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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

It’s the birthday of Theodore Roosevelt, most remembered for his role in conservation, i.e., his activism in preserving the natural environment.  Per The Writer’s Almanac:

During his presidency, (Roosevelt ) provided protection for almost 230 million acres of land, creating 150 national forests and five national parks. In 1908, he gave a speech at the Conference on the Conservation of Natural Resources, saying: “We have become great because of the lavish use of our resources and we have just reason to be proud of our growth. But the time has come to inquire seriously (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Energy Storage

Well my nickel-iron batteries have finally arrived from China on Friday afternoon. I have unpacked them and set them up and attached them to my system for their first charging. They are bigger than I imagined they would be — taller actually than I thought.

I placed them on two boards just so they would not be directly on the garage floor. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels

Everyone on Earth who knows anything about our environment challenges would like to see the elimination of coal-fired power plants at the maximum feasible rate.  Yet few (myself included) have a rock-solid understanding of the implications of moving off coal.  If you aspire to such an understanding, this is an article that you’re sure to enjoy.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Nuclear

Here’s another article by Robert Hargraves on the safety and cost-effectiveness of nuclear.  If you have the stomach for it, read how the reporting of Fukushima spread unwarranted fear, and see if you can figure out the author’s explanation of how nuclear can be less expensive than coal. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainable Building

There is a large and growing trend in which seniors living in the colder parts of the United States go into assisted living in the fall – only to come out and move back into their homes in the spring.  This, of course, is due to the rising cost of energy: people living on modest fixed income sources simply cannot afford to heat their homes.  (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

It’s the birthday of Geoffrey Chaucer, who gave us the rip-roaring stories comprising the Canterbury Tales.  Though I read them all senior year in high school in a marvelous English course called “Chaucer and Cummings,” (taught by my favorite teacher of all time, Joe Perrott), the only one I remember now is the hilariously vulgar “Miller’s Tale.”

I prefer the modern version of the last two lines:

And Nicolas is branded on the bum,

And God send us all to Kingdom Come.   (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Solar Thermal

A gentleman from New Zealand contacted me recently about a terrific idea in the integration of solar thermal water heating in residential, commercial, and industrial buildings .  I’m off to Los Angeles for a meeting with him in which we’ll discuss a number of different possibilities by which I can help drive sales in the Americas.

I’m psyched.  Though I’ve been unexcited about building-integrated solar in the past, I’m starting to see the market here.  More on this later.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Hydrokinetics

If I had another couple of good reasons to be in London, I’d love to check out this conference on tidal energy, reported to be one of the fastest growing renewable energy technologies, and predicted to be worth a staggering £3.7 billion to the UK by 2020.  For tidal to succeed, it needs a large population center nearby, combined with extreme latitudes, where the tides are more pronounced; thus I suppose that if this can’t work in the UK, it can’t work anywhere.

What pleases me about the trajectory for tidal (and the other flavors of clean energy as well) is the top industrial names that are jumping in with both feet.  When I see that ABB, Alstom, Siemens and so forth are embracing tidal, it gives me confidence that it will actually happen with some alacrity.  Senior management can’t afford to invest resources into arenas that subsequently fail to gain momentum and monetize themselves.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

A shell and tube heat exchanger (pictured here) is one of the most common type of heat exchanger that you will find used in various industrial sites such as oil refineries and chemical processing plants.

They are popular applications for a good reason, it is an efficient way to conserve energy and this will also help to reduce your maintenance costs as well. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to make this lecture on a local professor’s new book: Let It Shine: The 6000-Year Story of Solar Energy.  But I feel like I learned a lot just reading the abstract, e.g., the work the early civilizations did with passive solar.  Dr. Perlin asks: “If years ago people successfully harnessed the sun’s energy, can’t we, with a far superior tool kit, do better, using their work as our foundation?”

The response is complicated by the fact that the world’s population is 35 times what it was during the Roman Empire, and the power consumed per capita in the developed countries is 110 times what it was back them; together; that’s huge.  But the ultimate answer is yes.  We do have the capabilities to become what physicist Michio Kaku refers to as a “Class One Civilization,” i.e., one that reaps its energy from its star, which requires that we find a way to harvest only 1/6000th of the total radiant energy we’re receiving from the sun — a formidable but accomplishable task.

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