The future smart city has many opportunities for innovative power solutions, whereby energy fields that are all around us could be used to collect this energy and harness its power. These include light, heat and sound. This infographic takes a look at future applications that could be facilitated by energy harvesting as the technology develops. (more…)
When I first saw the little relatively isolated 110 house neighborhood where I currently live I thought it would be interesting to set up a microgrid so the neighborhood could be independent of the grid when required. I am sure most of the neighbors here would not go for it and neither would the local utility. However it is nice when I see an article where a microgrid is being considered like the one in this link. Very interesting.
Today is the five year anniversary of the first experiments performed at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the centerpiece of CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research in the suburbs of Geneva, Switzerland. There, more than 10,000 physicists and engineers are probing the fundamental structure of the universe by smashing particles together at speeds near that of light and watching the results, hoping to develop insights into the basic laws of nature.
While this is way cool, I caution: (more…)
Here’s a report that predicts that a certain market, in this case, the market for Flexible AC Transmission Systems will grow to $1,386.01 million in 2018. That’s about $1.4 billion – predicted to the nearest $10,000?
This is a mistake I tell entrepreneurs not to make in their business plans, i.e., overstating the accuracy of their predictions, since it makes them look silly. We don’t have that level of certainty on events that will occur in the next five seconds, let alone the next five years. It’s like using a yardstick and claiming you’re measuring something to the nearest nanometer.
Obviously, renewable energy has a whole host of nay-sayers who make a variety of points, including:
• It’s expensive. (This is true, though it’s becoming less so each day – and it depends on how one does the accounting. Some of us think we should assign a value to human health, biodiversity, and the natural environment — at which point clean energy becomes the deal of the century.) (more…)
A bit off topic perhaps, but I know that a ton of readers here have their own blogs, and thus have to deal with spam. My spam filter, Akismet, which used to be excellent, btw, has for some reason gone downhill recently, and just let through a comment from a guy whose email address clearly says that he’s selling fake Louis Vuitton handbags and whose comment to one of my posts on solar PV is as follows: コート ロング.
Hmmmm. Looks a bit suspicious to me. Not sure how the world’s most sophisticated software in this arena got that one wrong. Good luck, fellow bloggers.
With enough solar energy to power almost 12,000 homes and employ 3,200 Texans, deregulation in the state policy since 2002, you might think the Lone Star State is at the forefront of the solar energy industry. However, the sunny state only ranks 13th in the nation for its installed solar capacity, outpaced by even small states New Jersey and Maryland. For many, Texas’ ranking may not make much sense. With more clear than cloudy days Texas has excellent potential for solar energy. In fact, if all of Texas’ usable land was equipped with solar panels, the state would have twice the solar potential of any other state, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. So why doesn’t the Texas solar industry shine? (more…)
Insulating your home is one of the most effective steps you can take towards becoming more energy efficient. With energy prices on the rise, it is time to take steps to prevent heat literally leaving through your walls and ceilings.
Cavity insulation is cheap and will pay for itself in less than two years through the savings you will make on your heating bills. With more than 50% of homes in the United Kingdom inadequately insulated, it may be time to get your home assessed.
Insulating your home provides many benefits: (more…)
Though I’m obviously not a fan of Big Oil, I try to stay somewhat conversant with the issues that these behemoth entities face, and so I read a number of articles like this one on Chevron’s commitment to harvesting the shale oil in Argentina.
The points of focus here aren’t what readers may think:
• The morality of ripping the last molecule of crude from the ground and burning it, an enterprise that is essentially certain to ruin the only planet we have, or
• The fact that Chevron owes $19 billion in restitution to the people of Ecuador for the criminal destruction that Texaco (which Chevron acquired in 2001) perpetrated there (though this subject is mentioned — albeit incorrectly).
Rather, it’s the cat-and-mouse game that huge corporate entities in the oil industry play against the reign of big government. Interesting reading; hope you enjoy.
I attend frequent fund-raisers for U2U, a fantastic humanitarian group run by close friends Jez and Lynzi Blacker. I was lucky enough to have their son Joel (pictured here with his mom) on a boys 14-and-under soccer team I coached six years ago, and we’ve been hanging out together ever since.
U2U’s current focus is Haiti – in particular, building a 40-bed hospital from the ground up on a densely populated island where health care is currently almost completely nonexistent. (more…)
