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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Here’s an Office Depot product that shows quite clearly how misguided it’s possible to be with respect to sustainability.  We’ve all seen hundreds of ostensibly “green” products sold with fraudulent claims, but in my book this one takes the prize.  For a $2200 purchase price plus the 600 watts of electrical power it consumes, you can have your own device that condenses two gallons of drinking water per day out of the atmosphere, and then pumps the water through filters to minimize the growth of bacteria while it’s sitting in its tank.  It’s inventors bill it as environmentally friendly on the basis: “Not using ground water and no bottles to throw in landfills.”

I struggle to think of anything more misleading.  You’re using an incremental 14 kilowatt-hours of electricity per day – enough to drive a Nissan Leaf more than 50 miles, but you’re saving 2 gallons of groundwater (about one-third of a toilet-flush), and not using (99+% recycled) bottles — and you think that’s a benefit to the environment?

Apparently, Office Depot has very little regard for what they’re doing here on planet Earth; they really should be ashamed of themselves for selling garbage like this.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Energy Storage

I sat through a 75-minute-long session at Infocast’s “Storage Week” show yesterday, on the subject of the economics of energy storage.  Three presenters took us through how they develop their models using fantastically complicated spreadsheets.  For example, if we deploy a certain technology for energy storage, we need to establish the value in dollars as to how it will improve reliability, how it will smooth out the wave form, how it will help regulate voltage, etc.  I’ll admit: these are important issues. 

But to my horror, they don’t put a value on the social good that storage brings to the table.  (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Energy Storage

If you’re in the electrical utility business, getting the PUC’s approval to pass a cost you’ve incurred along to rate-payers is obviously a big deal; your goal is not to spend a nickel that you can’t recoup.  But, where the utilities in California can get pre-approval before they build a new asset, the utilities in Washington State cannot.   They have to build the asset (say, a new power plant, or energy storage system) before they even approach the commission for approval.  As a consequence, as a representative of Puget Sound Electric was explaining to us at Infocast’s “Storage Week” show yesterday, PSE is extremely cautious of spending money on new technology. 

Of course, this is a sure-fire way to ensure that no progress occurs in the way that electricity is generated, transmitted, and distributed.  How totally asinine.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I thought I’d publish this letter that my dear friend Ray Korns sent to a bazillion government officials, expressing his outrage as to what’s happening here in the U.S. with respect to NSA spying and the manipulation of the Internet.

As a constituent, I insist that you oppose any attempts to undermine Internet freedom.  My government is supposed to protect my rights, not violate them. Yet the NSA has done the exact opposite.

 I am demanding that YOU remedy this by: (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

Everyone is towards being the leader on everything. Talk about globalization, every country wants to take the lead and become the leading country. Because of this, workforce and industrialization are set on fire with no reasons to hold back, and with no slight regret if there are other concerns being detoured. And by that concern, we mean—the environment.

On a smaller scale, people are also living in a swift running life; all aiming to live in the middle of a developed city, and attain the popular trend of contemporary living. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

It saddens me when I hear someone say something like, “Oh, I’m not into politics.”   While I deeply sympathize with folks who are frustrated by government, I wonder if they know that the word “politics” derives from the Greek politikos, from politēs ‘citizen,’ from polis ‘city.’ It’s not really about government; it’s about our fellow human beings; it’s a concern all decent people share.

When he left office in 1960, Dwight Eisenhower left the people of the U.S. with a number of good pieces of advice, among which was this: “Americans need to consider politics as their part-time career.”  (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

There is a staggeringly high number of toxins hiding in most common household cleaning products on the market. The following article will give you some information on what you can expect to find in the most common cleaning products out there and how to avoid them. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

A friend in the UK and I were just comparing notes on how hard it is to sell huge volumes of books.  While this is true, I pointed out that I don’t regret the enormous amount of time I’ve invested into my three projects on renewable energy, as there are other reasons to write them – some of which benefit me personally, and others, I’d like to think, civilization as a whole.

• The process of researching and writing is a great learning experience.
• Many of the people I’ve interviewed have become close friends and/or clients. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainable Building

Are you completely calm when you stand up and speak in public? If so, you’re one of extremely few Homo sapiens who has somehow escaped the plague that affects the rest of us. 

I will be the emcee at a meeting tomorrow night, introducing a speaker on the subject of sustainable building products and methods.  My personal techniques for dealing with nerves include practicing the whole thing several times before going on stage.

I’m reminded that Winston Churchill, known for his talks that seemed completely spontaneous and off-the-cuff, would practice an hour for each minute of the speech; i.e., he’d spend 30 hours preparing for a half-hour talk.   My take-away: if public speaking didn’t come easily for Churchill, perhaps we mortals shouldn’t feel so bad if we’re a bit jittery.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

A reader sent me this piece on the low cost per mile of driving electric vehicles. 

Not to sound ungrateful, but I point out that EVs’ cost per mile is a fairly uninteresting statistic. It’s already ridiculously low; saving a bit more is only a tiny incentive. 

The only really interesting thing for the thoughtful EV driver in the U.S. is charging without causing more coal to be burned. That means either charging them during the day, when incremental loads on the grid are generally met with natural gas, or, better, it means using renewable energy.  My friend Paul Scott, co-founder of Plug-In America, has been driving EVs since the late 1990s (originally a Toyota Rav 4 Electric, now a Nissan LEAF) and has a sizeable PV array on his roof.  He hasn’t bought a drop of gasoline in over 15 years, and he’s almost entirely off the grid.