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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Nuclear

The author of this article is 100% correct: there are two opposing factions among those of us who believe that action is necessary to deal with climate change: anti-nuclear and pro-nuclear.   His assertion that “divided we fall” is also accurate; there is no doubt that the environmentalists’ position here would be stronger if it were united on this and all other issues.

Personally, I believe that most of the rabidly anti-nuke side consists of people who don’t realize how bad coal is.  (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

While U.S. football fans spent last Sunday eating and drinking their way through the Super Bowl, few noticed that it was also the birthday of Ayn Rand, author of philosophic novels.  Her concept, as we all know, is that individual creativity, especially as it applies to the creation of wealth, should not be driven by the needs of society. 

This overarching idea, i.e., “Let us ignore the needs of others,” was extremely well-received when it was introduced in the mid-20th Century. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Smart Grid

Thanks and congratulations to 2GreenEnergy intern Nikita Rao for her first article on smart grid, published here earlier today. This is a subject that is rightfully garnering much attention, as it’s so clearly integral to our civilization’s ability to achieve a rational approach to energy generation and consumption.  (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

According to the Writer’s Almanac, it is the birthday of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Robert Hofstadter (pictured), best known for his research on the nucleus of the atom. While he was studying at City College of New York, Hofstadter wanted to major in literature and philosophy until a physics professor told him, “the laws of physics could be tested and those of philosophy could not.”

That’s a clever point. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

I’m not a believer in hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, since I don’t like the efficiency of creating the hydrogen, and I really detest the prospect of building another fuel-delivery infrastructure.  Electric transportation has its issues re: power generation from coal, but it most certainly isn’t challenged by the ubiquity of the fuel dispensers; we can “unplug our toasters and plug in our cars,” as the Plug-In America people like to say.    (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Hydrokinetics

For those who may not have seen my email when I sent it around earlier, I ran across a very interesting group of folks in Brazil in late 2013.  The team, captained by an extremely senior financial/energy professional, has assembled a package of 13 “small” (1 – 30 mW) and “micro” (less than 1 mW) run-of-river hydrokinetics projects in Southeastern Brazil, and is well-positioned to move quickly.   They’re looking for investors, and are prepared to make a good-looking offer. 

Again, if you happen to be an accredited investor, and you’d like to learn more about the project, just click here.  Please contact me if you’d like to get in touch with the principals, and I’ll make that happen.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Here’s a fabulous video that makes an important point: we consumers are on the receiving end of a steady stream of lies about the products we’re buying.  This particular segment exposes one specific form of this: the word “natural” has no real meaning in our language; our Food and Drug Administration does not object to food manufacturers, with their heavily processed products grown in chemical fertilizers and sprayed with poisons, advertising their products as “natural.”  They’re counting on the fact that consumers will conflate “natural” with “organic,” and they’re right most of the time. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Smart Grid

The failure to achieve clean energy in the U.S is not because it lacks technology and innovation but because it lacks the idea of implementing the technology. We should focus on laying a strong foundation and going forward to build a smarter electricity system in which the consumer and producer have two-way communication to achieve the required results. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Product dewatering is the process of removing elements of liquid and water from waste materials, which can include sludge, slurry, sewage, industrial waste, water sources and others, according to an article by Wikipedia.org. Considering that Americans use billions of gallons of water each day, and also considering that newer and more stringent environmental standards are in place to prevent sewage dumping in oceans, dewatering has never been more important than it is today. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainable Building

On Wednesday, 10 mayors from 10 different U.S. cities pledged to reduce the greenhouse-gas emissions currently polluting their skylines. For obvious reasons, cities are a major source of carbon-dioxide pollution, due to the high, concentrated amounts of fuel necessary for heating, cooling and lighting. (more…)

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