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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Some simple strategies for national green energy development has worked for Germany, Netherlands and Japan. Nations poor in green energy development can copy and paste. The global least progress in green energy development is still prevalent, some nations think green energy targets set by United Nations is impossible to achieve. State institutions and political leadership in these nations can learn from successful countries. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

I’m wondering if I could ask your help in another of our surveys.

There is not too much doubt that the last 150 years have brought ever-accelerating damage to our environment. There IS, however, a great deal of controversy about the ultimate consequences of this damage to mankind and the life-forms that share the planet with us.

In particular, I note that great minds studying this subject come to two different and mutually exclusive conclusions. People like Amory Lovins and Jeremy Rifkin present very compelling cases that migrating to a low-carbon energy schema will drive a robust economy. Others, notably Bill McKibben and Nate Hagens, don’t see this at all, claiming that, because we’ve reached the end of cheap energy and freely available credit, “the party’s over.”

This survey is an opportunity for you to provide your own assessment.  If you click the link below, you’ll be taken to a page on which you can agree or disagree with various propositions concerning the sustainability of our economy, our use of energy, and our overall way of life.  Thanks very much for your ongoing support.

Survey: Is Our Way of Life Sustainable?

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Biofuels

Tomorrow I’m renting a car and heading south, through Los Angeles on my way to San Diego, for my work Monday and Tuesday with Doty Windfuels at the American Chemical Society Conference. I mention Los Angeles, as I plan to stop for dinner near the airport with my colleague Marc Rappaport of biofuels fame. Though we’ve spoken on the phone dozens of times about several different projects in the space, this will be the first time I’ll have the pleasure of meeting Marc in person.

Ironically, the core driver of this trip, promoting Doty WindFuels, is rooted in Dr. Doty’s conviction that the entire biofuel industry is flawed, and that synthetic fuels (manufactured with off-peak wind power, water, and CO2) offer the most feasible solution to carbon-neutral energy.

I guess we’ll see how this shakes out.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Ocean Thermal

Here’s the webinar we did the other day, in which I interviewed Ocean Thermal Energy Corporation’s chief strategist Jim Greenberg on OTEC.  I thought he did a fantastic job is explaining the potentials that this rapidly evolving technology  holds to provide large amounts of clean baseload energy to over 4 billion people living in the tropics.  

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DotOL6hWJ8&w=500&h=369]

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

I hope Amory Lovins doesn’t think I’m stalking him.  He certainly could get that impression, as I’ve approached him twice in the past three days — Wednesday after his incredible talk at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and today at the Wall Street Journal’s  “eco-nomics” conference just a few miles away.   Technically, today, it was my friend Jeff Brothers, solar developer extraordinaire, who, when the session was over, suggested that we make a trade: a signed copy of Is Renewable Really Doable? for a signed copy of Lovins’ Reinventing Fire.  

Again, the fact that most people don’t even know who Lovins is speaks volumes about the state we’re in as a planet, and what a poor job the media is doing in its coverage of environmental issues.

 

 

 

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Energy Storage

I started my day with a predawn call to Edison, New Jersey and Mumbia, trying to connect my people at Eos Energy Storage with strategic partners in India. The breakthrough in battery chemistry/design will result in product for sale in 2013 at $165/kWh. This, of course, will change the game completely, both for electric vehicles and for utility-scale grid storage — and India will be an enormous market. What’s the loss on an hour or two of sleep in the scheme of things?

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

After Amory Lovins’ lecture yesterday, he took questions, including one from me, which I prefaced by saying, “I think I speak for almost everyone in this packed auditorium when I say that I wish there were a way of making you king of the world.” I got a chuckle, and an instant rejection from Lovins. “I’m not interested,” he smiled.

But I’ve come to understand that most people don’t even know who he is. I spoke this morning with two different close friends, both well-educated people, neither of whom had ever heard of him. And that, in turn, is a function of the fact that our media covers issues of global warming and environmentalism more generally in a very cursory and erratic fashion.

To be sure, this is a big part of the problem. Here we have the most important event in the history of humankind, and, though we hear about it occasionally, most people really know very little about it, because the media largely ignores it.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

Here’s another in our series of short introductory videos, in which I discuss  renewable energy generally, including its strengths and weaknesses. We ALL want clean, abundant, inexpensive energy — and renewables hold the potential to take us there.  But as much as we like this concept generally, there are issues; there are costs that need to be understood.  It’s fine to be an advocate, but it’s even better to wrap your wits around as many of the issues as possible: technological, economical, and political.  

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh4Jslrl-SM&w=500&h=284]

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

At an ever-growing rate, I get calls and emails from people all over the world hoping that I can hook them up with clean energy jobs in the U.S.  I wish I could help, but I can’t — at least, not at this point.

I’m hoping that this changes soon, but the U.S. is not embracing renewables to the degree I’d like to see. Did you know that there are more jobs in solar in Germany than there are jobs in steel in the U.S?  I’m not proud of that, but it’s a fact.  I believe that renewable energy will eventually win the day, but it doesn’t appear that the U.S. will be a leader in making this happen.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

Thursday afternoon I had the pleasure of listening to Amory Lovins present his latest thinking on the world energy picture at the University of California at Santa Barbara, which he sums up in his book Reinventing Fire. I’m so glad I didn’t miss this brilliant and compelling talk; you have to experience this first-hand to know what it’s like to be in the presence of a great mind whose life’s work has been figuring out Earth’s energy puzzle. (more…)

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