As I have mentioned, I get requests for my help in finding investors for renewable energy projects from all over the world. I haven’t been keeping track, but I’m sure I’ve spoken or written back and forth with people in at least 100 countries. Sometimes I wind up on Google to find out exactly where they are.
Obviously, each country has its own story to tell with respect to “investability.” (more…)
I had a terrific Skype call this morning with a fabulous Munich-based company: Govecs, a purveyor of extremely high-end German-engineered electric scooters. I hope to get a marketing and PR gig with them, but I have to admit that they’re doing an awful lot of stuff right in my absence; for example, they have more content online than you can shake a stick at, and, IMO, it conveys the right blend of quality and sex appeal. Here are a few zillion vids on YouTube. Very well done.
I expect this whole market arena to boom over the coming years, insofar as a great number of factors contributing to demand are on the rise: eco-consciousness, congestion, fuel prices, parking issues, and consumer incentives. And again, let’s not neglect the sex appeal aspect. I’m not sure I know anyone under the age of 75 who doesn’t want to be a part of this scene.
In my first phone call with 2GreenEnergy associate Dr. Peter Lilienthal, he made a remark I’ll never forget: “If you don’t care what you pay for it, Craig, I’ll find you all the renewable energy you could possibly want.” He had recently left his extremely senior position at NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) to move into the private sector, at a point in which his software was already used to integrate variable resources, like solar and wind, in the grid systems of more than 80 countries around the globe.
Here’s an article that represents the poster child for Peter’s economic concept: airborne wind turbines. (more…)
If you want to spend a few minutes watching something that will bring you joy and inspiration, here’s a short video on a unique aspect to recycling and sustainability. You’ll be glad you did.
I forgot to mention a radio show that I did a month or so back with “Clean Cities Radio” whose pleasant but no-nonsense host Curtis Martin (pictured here) interviewed me for a full hour. It’s linked above for anyone who may be interested.
To promote the show, he wrote:
Meet Craig Shields, of 2GreenEnergy. Craig is an expert on funding alternative fuels and green energy projects. Is this the key to your project’s success? Listen in and find out. Breaking our oil addiction is essential for the economic, environmental and energy security of America. Listen and learn as we interview the leaders of the alternative fuels world and Program Coordinators for the US Department of Energy Clean Cities program.
Curtis was very sharp, and I think the whole thing turned out nicely — but I’ll let you be the judge.
I just got back from a walk up to the local coffee shop, where I thought I’d read the Sunday paper and try to get some inspiration for a blog post or two. Since I surround myself with breaking news in the cleantech/environmental space most of the week, I sometimes forget that the rest of the world isn’t as amped up about the subject as the 2GreenEnergy readers/writers and I are, and the mainstream papers aren’t littered with articles on the topic.
The closest I came was an article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal that pointed out the problems with our beaches here in the U.S., which included the notion that they’re disappearing (i.e., eroding) at an ever-increasing rate due to global warming. (more…)
Here’s a good article that asks if the coming boom in distributed solar is good for the utilities. The way I see it, the short answer is an emphatic No. Utility bills (i.e., their revenues) fall, and the need for storage rises as the predictability of load falls.
Sounds like a big fat loser to me, given the way utilities are regulated today. All that means, however, is that we need to rethink these laws that have been in place for 100 years, and begin to compensate the power companies for doing what we want from them now, i.e., selling us less energy (as we conserve and implement efficiency solutions), and selling us a greater component from renewable resources.
As The Writer’s Almanac notes, the Los Angeles area’s Pasadena Freeway was opened on this date in 1940, the first freeway — a high-speed, divided, and limited-access thoroughfare — in the western United States.
This was just a few years after a group of large corporate interests related to the automotive and transportation industries, including General Motors, Firestone Tire, Standard Oil of California, Phillips Petroleum, and Mack Trucks, bought over 100 electric surface-traction systems in 45 cities here and several other large American cities, including Baltimore, Newark, Los Angeles, New York City, Oakland and San Diego and systematically dismantled then. Several of the companies involved were convicted in 1949 of conspiracy to monopolize interstate commerce.
This, of course, is water under the proverbial bridge. What matters now is how, if at all, we can progress in the direction of sustainable transportation.
For those who may be trying to understand the principles of thermodynamics as they apply to renewable energy – but who may not wish to take the subject too seriously, here is the British comedy duo of yesteryear, Flanders & Swann, and their hilarious skit ‘First And Second Law.’
Thanks to our fabulous intern Rebecca McKenzie for sending it along. We have three interns (soon to be four) working on various projects, and we have a great time working together; of that I can assure you.
Every time you have a soda, what do you with the empty can? Do you toss it into the trash, or do you make a conscious effort to dispose it off into a bin that’s clearly marked “recycle”? Did you know that practically every ounce of metal that you dispose can be recycled and put to some use? Metal is found everywhere, from plumbing fixtures to vehicles to almost every device we use in our day-to-day lives. So all your old, broken-down appliances or your rundown car has enough metal that can be turned over to a scrap yard to help you make a few greenbacks in the process. (more…)
