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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainable Building

Contrary to popular belief, the Philippines has four kinds of weather, namely: hot, very hot, rainy, and very rainy.

To say that the Philippine weather is unpredictable is an understatement. It may be hot and dry in one minute and rainy and flooding in the next.

It’s these kinds of weather changes that can be termed as “hell” for the local construction and architectural businesses. They’re faced with opposing obstacles that raises their stakes on quality and sustainability for housing and any other property developments. It may be a challenge but it’s not exactly impossible. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Ocean Thermal

I may have mentioned that I own some stock in Ocean Thermal Energy Corporation — the runaway leader in OTEC technology as far as I can discern.  For those who may have missed it, here’s the webinar that I did on the subject with their OTECorp’s Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer, Jim Greenberg last year.

Jim  happens to be in town for a few days, and I’ll be meeting with him later this afternoon to discuss the two arenas in which he’s focused, i.e., strategy and marketing.  He’s a terrific guy, and I’m looking forward to seeing if I can’t add value to what he’s thinking in terms of corporate development and expansion.

I believe that OTEC has a brilliant future.  There are over one billion people who live near tropical ocean waters that can provide an enormous amount of free fuel that now, for the first time, can be cost-effectively converted into electricity.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Uncategorized

Readers who may be wondering about the cost-competitiveness of renewable energy will be interested in this piece on the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) associated with wind. Hint #1: It’s very good news, and it provides real hope that wind, currently at about 4% of the total generation capacity here in the U.S., can – and will – go much higher. Hint #2: It’s why investors like Warren Buffet and Google are jumping in with both feet.

Of the dozen or so renewable energy investment opportunities that I vigorously promote, four are focused on wind. Why? Clean, affordable energy. What’s not to like?

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels

The driver of the taxi who took me from a meeting I had last week in Los Angeles to the Amtrak station hailed from Mogadishu, Somalia.  I asked, as I normally do, “What’s it like there?”  I love to get a sense for how people live in these exotic parts of the world. What’s important to them?  Are people optimistic that the future will be better than the past?  I was anxious to know, but insofar as Mogadishu has seen such violence, I was a little concerned about bringing up a sore subject.  (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

Here’s the latest project of a civil servant, Dana Rohrabacher, pictured here, whose education includes degrees in history and American studies.  His life’s work at this point is his commitment to proving that global climate change is a fraud, i.e., that the tens of thousands of scientists, virtually all of whom concur with the theory and the physics behind it, have conspired to suck down tax-payers’ money and, what’s more, are hell-bent on creating a one-world government.

No, Rohrabacher’s not a deputy sheriff of some cow town in Oklahoma; he’s one of our 435 U.S. Representatives.  (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Smart Grid

Writing for Smart Grid News, Jesse Berst explains that the Obama administration’s call for a multi-billion-dollar grid upgrade could backfire, as his opponents are so aggressive with their attacks, and will be quick to label this more governmental waste.  That’s a perfectly possible — even probable response; no one doubts that the political atmosphere in Washington is poisonous, to say the least. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

2GreenEnergy supporter Steve Levy has his own website, focusing on solar energy in Tennessee.  Like me, he’s both happy and somewhat mystified to see Tea Party Republicans joining together with the Sierra Club, an unlikely combination if there ever were one, to call for an increase in the amount of solar power we put on our grid.

He also reprints terrific infographics, like this one, showing that net-metering programs exist in 44 of the 50 states here in the US.  Nice going, Steve.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

I’m glad to hear all the buzz about Elon Musk’s Hyperloop concept.  Now there’s a man selling into a clear and compelling need; who doesn’t want to get across a continent in less than an hour?  Here, my friend Jon Lesage muses about possible synergies with Musk’s other ventures: Tesla and SpaceX.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

I’ll be 75 years old in 2030, so it’s likely that I’ll still be around to validate what I’m about to say: the idea, expressed in this article, that fuel cell vehicles will grow to $73.8 billion in sales (not $74 billion mind you) by that date – or any other — is preposterous.

The world will not be retrofitting its fuel delivery infrastructure (3.5 million square miles in the continental U.S. alone) to serve up hydrogen, nor will we be generating vast amounts of hydrogen by electrolyzing water or reforming methane.  Why not?  Because electricity is already ubiquitous, battery prices are coming down, and electric vehicles represent the capability to integrate more renewable energy (wind in particular) into our grid mix.

Add on top of that the concept of consumer acceptance, or, in this case, let’s call it “consumer repulsion.”  The auto market is just now, after several years, realizing that EVs make sense – and here’s a case where the driver can unplug his toaster and plug in his car.   How comfortable do you think the car-buying public is going to be with a fuel that exists only in a few places?  I know people who think propane-based cars will become popular.  That’s equally preposterous.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

I’m a minor donor to a few good causes.  The college at which I toiled (and partied) as an undergraduate, Trinity in Hartford, CT, is a good example. I hope they appreciate my constancy, but they won’t be naming a gymnasium or a library, or even a foosball table, after me.

One of the other beneficiaries of my unimpressive largess is Wikipedia, an organization that operates almost entirely from many millions of small donations from people like me – a non-profit that accepts neither advertising nor corporate sponsors.  It does its thing on the ultimate shoestring: Wikipedia is the 5th largest website on Earth, and employs fewer than 500 employees.

Insofar as I use the living bejeepers out of Wikipedia (virtually all the 1832 photos now on 2GreenEnergy are from the Wikimedia Commons), I just sent them a small sum.  In return, I got back a form email, which would be unremarkable if it weren’t for the beauty with which it’s written.  I thought I’d reproduce it here: (more…)

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