks who are frustrated by government, I wonder if they know that the word “politics” derives from the Greek politikos, from politēs ‘citizen,’ from polis ‘city.’ It’s not really about government; it’s about our fellow human beings; it’s a concern all decent people share.

When he left office in 1960, Dwight Eisenhower left the people of the U.S. with a number of good pieces of advice, among which was this: “Americans need to consider politics as their part-time career.”  (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

There is a staggeringly high number of toxins hiding in most common household cleaning products on the market. The following article will give you some information on what you can expect to find in the most common cleaning products out there and how to avoid them. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

A friend in the UK and I were just comparing notes on how hard it is to sell huge volumes of books.  While this is true, I pointed out that I don’t regret the enormous amount of time I’ve invested into my three projects on renewable energy, as there are other reasons to write them – some of which benefit me personally, and others, I’d like to think, civilization as a whole.

• The process of researching and writing is a great learning experience.
• Many of the people I’ve interviewed have become close friends and/or clients. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainable Building

Are you completely calm when you stand up and speak in public? If so, you’re one of extremely few Homo sapiens who has somehow escaped the plague that affects the rest of us. 

I will be the emcee at a meeting tomorrow night, introducing a speaker on the subject of sustainable building products and methods.  My personal techniques for dealing with nerves include practicing the whole thing several times before going on stage.

I’m reminded that Winston Churchill, known for his talks that seemed completely spontaneous and off-the-cuff, would practice an hour for each minute of the speech; i.e., he’d spend 30 hours preparing for a half-hour talk.   My take-away: if public speaking didn’t come easily for Churchill, perhaps we mortals shouldn’t feel so bad if we’re a bit jittery.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

A reader sent me this piece on the low cost per mile of driving electric vehicles. 

Not to sound ungrateful, but I point out that EVs’ cost per mile is a fairly uninteresting statistic. It’s already ridiculously low; saving a bit more is only a tiny incentive. 

The only really interesting thing for the thoughtful EV driver in the U.S. is charging without causing more coal to be burned. That means either charging them during the day, when incremental loads on the grid are generally met with natural gas, or, better, it means using renewable energy.  My friend Paul Scott, co-founder of Plug-In America, has been driving EVs since the late 1990s (originally a Toyota Rav 4 Electric, now a Nissan LEAF) and has a sizeable PV array on his roof.  He hasn’t bought a drop of gasoline in over 15 years, and he’s almost entirely off the grid.  

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

Linked below is an article by my colleague Emma Websdale who writes for the wonderful website on OTEC (ocean thermal energy conversion) called “EmpowerTheOcean.”  Here, she addresses billionaire Richard Branson’s belief that the process of mitigating climate change provides marvelous opportunities for capitalists.  

For a chapter on this subject in my first book (Renewable Energy – Facts and Fantasies), I interviewed Jigar Shah, then the CEO of the think tank Branson formed called the Carbon War Room.   I do believe that somewhere, there is considerable workability to all this stuff on climate capitalism, though it needs to be stimulated by creating a level playing field, i.e., a tax on emissions, the removal of the subsidies for oil, etc.

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Here’s a recent piece of mine that Energy Manager Today ran earlier this week – an article on the CBS “60 Minutes” outrageous mistreatment of the cleantech industry.  

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Energy Storage

Next week I’ll be headed up to Santa Clara (about three hours’ drive north from here) for Infocast’s Annual “Storage Week” show.  The event’s producers claim that storage is headed for “hockey stick” growth over the coming few years, and I don’t dispute that. The cause in the short term is government mandates placed upon utilities, but I believe that the whole subject will snowball (to stay with the winter sports metaphors) after we see a few initial successes. 

I really like this show, as it does such a good job covering the numerous different technological approaches.

Anyone in the Bay Area who wants to meet for coffee (or beer, as appropriate)?  Please let me know.

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