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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

Let’s do some math and physics associated with the claim made here.  The typical passenger train requires about 5 megawatts.  If the average efficiency of solar PV is 25%, and its capacity factor is also 25%, and the solar irradiance is 1000 Watts/square meter, we need:

x square meters * 1000 Watts/square meter * 0.25 * 0.25 * 10 square feet / square meter * 1 acre / 43000 square feet / acre = 5,000,000 Watts.

That means we need about 20 acres of train roof to get that done.  If the train is 20 feet wide, it needs to be almost a mile long.  Does that describe the typical passenger train?

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

The quote at left comes from former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich.  While I don’t disagree, it would be possible to bifurcate this into separate pieces.

Piece #1: Get rid of Trump, and to whatever degree possible, everything he represents: lawlessness, authoritarianism, racism, the rejection of science, and the destruction of education.  Until this happens, the United States is going nowhere but backwards into savagery.

Piece #2: Take the steps necessary to get corruption out of politics, beginning by overturning the SCOTUS decision “Citizens United.”

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

We need to start by defining the word “investment.” In the strict sense of dollars in versus dollars out, the subject can be debated; there are plenty of wealthy people who made their money without degrees.

On the other hand, as we all know, there are many elements of a successful and rewarding life that have nothing to do with money, and many of them are enhanced via higher education.

Take involvement in political philosophy as an example. Very few 2GreenEnergy readers are Trump supporters, but think for a moment how happy you would be with yourself if you thought Trump to be an honest and effective servant of the American people, and that our country and our planet are better places because of his involvement.

How proud of yourself would you be if you believed that most scientists are corrupt, and know no more about their subjects than the average baseball coach or pastry chef?

Making an investment in one’s ability to distinguish truth from bulls*** is a good thing, IMO.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

A college education isn’t required to see that Trump is a sociopathic con man, but it helps.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

I had to laugh when I saw this blurb about Putin’s banning Satanism in Russia.

First, how many Satanists are we to think there actually are in the Motherland?  11?

Secondly, how much danger do you think Satanism truly represents in one of the world’s great dictatorships, where political dissidents are routinely arrested and tortured while incarcerated?

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

I just happened to come across the meme here, and it made me wonder how this was derived.

If you’re not a Trump supporter, I would stay far away from #3 and #5.

If your aging body has issues with long and cold winters, you’ll also want to avoid #1, #2, and #4.

If being close to loved ones isn’t a consideration, I recommend Virginia.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Trump’s approval rating at home is hovering at 36%.

Internationally, about half that, depending on the country.

Love the sense of humor expressed at left.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Hydrokinetics

When my son was a little boy, he loved to see speeding railroad trains and the huge earth-movers that operated in landfills.  My daughter preferred acting in skits with her little friends.  We see this stuff playing itself out wherever we look.

Included in the “boy thing” is hydrokinetics.  Speaking for myself, I’m enchanted by the idea of converting the kinetic energy of massive amounts of moving water into electricity.

It’s for that reason that I’m saddened that hydrokinetics is largely a relic of our clean energy past.  It’s not a “has been”; it’s a “never was.” By the time people were starting to make progress in terms of efficiency and reliability, the levelized cost of solar PV and wind came crashing down, dooming hydro to the domain of hobbyists and a few niche commercial applications.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change
Senior Energy Analysts and Forbes Magazine contributor Robert Rapier writes:

Whenever I write about climate change, some people always respond with anger or denial. The denial crowd tends to stick with classics like “The climate is always changing” or “We don’t really know how much humans are contributing.” I even know one guy—way out on the fringe—who insists CO₂ levels aren’t even rising.

I used to respond by saying we’re running a massive experiment on the atmosphere. If the doomsayers are wrong and we cut fossil fuel use anyway, the worst that happens is slower growth and cleaner air. But if the skeptics are wrong? There’s no switch to flip us out of that mess.

I just started reading The End of Eden by Adam Welz, and he summed it up in a single line: “We are creating an atmosphere in which no humans in history have ever lived.” That’s the heart of the issue. The very air we breathe is slowly changing—and there’s no sign of CO₂ emissions slowing down. Many species are not going to be able to cope with that.

More CO₂ in the air also means more carbonic acid in the oceans, which lowers pH, bleaches coral, weakens marine shells, and threatens the food chain.

And if we want to make that worse? Just keep burning more coal. That’s about the worst move we could make right now.

—

FWIW, I can relate to having climate deniers write back to me in anger.  It comes with the territory, as they say.

Over the years, I’ve been a guest on many dozens of talk-radio shows, and a caller once called me a cockroach. The host was furious with the caller, but I just laughed. “Not everyone agrees with the climate scientists, some of whom have been studying this subject since the 1970s, I said.  “But ‘cockroach?’  That’s a first.”

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Not only is the story at left touching, it’s prescriptive of a way of life that almost everyone would prefer over the one we have now.

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