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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels

The PBS special “Electric Nation” is a reasonably fair-minded and certainly non-hysterical treatment of the various modes of how we in the U.S. generate electricity. Personally, had I written the show, I would have been quite a bit more hysterical, emphasizing the utter insanity of our business-as-usual approach to fossil fuels and our failure to form a workable energy policy, even in the face of:

• Global climate change

• Ocean acidification

• Peak oil

• Empowering terrorist and other anti-American regimes

• Escalating rates of lung disease

Yet they were good enough to quote Thomas Edison’s famous simile regarding our shortsightedness when it comes to energy:

“We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel when we should be using Nature’s inexhaustible sources of energy–sun, wind and tide.”

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Last night I had a dinner meeting during which I was asked what I thought about a business plan that proposed to grow sugarcane (from which to make ethanol) in California’s Imperial Valley, one of the driest parts of the world.  I was a bit stunned.  Isn’t this equivalent to growing mangoes in Siberia, or raising polar bears in Panama? (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

Here’s an article on the creation of “biorock,” coral reefs that grow extra quickly when an electrical current, generated with photovoltaics on the ocean’s surface, is applied to steel girders on the seabed.

Proponents argue that the replacing of the huge number of reefs that have been damaged by pollution is an extremely important task. They note that more than a quarter of the world’s reefs have died in the past few decades and that at least another quarter will perish within the coming twenty years.

However, environmentalists are mixed on the idea. A reader from Costa Rica who wishes to develop an eco-friendly way to raise oysters writes: “scientists and ecologists here are too conservative and ambientalista (“environmentalist”) lobbyists are against it.”

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

Here’s a “clean car calculator” in which users can plug in certain values and receive an instant assessment of the eco-impact of their vehicle. I’ll point out (before skeptics like reader Glenn Doty have the chance) that the methodology is subject to question; it uses the average cleanliness of the electric power in the user’s state, which differs from the overall impact of adding load anywhere on the grid in most of the US.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Wind Energy

A reader sent me this article in Scientific American that suggests the possibility that wind turbines contribute to global warming and requested my response.

It seems to me that the first commenter nailed it: “the article also seems to forget warmist theory discounts the concept of local climate having any affect on the globe, only the average global temperature matters.”  Moreover, let’s do a bit of math here.  Could the waste heat produced by a wind-driven generator offset the benefit derived from not burning that amount of coal?  Forget about the negative effects of mining and transporting the coal, and think of the thermodynamics in the coal plant itself, where you have waste heat from both the burning of the coal and the generation of electricity.

Also keep in mind that climate change is only one of half a dozen reasons to migrate away from fossil fuels.

Overall, this sounds silly.  But apparently, Scientific American isn’t held in the esteem I thought it was; those comments really shredded them.

 

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels

Germany has installed enough photovoltaics that, at this point, coal-fired power plants are beginning to become unprofitable. This is driven by a combination of factors, e.g., that coal isn’t asked to provide power at the peak of the day, when both the sun and the price of electricity are at their zenith. Of course, most of us cheer when coal runs into trouble, but issues like this raise some fantastically interesting questions about the future of power generation – and transportation – as we migrate from fossil fuels into more sustainable modalities. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Here’s a local newscast on aeroponics, featuring Doug Jacobs, Rafael Quezada’s business partner at Tower Harvest. The segment did a good job at getting at some of the key benefits: organic growing, eco-friendliness, locally grown, and bringing high quality food to blighted urban areas.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

The responsible states, the responsible investors and the responsible citizens are the three pillars for renewable energy development all over the world. The responsible state creates a conducive investment climate for renewable energy enterprise and investors returns, in which citizens invest anticipating good returns. The nations with good investment climate maximize numerical capital growth and quicker formation of renewable energy corporations. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

It’s hard to believe that respect for our natural environment can be such a bone of contention, but, as reported here, certain sectors of the population fiercely attack green initiatives at every turn. It seems unthinkable to me.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

With all our recent discussions on aeroponics and locally grown food, I’m delighted to note that, according to the Writer’s Almanac, it’s the birthday of chef and author Alice Waters. Waters is best known for her books on the use of fresh, local ingredients; her most recent was In the Green Kitchen: Techniques to Learn by Heart, in which she wrote:

“Our full humanity is contingent on our hospitality; we can be complete only when we are giving something away.”

What a lovely thought that is – and, no offense to other authors in this genre, but that’s certainly more profundity than one expects to find in a cookbook.

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