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Collecting Solar Energy in Space and Beaming It To Earth

craigshieldsPosted on June 17, 2014 Posted in Renewables - Science

I notice periodic comments and guest blogs on the prospect of beaming energy from space; linked here is one that went up today.

I feel I should point out that this will never happen. Why? Because it doesn’t need to happen. At all times during the day and night, 6000 times more power from the sun is directly incident on the Earth than all of us are consuming. Even if our population’s appetite for energy doubles, which is indeed likely, we still need a solution that captures only 1/3000 of the solar energy we’re receiving, and that’s discounting all other forms of renewable/clean energy, developed now and into the future.

Given that, we need to ask ourselves which sounds more practical: (more…)

Sustainable Building Products Use Phase-Change Materials

craigshieldsPosted on June 17, 2014 Posted in Sustainable Building

We’ve all noticed the phenomenon associated with “things coming in clumps.” For example, we may have lived to this point in our lives without ever having come across a certain word, only to hear it used two or three times in an amazingly brief stretch of time. Or maybe we become aware of some model of car for the first time, and then start to notice them everywhere in our travels. (more…)

Tagged with: BASF, building materials constructed with compounds that change phase, calcium chloride hexahydrate, endothermic exothermic processes, Phase Change Materials, sustainable building materials, wallboard contains millions of tiny bits of wax

From Guest Blogger Anago: How Can Restaurants Go Green?

craigshieldsPosted on June 17, 2014 Posted in Efficiency

All around the world, companies working in different industries are seeing the benefits of going green, whether it is from a purely financial aspect or because they want to help Mother Earth by being more environmentally friendly. The food hospitality trade as a whole is a wasteful industry, due in large part to the considerable amount of water, electricity and paper that a restaurant uses on a daily basis. Thankfully, in recent years there has been a notable change in the amount of restaurants going green in a proactive attempt to curb the amount of pollution and waste that is starting to envelop our planet. (more…)

Tagged with: biodegradable, energy, energy efficient, environmentally-friendly, green, green is the new black, recycle

From Guest Blogger Blake: Drones Have Environmentally Important Purposes Too

craigshieldsPosted on June 17, 2014 Posted in Sustainability

Drones, in spite of the stigma surrounding them, are proving to be an asset in the modern world. For all of the deaths that result from the deployment of drones by militaries, there are several ways that drones improve society, from delivering medical supplies in emergencies to collecting data for researchers – all with low fuel cost and little damage to the environment. (more…)

Tagged with: green tech, preservation, technology, wildlife

From Guest Blogger Ashley: Could the Navy Succeed in Beaming Solar Energy to Earth from Space?

craigshieldsPosted on June 17, 2014 Posted in Photovoltaics

Recently, the United States Naval Research Laboratory put into plans to build solar panels that are to be placed in space with the capability to beam the energy collected directly to Earth. Sounds like a plot to a James Bond film? Nope. In fact, it’s becoming a reality. There are even plans in the works to use robots to assemble the solar panels which are estimated to be a kilometer long. If the US Navy is successful in this project, what kind of benefits could humanity see from future developments on a civilian scale? (more…)

Tagged with: alternative energy, clean energy, concentrated solar power, green energy, Renewable Energy, solar energy, sustainability

Energy Policy in the U.S. Is a Broken Process

craigshieldsPosted on June 16, 2014 Posted in Renewables - Politics

My mother wrote to me earlier today about the need for immigration reform, noting that any successful political party needs to embrace the notion. At the risk of sounding pessimistic, I responded:

I agree, both that a) our immigration processes are broken, and b) everyone associated with law-making needs to participate actively in fixing this and all other broken processes (or at least appear like they’re participating), lest they leave voters angry, and anxious for retribution.

This is what has me so vexed about our energy (more…)

Tagged with: broken processes, energy policy, energy policy stupid unfair destructive, fossil fuels enjoy huge subsidies, renewable energy confusing ever-changing chaos

U.S. Navy Making Fuels from Seawater?

craigshieldsPosted on June 16, 2014 Posted in Synthetic Fuel

I can’t be the only one who keeps coming across a press release suggesting that the U.S. Navy is successfully making fuel out of seawater. Here is a conversation I had with a friend in which I explain why this has to be a hoax: (more…)

Tagged with: carbon collection, carbon-neutral process, Naval Research Laboratory’s official press release, Synthetic Fuel, U.S. Navy making fuel out of seawater

“Uber” – Part of a Paradigm Shift in Transportation

craigshieldsPosted on June 16, 2014 Posted in Electric Vehicles

My friend Jon Lesage is an extremely senior journalist in the transportation space, and offers the following note on Uber.

Uber is public enemy No. 1 for taxis and other ground transportation companies. (more…)

Tagged with: lugging around a 4000-pound piece of steel, reconsidering the necessity of owning a car, ridesharing and carsharing services, ridesharing services, Uber, use mobile devices to line up inexpensive convenient ways to get where we need to go

Obama Once More Vocal on Climate Change, Renewable Energy

craigshieldsPosted on June 16, 2014 Posted in Climate Change

As his term in office draws nearer to a close, U.S. President Obama has begun again to talk about climate change and the imperative to reduce our contributions to its causes. If I were he, I would inform the nation (and the rest of the world) that America stands ready to adopt a responsible energy policy, and that this is important, not only from the standpoint of global warming, but from a great number of other completely unrelated perspectives. (more…)

Tagged with: adopt a responsible energy policy, alternative fuel transportation, clean energy business, efficiency solutions, global warming, loss of bio-diversity. new energy to dominate the world economy in the 21st Century, Obama on Climate Change, ocean acidification, smart grid, storage

From Guest Blogger Hannah Whittenly: How Much Do Industrial Accidents Like the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico Cost America Per Year?

craigshieldsPosted on June 16, 2014 Posted in Sustainability

If you’re of a certain age, you may think of the Dow Chemical gas leak in Bhopal, India that resulted in conflicting reports of 3,000 to 8,00 deaths. More recently, there was the BP Gulf oil spill. But industrial accidents most often involve individual workers hurt on the job.

What is the dollar cost?

The estimated annual cost of occupational injuries and illnesses is estimated to be $250 billion. (more…)

Tagged with: BP oil spill, BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico