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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

I just started a fine historic novel that my brother gave me for Christmas, The Hangman’s Daughter; the first 100 pages are really good. In addition to the story itself, a murder mystery set in mid-17th Century Bavaria, the author reminds us of the horrors and brutalities of living at that time, e.g., the persecution of witches and the outrageously illogical ways in which this took place. “If she has a birthmark, she’s probably a witch.  Stick it with a needle; if she bleeds, then she’s definitely a witch.” How would you like to have been born female with a birthmark in 1650?

To me, the remarkable aspect of this isn’t that people were at one point so stupid to think like this. The truly amazing thing is that this was fairly recent. Almost exactly 2000 years earlier we had Ancient Greece with its fantastic developments in mathematics, science, education, philosophy, theater, focus on virtue, jurisprudence, democracy and the like – not to mention logic. Aristotle (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Hydrokinetics

Ocean current energy, a form of hydrokinetics, is one of the often-overlooked flavors of renewables, one that holds a great deal of potential. Low hanging fruit here, it appears, are the large and predictable currents that flow with very little variability over time. The Gulf Stream off the eastern seaboard of the United States comes immediately to mind to us Americans, as it’s what makes the Atlantic warm and enjoyable for summer vacations as far north as the Maritime Provinces of Canada. Lesser known to most of us here in the U.S. is the Mozambique Current in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa, between Mozambique and Madagascar.

When I’m in the studio next week, I plan to shoot a short video that discusses various attempts to harness that energy in a cost-effective, ecologically safe manner. I’ve come across the developer of a device that is anchored (not moored) to the ocean floor, and thus can move around within the limits of its tether to find the region of maximum current. I’d like to see this guy succeed; his has one of the best ideas in hydrokinetics I’ve come across to date. If you’re interested, please let me know and I’ll put you in touch.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

I’m very proud of 2GreenEnergy’s dozen or so “associates,” who perform a huge variety of tasks for our clients – everything from raising capital, to performing engineering reviews, to marketing and public relations, social media, project management to IP protection. My aim is simple: When someone asks if we can do something for their clean energy business, I want the answer to always be a resounding Yes.

One of the associations we recently formed is one with Dan Sturges, in which we deliver cutting-edge thinking in transportation for city planners who may be looking for a better way of moving people and goods around a local area. For a century, we operated off a central paradigm in transportation:

Virtually everyone 16 years or older has his own car, a huge piece of steel that weighs (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

My friend and colleague Tom Konrad does not share my belief that the consumer adoption of EVs is, to some degree, driven by perception of the long-term prognosis for electric transportation.” He writes:

If I’m buying an EV, why should I care if it’s the way of the future or not? My car will work as long as I have electricity and roads, the supply of neither of which is under threat. Owners of natural gas vehicles may need to worry about charging infrastructure, but while a robust charging network for EVs would be nice, it’s not absolutely necessary. If it works today, it will work 10 years from now.

I think, though it’s just a theory, that most people don’t want to own a form a transportation that few other people use — especially in this case.  To the degree EVs do not catch on, there will be very little build-out of charging infrastructure, and very low resale value for used cars.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Is Renewable Really Doable, by Craig Shields

You have a curious, inquisitive mind. Plus, you have a good heart. You have a deep, abiding concern for the world around you and the people who inhabit it.

It’s for that reason that I thought I’d send a quick reminder that the launch date for my book (Is Renewable Really Doable?) is right around the corner: Thursday, March 15th.

That’s the magic date when I’m offering a one-day-only bonus — the thought-provoking new report currently for sale at $59.95 (“Insights in LCOE – The Levelized Cost of Energy,” by industry analyst Mike Hess) – absolutely free – when you buy one or more copies of my book from Amazon.com.

Here’s an opportunity to put that inquisitive mind of yours to work, to discern the truth behind some of the world’s key issues: (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

An inventive sort from Mauritius writes:

Please review my idea, detailed in the attached. The electric steam engine combines many old innovations into one new single innovation, just like the first mobile phone in 1967 combined the radio, microprocessor and the battery to give a mobile phone, the Electric steam engine combines the advanced batteries of modern electric cars and the age old knowledge of steam, temperature and pressure management and finally, a new turbine system.

I respond:

That’s creative, but the problem is efficiency. Have you built one? How efficient is it, overall? The act of charging a battery and discharging it, i.e., converting electric energy into kinetic energy via an electric motor, is in the 90s; you’re going to find it very hard to compete with that.

I sure would like to visit your beautiful and quite well-run country.   I understand you folks rank 12th out of 183 in terms of economic openness, regulatory efficiency, rule of law, and competitiveness.  That’s impressive.  

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainable Building

Frequent commenter John F. Robbins writes a post  on the 2GreenEnergy Facebook page re: my announcement that I’ll soon be interviewing sustainable design guru Sim Van der Ryn:

When I led a group called Alternate Energy Assn (AEA) in SW Ohio in the late 1990s, we brought him to Cincinnati to speak. He was very inspirational, but also challenging. In his book (Sustainable Design) he says a sustainable building should motivate occupants to behave differently, more sustainably. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Biomass

Here’s another part of our series for newcomers to the subject of renewable energy — this one on biomass.   I provide a few thoughts on how it offers the potential to provide carbon-neutral renewable energy and biofuels.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZdDZuAe6Qc]

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainable Building

I was delighted when Sim Van der Ryn returned my call yesterday and  generously consented to grant me an interview when I’m up north at the end of the month.

Four decades before the word “sustainability” had become a buzzword, Sim was busy developing ideas in sustainable building design and integrating the knowledge he gained from observing the natural world.  Through the years, he brought along an entire generation of people who followed his example.

I’m certainly looking forward to meeting this legend.  I think I’ll start with a discussion of the quote by which he’s best known:

The heart of ecological design is not efficiency or sustainability. It is the embodiment of animating spirit, the soul of the living world as embodied in each of us waiting to be reborn and expressed in what we design.

That’s breath-taking.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

I’ll be at the 26th International Electric Vehicle Symposium (“EVS26”) in Los Angeles in May. If anyone wants to meet me for a cup of coffee, please hit “Contact” and let me know.

The migration to electric transportation is going through a period that some of us anticipated: a bit of nervousness brought on by the fact that the value proposition for the consumer is simply not there yet. EV start-ups are having a hard time getting there, which has given the established auto industry a great deal of time to breathe, take its time, hedge its bets, and, perhaps most to its liking, milk the internal combustion engine cow a few more years.

Take the Ford Focus Electric, as an example of what I mean by consumer value proposition. I’m sure they’d explain it differently, but, at a high level, Ford has taken an extremely unexciting, garden variety passenger car, the Focus, ripped out (more…)

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