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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6eOlOEQoTI]In our February webinar, I spoke with Dan Sturges: transport designer, entrepreneur, teacher, and visionary, who discusses how we need to overhaul the way we move ourselves and are cargo around the surface of the planet.

Though we all want simple solutions, none exist. Currently, transportation is redundant, heavy, bulky, fossil-fuel-reliant, and unaffordable in every sense of the word. But what can be done to invoke things like mass transit, ride-sharing, micro-rentals, and small, light, and inexpensive urban transportation? What can be done to reduce car ownership — or at least the total number of miles driven? How can we encourage walking and bicycling? What about rethinking how and where we live?

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyrehx520so]In December’s webinar, I present some of the best business plans I’ve encountered in renewable energy and electric transportation. This is a wide-ranging discussion that includes the ideas of transformative business plans, technical risk, and scaleable businesses, but then gets into specific business arenas: light-duty pick-up trucks, e-bikes, pyrolysis of waste tires, C&D waste processing, pyrolysis of MSW, solar thermal, synthetic fuels, use of off-peak wind energy, compressed air energy storage, zinc-air battery technology, sustainable building products, and hydrokinetics. I couldn’t resist the temptation to mention my upcoming book, “Is Renewable Really Doable?”

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Efficiency

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAdKwrPHy9w]

Here’s 2GreenEnergy’s November 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.”

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Reg Wessels of South Africa’s Earth Corporation writes about my piece on the uncertainties of investors in renewable energy:

I often watch this debate with dismay, and as a non-American (but hugely supportive), I can’t help being frustrated by the US having to dance with the enemy. Whatever the solution, the free world looks to America with hope and admiration. Was this not the country that had the courage to pool all its resources for common purpose when the smoke had cleared over Pearl Harbor? Is this not the country that leads the world in innovation and technological expertise? Is this not the country that has shown ‘nothing is impossible’?

Reg:  What a good point you raise here. I too wonder where my country has gone wrong, and I have to think I’m not alone here. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Over the few years that I’ve been writing here at 2GreenEnergy.com, I’ve offered a number of suggestions that, if accepted, would create a more level playing field between renewables and fossil fuels. In my recent piece on investor uncertainties in renewable energy, I argued for legislation that would establish a floor on energy prices, thus enabling alternative energy investors protection from price manipulation from the traditional energy industry, designed specifically to put them out of business.

In response, these words from a reader: (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

My friend Jim Boyden just wrote me, and  recommended this incredibly well-made and poignant film: HOME, which so artfully describes the fragility of our ecosystem, the delicate balance we need to maintain, and the tough choices  facing mankind at this watershed period in our history.  Hope you enjoy.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

According to report on global trends in renewable energy published in 2011 by Bloomberg New Energy Finance based in London, the global investment in renewable energy in 2010 was $ 211 billion, a 540 % increase from renewable energy investment accomplished globally in 2004. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

The Cato Institute’s Jerry Taylor, whom I interviewed last week, writes in to offer a correction to my piece the other day on The Impetus for Renewable Energy that includes:  “(Taylor) believes that the push for a migration from cheap and abundant fossil fuels to more expensive renewable energy that can only come about with government support is driven by a Marxist, anti-capitalist, anti-prosperity agenda.”

I said that many people in “my world” (that is, the right-of-center world, broadly defined) believe this.  I didn’t say that I believed it.  In fact, I do not (well, I’m sure it’s true for some, but I’m also sure it’s not true for others and I have no idea what the accurate percentage counts might be).

The point I was trying to make is (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

I always enjoy Jeff Siegel’s company.  Senior analyst and writer for Green Chip Stocks, Jeff has an energetic exuberance (despite being the sleep-deprived father of 11-month-old twin boys) that I love to see in these challenging times.  Over lunch at a wonderful Thai restaurant near his office in Baltimore, Jeff and I compared notes about the state and direction of the industry. 

Though we’re both a bit irritated that the “radical right” has hijacked the energy/environmental debate, turning the populist anger of the people and focusing it squarely against the federal government, we both celebrate how far we’ve come, and look forward to a future where we can get back on track in our pursuit of sustainability.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

In my quest to understand investors’ reluctance to assert themselves in the renewable energy space, a common theme continues to emerge: uncertainty.  Where no one doubts that demand for oil and coal will continue for some time, and that the government subsidies that support them will remain a part of U.S. law, no similar confidence exists that the world will put a premium on clean (versus dirty) energy.

Quite the contrary.  The investment and production tax credits that support wind and solar are as mercurial as women’s hem lines.  These incentives may exist one year, only to be forceably removed the next.  We have serious presidential candidates who proudly claim that, if elected, they will shut down the Department of Energy and dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency, and many are openly opposed to the entire concept of clean energy – certainly if that requires even an iota of public support.  (more…)

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