2GreenEnergy financial guru Bill Paul has a natural gift for looking at the macro issues affecting renewables. Here’s a high-level summary of his thinking on clean energy vis-à-vis shale gas, in which he summarizes:
There’s a distinct possibility that Wall Street’s going to start diverting big bucks away from green tech and into shale gas, if it hasn’t already. I see the billions going into shale gas infrastructure posing a huge impediment to developing clean tech. (more…)
It’s hard to find too many people who approve of the job that U.S. President Obama is doing. The right wing thinks he’s essentially a socialist who’s done a terrible job with the economy, that he’s pushing for bigger, more repressive government and a redistribution of wealth. The left is disappointed that he’s backed away from many of his more progressive campaign promises, and believe that he’s just as much a product of Big Money as are the Republicans.
However, from my perspective as an observer of the energy scene, he’s a whale of a lot better than the guy who preceded him. Here’s some gratifying action aimed at dirty coal plants, of which everyone with lungs should approve.
Wow, that’s remarkable. Just when I had started to trust the car companies based on the sincerity of Nissan/Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn and his people who build and promote the LEAF, I see this. A few basic points:
• The oil companies are the main supporters of the hydrogen economy. They see hydrogen as a mechanism for them to continue to retain a service station which will continue to provide the consumer with something they can pump. Electricity, on the other hand, is ubiquitous.
• Creating hydrogen suffers a 4:1 efficiency issue. I.e., generating hydrogen in a renewable way requires four times the number of solar panels that would be needed to make the electricity to put into my battery.
Concept #1: “Renewable Energy – Following the Money,” focused on the U.S., featuring interviews with:
Investors (VCs, private equity, institutional)
Department of Energy
Key people in important states (e.g., California, New York, Texas, etc.)
Industry executives
Representatives of think-tanks
Media (e.g., Wall Street Journal)
Stock analysts
Concept #2: “Renewable Energy: A Global Issue – Interviews with Top People on Six Continents”
An exploration of the migration to clean energy in the most populous areas of the world, perhaps China, India, Africa, the Middle East, U.S., Brazil, France, Germany, Japan, and Oceania, based on interviews with key people who could speak to:
The prevailing political and economic climate
The efforts of key people
The cultural zeitgeist
Alternate fuel transportation
Smart grid and energy storage
Efficiency and conservation
Global climate change and the U.N. conferences on the subject
This article is submitted with the hope that it will set the tone for a series of others that will follow by covering the origins of the petroleum industry in the United States. The main objective of these pieces is to provide the reader with a historical understanding of shocks in oil prices. Later on, other writings will cover more recent material on the subject and a final piece will offer the reader some predictions of what the future of oil prices might look like in the short, medium and long term.
The task at hand is ambitious, but its value is considerable. Everyone feels a pinch when the prices at the pump crawl higher and higher with no end in sight. History has repeatedly proven to be the best thing we have to go on and that’s exactly what we’re going to do. As a result, we will establish a solid foundation from which we will make an educated guess about the future of the oil industry and what it means for civilization. (more…)
Predictably, the international climate talks in Durban, South Africa yielded little if any real progress, but some truly wonderful rhetoric. In his article Australia Wants Clean Energy Cheap Rather Than Dirty Energy Expensive, Alex Trembath quotes this piece in the Canberra Times:
Our goal should be to create a world with abundant, clean and cheap energy for all. This is an objective that reconciles progress and planet. This is a challenge that can bring rich and poor countries together in a common goal. If we are to address climate change, we must turn to humanity’s familiar benefactor – technological innovation – and apply it to developing better clean energy.
ZZZzzzzzz. Oh, sorry, must have dozed off there. (more…)
I just had a lovely meeting with Karen Palmer, a local environmentalist who wanted my advice on a board game for children called “Let’s Save Our Earth.” The game is won by correctly answering questions about ecology, sustainability, and the relevant aspects of biology — a terrific idea from a wonderful person.
As I told her, my 30 years’ experience as a marketing consultant doesn’t contain too many projects with consumer products, and not a single one with games. Having said that, I gave her this free advice — possibly worth exactly what she paid for it:
Sure you can sell this through stores of various types, but the promotion required to make this a success would be huge. I would concentrate on the school system. Funding for education has been tragically cut, but there is still an appetite for low-cost ways of achieving important objectives. Since funding for public education comes from the state level, be prepared to create different versions for each of the 50, starting with the most obvious choices. The “California Edition” could have a preponderance of questions about the ecosystems here, the specific endangered species, the shortage of water, the marine and desert habitats, etc. (more…)
Those who have taken my recommendation and start every morning with Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac know that four years ago today, on Arthur C. Clarke’s 90th birthday, he:
… recorded a video in which he says goodbye to his friends and fans. In it, he said: “I have great faith in optimism as a guiding principle, if only because it offers us the opportunity of creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. So I hope we’ve learnt something from the most barbaric century in history — the 20th. I would like to see us overcome our tribal divisions and begin to think and act as if we were one family. That would be real globalization …”
Here’s our December webinar, in which noted environmentalist and energy expert Bruce Severance joined me for a lively discussion we called “How to Increase the Energy Efficiency of Existing Structures – and WHY.”
This is part of our effort to do a more thorough job at dealing with the subject of efficiency – an area containing plenty of low-hanging fruit for all of us interested in reducing our impact on the environment. I thought Bruce did an excellent job here, and I hope you’ll agree.
Those who have taken my recommendation and start every morning with 
