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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Sunny Florida has sufficient sunshine to power 20 million homes. Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) when campaigning vowed to create 700,000 jobs. Upon election, he axed programs that centered on renewable energy. The Sunshine State now ranks dead last in creating green jobs.  That’s right, it ranks 50th. (Vermont is #1).

Former Pres. Bill Clinton recently spoke of cloudy Germany employing 300,000 workers in the renewable energy sector. That nation aims to retire coal burning and nuclear power plants (as will Japan). 

Correlated to population, America could create one million green collar jobs by echoing Germany, and other EU countries.  Even China is ahead of America in energy efficiency. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

There are fewer more important tasks for green living than curbing our energy use. With summers hotter than ever and winters more cold, it is difficult to do this. But we can at least help minimize our usage through other means.

Many of these tricks are simple common sense. Turn off lights when you don’t use them. Try not to use a washer, dryer or dishwasher for small loads. Limit television and computer use. Put PC’s and laptops on energy saving settings. Buy appliances that have an energy saver rating. Use fans instead of the air conditioner or swamp cooler. Bundle up in winter and keep the heater low. All of these are great tips for reducing your impact on the environment. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

The issues regarding hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” are considerably growing as risk analysts have issued their concerns regarding the contaminated waste water coming from hydraulic fracking wells have a great potential of polluting rivers and other sources of water within an area. The same analysts have also called out for additional mandatory steps in order to reduce or stop the contamination of drinking water sources from salts or other radioactive materials, such as uranium, radon and radium. You should know that these three are just some of the many hazardous chemicals used by companies who harvest natural gas through hydraulic fracturing. These findings and recommendations are just some of the issues that surrounds hydraulic fracturing ever since it was placed under public and government scrutiny because of its potential risks to the environment. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

I try to minimize the number of completely off-topic posts, but here’s one I can’t avoid.  It’s almost comical how Microsoft, three decades after its rise to prominence in distributed computing, is still turning out products that frustrate the living hell out of its customers. 

I owned a small but growing business for almost 30 years starting in the 1980s, and, until I hired a full-time IT guy to replace me in, I’ll say 1994, I was the IT guy for my company that had, at the time, I’ll guess 40 employees.  I knew even then that the Microsoft operating system that was dominant in terms of market share was a complete disaster.  It’s sad to walk forward almost 20 years and see the same dynamics still in play.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

A colleague wrote a few minutes ago to tell me that the government of Bonaire may want our advice re: sustainability.  I wrote back:

That is terrific news.  Obviously there are other aspects to sustainability, but to boil this down to its essence, we need to examine the trajectory under which they can replace fossil fuels with renewable energy.  Of course, this is a discussion that most nations are entertaining, but nowhere is it more acute than on island nations, where energy is expensive (almost exclusively imported diesel), national security is most severely at risk, and the greatest element of GDP (tourism) is also threatened.  Is it conceivable that the flow of diesel could be cut off or, at least, become exorbitantly expensive?  You bet.  Do tourists like fumes belched over them as they’re trying to enjoy the sunset pictured to the left?  Nope.  (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

A friend sent me this piece on photosynthesis and photovoltaics, which claims that commercially viable biohybrid solar cells would be a manifold breakthrough for solar power; their key components are abundant and renewable, so producing them would cost less and be better for the environment than traditional solar cells.

I’m not an expert on this, but I’m extremely skeptical.  Biological processes evolved over 4 billion years to enhance the survival, growth, and reproductive capabilities of the organism, not to retain unneeded energy so people could come along in the 21st Century and run their air conditioners.  The efficiency of garden-variety PV is about 25% and steadily improving.  Biological processes will not compete with that.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I’m not an advocate of war as a means of resolving disputes among nations, and I think the world would be a better place had we taken Dwight Eisenhower’s advice and not created the “military industrial complex” that he so specifically warned us against. That’s why I find it ironic that the military is arguably the strongest force in the U.S. pushing in the direction of renewable energy.  This excellent article really nails what’s happening here and why it’s happening in this arena.  Essentially, clean energy, at least as the military perceives it, is not a liberal or conservative issue, but one of saving lives and improving national security. 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Here’s a terrific set of infographics on energy security, i.e., the concept of preventing impact to our lives due to a disruption of energy. 

Obviously, this needs to be a huge factor in the discussion surrounding renewables.  To the degree that the U.S. develops solar, wind, biomass, hydro, and geothermal energy, it will be immune from potential disruptions.  Strangely, this conversation seems to be taking a back seat here. 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Here’s an op-ed by former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson that makes a number of excellent points about renewable energy and job creation.  Obviously, there’s nothing wrong with that; we’re all concerned with jobs and the economy, and Richardson does a good job with this discussion.

But I have to laugh when I see pieces like this that either ignore the environmental issues associated with clean energy and fossil fuels altogether, or mention them very gingerly and obliquely, as is the case here.  It’s a sad commentary on who we are that, if you wish to be taken seriously here in 2012 U.S. politics, you darn well better not care too much about what we’re doing to our planet. 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

Here’s an email conversation I just had with a friend:

Friend: Per the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, sunlight is the most abundant source of potential energy on the planet. If harnessed properly, sunlight could easily exceed current and future electricity demand. According to the Department of Energy, every hour, enough energy from the sun reaches Earth to meet the world’s energy usage for an entire year. 

Craig: Yes.  We get 6000 times more power from the sun than all seven billion of us use.

Friend: It appears that we get even more than that, according to the DOE — 8,760 vs. 6000. What’s the source of your 6,000 figure?

Craig: Gosh, I don’t remember; I’ve been using that number for years.  It’s the enormous total power of the sun times the infinitessimally small fraction that the Earth occupies in the surface area of a sphere 93 million miles in radius. 

In any case, the real point, obviously, is that it’s a ton more than we need; the challenge incumbent on us is to harvest it cost-effectively — and we’re very close.  Btw, that’s what blows my mind about the effectiveness of the PR hatchet-job that the entrenched interests have done to create renewable energy naysayers.  There are tens of millions of Americans who completely scorn the concept of solar and wind, on the basis that they are told it’s outrageously expensive.  It’s not.  We’re very close to grid-parity.  With a little effort, we’ll be there soon.  Even without that effort, we’ll get there eventually. The question is how long the fossil fuels and nuclear people will continue to dominate the landscape, and how much damage we will have done to our home planet in the process.

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