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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

Solar panel systems from the Japanese manufacturer Kyocera that were installed in a small French near Lyon has been up and running for exactly two decades now.

This about how long the warranty for solar panels lasts. What is remarkable about the 20-year old solar panels is that they show much less degeneration than what is expected – 8.3% reduction in performance when output levels were measured and compared to original levels. In other words, these solar panels still performed at 91.7% of their original maximum power output!  (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

I’ve often written that Big Energy is on the same path that Big Tobacco chose to take in the mid 20th Century: knowingly causing significant damage to the population’s health and safety, but covering it up as long as possible.  In fact, here’s a piece summarizing the huge financial forces behind climate change denial.  (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

After four years of service as administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Lisa Jackson is stepping down.  Thus far, she has provided no reason for her decision to leave.

Let me go out on a limb and suggest one: she’s tired of the 24/7 hassle from the right wing, which has fought every single effort she’s taken to mitigate the  vast ecological destruction we’re wreaking on our earth and skies, and the consequent damage to our health. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

It is not too difficult to convert your house in a solar-powered one. If you have made up your mind about installing solar energy panels, then the first place to start with would be to check your roof for inclinations. If your roof is not inclined or oriented to make optimal use of the sun’s rays then, the solar panels would have to be inclined and oriented accordingly. If your house does not receive a lot of sunlight for some part of the year, then the PV solar panels would have to be designed in a way that it provides you electricity throughout the year.  (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Yesterday was the birthday of Rod Serling, creator of the iconic mid-20th Century television program “The Twilight Zone.”  According to the Writer’s Almanac, “Serling believed it was the writer’s job to ‘menace the public consciousness’ and considered television and radio as a means for social criticism.”

And what a terrific job he did.  Those of us old enough to remember will call to mind episodes whose premises included the implication of mindless conformity, the horrors of mob rule, the potential for cruelty that lies within all of us, and our tendency toward xenophobia – all presented with terrifying realism, normally with a brilliantly clever ironic twist at the end.  (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

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Girl (pictured here): Well, I want a peaceful, sustainable world, where humankind comes together to deal with its major challenges, you know, climate change, social injustice — that kind of thing.  Can you make that happen?  

Santa: Ho ho ho! How about a doll?

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Solar Thermal

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house,

If I weren’t covering renewables, I’d feel like a louse.

Or perhaps….

About the lack of clean energy I continue to grouse.

 

Be this as it may….

I look forward to the e-newsletters I receive once or twice a week from CSP Today

(more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

Those of us who live near major cities spend a great deal of time stuck in traffic, when we’re unfortunate enough to be forced to drive at rush-hour, or encounter some special circumstance like an accident.  I’m sure many of us, in addition to the frustration we feel, wonder about the nature and cause of heavy traffic and how it may be avoided.  Here’s a good article that looks at that very phenomenon. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Biofuels

I had meetings all over Southern California on Thursday, and  driving to and from them  enabled me to listen to the radio and absorb news that I otherwise would have missed.

I had barely backed out of my driveway when I heard this story about a scandal surrounding the biofuels trade between the U.S. and Canada.  It seems the transportation company, which was compensated by the government for bringing an eco-friendly product into Canada, never bothered to unload it when it reached its destination; the same load kept making its way back and forth across the border, while the company raked in huge profits by pretending to do something good for the environment. Apparently, it would have cost the company a trifle more to have actually unloaded the biofuel and then get more, so they figured: screw it. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

I had a real eye-opening meeting the other day with Mike Miller, an extremely accomplished entrepreneur and angel investor in Los Angeles. 

 Frankly, I had come to think of angels as generally too small to make an investment of the scope required for most of the projects I support, and possibly too regional in focus — a potential mismatch considering most of  the world’s involvement with cleantech is happening (sadly) outside the United States.  (more…)

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