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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

I hope readers enjoyed the webinar I did recently with solar energy hedge fund manager Shawn Kravetz; I certainly learned a great deal in the course of the interview.  I wanted to take a moment and introduce another “friend of a friend” who writes extensively on solar energy stocks: Harris Roen.  You may want to check out his report – or at least sign up for his free newsletter; I always look forward to it.

Today’s publication includes a graph that depicts the fall of the widely watched Ardour Solar Energy Index (SOLRX) in 2008, and attempts to get at a reasonable production of the future.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

Wow, I sure wish I had bought some stock in Tesla when the ultra-sexy Model S came out.  The company, though still not profitable, looks very close to turning that corner, and the market knows it.

In terms of the overall issue of the EV adoption curve, it’s hard to know where we are – and the success of a $100K car — of any type – does little to answer that question.  Having said that, I would have to think that all the people spending that type of loot on a high-end BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, etc. would be moved to consider the Tesla, not only for its styling, but for its performance.  The base 85-kW-hr powertrain delivers 362 hp and 325 lb-ft of torque, while the performance version makes 416 hp and 443 lb-ft.

Trust me: that level of torque gets your attention in a very big way. The first time I nailed the accelerator in a recent test drive I was terrified; it felt as if the car was about to flip over backwards.

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Smart Grid

I concluded the 45-minute talk I gave yesterday at the Santa Barbara Savvy Investors’ Club with a short section on cleantech opportunities, during which I highlighted my belief that smart-grid is going to play a fantastically important role in the very near future.  Proof-points supporting this prediction are all around us, including this recent article, announcing a joint venture between Siemens and Teradata. From the article:

Siemens Smart Grid Division and Teradata today announce a global strategic cooperation in the field of big data. Through this collaboration Siemens Smart Grid further optimizes its portfolio of solutions which will provide energy utilities with a much higher level of transparency on the status and activities in their networks. This will enable the customers of Siemens Smart Grid to improve reliability of their infrastructure and to run their grids more efficiently in an increasingly cost-sensitive environment.

It’s regrettably common for renewable energy advocates to view smart-grid as some sort of futuristic phenomenon that will come along later.  From my perspective, the precise opposite is true; smart-grid is the enabler of clean energy.  In its absence, we will have a very tough time integrating large amounts of solar, wind, etc., into our grid-mix; both the variability of the resources and high levelized cost of energy will remain quite thorny.

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Efficiency

Insulation. It’s hardly the most glamorous of topics is it? Compared to much more fashionable renewable energy solutions like solar panels and geothermal installations it could even be considered positively boring. After all, how can anybody get excited about the process of stuffing a gap full of material? You can’t even see it working! What possible use could it have when it doesn’t even generate energy for your house to use?

Well, as it turns out, it has plenty of use. In fact, as bold a statement as it may be, a good insulation solution should always be the first step towards making a home as energy efficient as possible, even before solar or any other renewable technology comes into play. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels

Here’s an article from the Sierra Club that includes a cool animated piece on oil from tar sands, illustrating why this subject, and the Keystone XL pipeline in particular, is such a bad idea.  It’s bad for everyone living on the planet, but, as you’ll see, it’s worst of all for Americans.

Great work, IMO.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels

I never know what to make of the frequent references I come across to the International Monetary Fund.  Who exactly are these mysterious and terribly powerful people?  How do they work?  What are their true motivations?

In any case, they most certainly get some points for being on the right side of this “subsidies for fossil fuels” issue.  In fact, if this article is an accurate depiction of their stance on the subject, they’ve nailed it exactly: the world’s attempt to make gasoline artificially cheap is ruining the planet, by encouraging its use, as well as by destroying any viable process for the development of alternative sources of energy.

The IMF calls for “reforms.”  I second that.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Here’s the “teaser” for my talk this afternoon at the Santa Barbara Savvy Investors’ Club.  As implied here, I intend to make a wide-ranging presentation that gets into some philosophic stuff; I know this audience from past meetings, and I believe they’ll respond well.  We’ll see….

Our expanding population sports a growing hunger for energy, which, because it’s fed by fossil fuels, is ruining our planet’s ability to support most forms of life.  Yet, the concept of humankind’s dealing effectively with a challenge of this scale remains dubious at best.

And the situation here in the U.S. is plagued by something even thornier: the fossil fuel industries have a stranglehold on our decision-making.  Note that, after leading the world in the development of IT and communications in the 20th Century, America is committed to doing essentially nothing in terms of “new energy,” an industry that is obviously critically important in today’s world.  Not only are we not leading, we’re not even following very well; we’re trying to pretend it doesn’t exist.

Does this bode well?  Nope.  Not for American competitiveness in the 21st Century, nor for the quality of life facing our civilization.  But can we architect a soft landing?  This month’s speaker believes so.  He’ll explain why – and then he’ll go you one better: he’ll tell you – in the face of all this mess — where the pockets of true business opportunity lie.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Here’s an article that lays out three choices available to electricity rate-payers: deregulation (“customer choice”), municipal aggregation (“city choice”), and municipal utilities (“city ownership”), and goes on to discuss the merits of each.  In the last case, a municipality’s purchasing and operating the assets of what was previously an independent utility, provides the opportunity for the citizenry of an enlightened city like Austin, TX, to make a huge push for renewable energy.

I’m reminded of one of the first blog posts ever to appear here, when I interviewed Jake Stewart,  who directs the ground-breaking Austin Climate Protection Program at Austin Energy, where he is active in integrated distributed generation innovation, smart grid deployment and carbon reduction strategy development. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Longtime 2GreenEnergy supporter Aedan Kernan commented on my piece bemoaning the U.S. government’s failing to respond to the will of the people, and clinging onto a de facto energy policy that is rooted in fossil fuels. Aedan lives in the eastern part of England, Norwich as I recall, and carries with him a deep understanding of the “energy ethos” of that entire region of the world. Here’s an article he wrote on Denmark’s approach to energy, including an explanation of how it’s possible that the country is making such rapid progress in the direction of wind energy (by 2020, 50% of Denmark’s electricity will be supplied by wind, and Denmark’s Parliament has agreed a route to 100% renewable energy by 2050). (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

Frequent commenter and all-around good guy Tim Kingston sent me this video on an ostensible breakthrough in solar PV for my comment.

I see claims like this constantly, and I’m never sure exactly how to evaluate them, since this isn’t my area of expertise.  My own sense suggests that this particular one is not credible, based on the way it’s presented and some of the claims it makes.  Yes, of course the world needs a way to minimize photons from reflecting, as well as from passing straight through.  And yes, the way to deal with this is to get photons bouncing around, i.e., in three dimensions.  My wife and kids know this.  In fact, it’s possible that my dogs know this, since they hang out in my office and hear it so often.

But trapping photons in the way they describe will not produce the outrageous increases in efficiencies they claim.

When I go to solar shows, I run into hundreds of people who have made this subject their life’s work.  Did these Solar 3D people make a breakthrough where others have failed?  They do have a video… and one of their people does have a Russian (Ukranian?)  accent; perhaps he’s one of these super-scientists from that part of the world.  And … (wait for it) … they’re only one measly year away from commercialization.

Tim:  Sorry to be sarcastic.  I guess I would say that it’s possible, but I would have to think this is extremely unlikely.

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