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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

It’s the birthday of theologian Martin Luther who, when he became disillusioned with the bureaucracy and corruption of the Catholic Church, wrote up his attack and published the famous 95 Theses. Luther’s ideas led to the Protestant Reformation, arguably the biggest single transformation that humankind had ever experienced.

It’s easy to see that the sustainability movement has the potential to rival the Reformation in terms of the sheer magnitude of its impact, though perhaps it’s a stretch to compare religious and secular undertakings.  Nonetheless, I believe we are undergoing an enormous paradigm shift in what we perceive to be our responsibilities to one another and the way we conduct our lives accordingly.

Yet the sustainability movement possesses one remarkable difference: it has no leader.  While there are a few famous authors and speakers, their presence is dwarfed by the tens of millions of individual contributors; in fact, there are over 200,000 groups on Earth today whose mission is sustainability and social justice.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Energy Storage

In our discussion of energy storage, frequent commenter Gary Tulie writes from the UK:

You forget the added value of storage where an uninterrupted power supply is needed anyway! How about installing energy storage at hospitals, data centres, military facilities and such like where some storage is needed anyway? That way, you just add extra energy giving a longer time off grid permitting peak shaving.

D’oh! Of course, you’re right. That’s kind of like listing the Founding Fathers of the United States and forgetting George Washington.

I’m reminded of my trip to visit the (currently) 2 megawatt solar photovoltaics facility at Fort Hunter Liggett in Central California, now the largest solar array on a military base in the U.S.  It’s soon to be a micro-grid, as they plan to install several megawatt-hours of battery storage.

Out there in the middle of nowhere (rural Monterey County, Central California), they experience several power outages (sometimes five or six) per year.  No more!

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Here’s a very solid and accessible article on population growth and sustainability from the World Future Society, though I’m not sure it provides any “new news.”   

Yes, we’re consuming resources at an unsustainable rate, and that rate will only increase for the foreseeable future.  Right now, we’d need an Earth about 1.6 times the size of our own to provide the resources that our population consumes annually.  And as each year passes, the number becomes larger. 

Put another way, there was a moment during a day this past September at which humankind had consumed all the resources that would be naturally renewed in the entire year of 2012.  Soon, that moment will be in August; a decade or so later, July.

So what to do? (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Wind Energy

A reader sends this and writes:

When, not if, a wind turbine’s torque causes O ring and seal lubrication problems, the turbines catch on fire. Each of the large wind turbines have 500 gallons of petroleum lubricant trying to keep up with the rotation. Petroleum is a terrible lubricant, and when the seals crash, most of the petroleum is burned but much remains and the soil is contaminated. Each site is a toxic hazmat site. The attachments are only samples. I am very happy that the wind turbines were not installed in the bays around Cape Cod. Sandy would have taken each one to someplace other where they were supposed to be. With the crash of the grid in much of New England, the failure of electricity to control the direction and rotation of the blades, would have spun them helplessly out of control. The turbine blades would become propellers without aircraft.

Interesting.  (more…)

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

Even though Germany has recently cut their national feed-in tariff scheme between 20-30 percent from April this year, the solar industry has flourished in the first nine months of 2012. 

The nation`s utilities say the capacity of solar power has grown by 50% from January to September in 2012. The total annual capacity has risen to 25,000GWh from 16,500GWh last year.

About a week ago, Reuters reported “nearly 1 gigawatt (GW) of new solar power generating capacity was installed in September alone”, which is a far more than the 2.5 to 3.5 GW a year the German government aims for. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Energy Storage

In today’s discussion on energy storage, senior energy analyst Glenn Doty writes:

As far as who should pay for storage, that’s easy… the storage facility should pay for itself by the value that it adds to the grid. If it cannot do that, then the storage is clearly not worth the benefit.

So, you’re suggesting that storage become a brand new stake-holder in the electricity supply chain?  Create a new entity and compensate it according to the value it provides?     (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Energy Storage

Frequent commenter Garth writes:

Remember ANY successful business that runs a supply line for their product must have storage or they face shortages and customer loss – energy is no different and storage is the answer. I just can’t explain why the wind industry has been in denial over this fact. Reality is on its way.

You are most certainly right about the lack of storage in the energy industry. As my friends at Eos Energy Storage (breakthrough zinc-air batteries) have been known to quip, “even sushi has better storage.” Having said that, I’m not sure the wind industry is “in denial” here. In fact, one of the clean energy investments that I support is a 25 mW project that will deploy CAES (compressed air energy storage). (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

It goes without saying that the renewable energy industry here in the U.S. drew a collective sigh of relief when President Obama was re-elected on Tuesday.  For reasons I’ve mentioned dozens of times, I remain extremely dubious that we’ll see any real help from the federal government, but we dodged a big, fat bullet that would have come from a Republican administration.  

Although Obama has disappointed so many of the people who supported him in 2008, there is no doubt that his policies vis-a-vis the environment have been far more progressive than those of his predecessor.  

Here is an article from Renewable Energy World on the subject. 

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

I try not to miss the monthly events at The Eleos Foundation, a group that has done such a terrific job in bringing much-needed seed capital to start-ups with cleantech products in developing countries.  This afternoon it’s this presentation, to which I’m very much looking forward.

These guys have an incredible batting average in selecting winners; their investors are almost always paid off, and when they lose, they get out early and fairly painlessly.  I’m extremely impressed with their savvy, as well, of course, with their hearts. 

As I told Eleos Executive Director Andy Lower when I interviewed him recently, I’m hoping that Eleos develops an appetite for clean energy.  There is no reason that, for instance, the WindStream micro-wind turbine couldn’t be assembled in Nairobi by people who desperately need employment, and the product sent to places all over the continent, bringing electrification to hundreds of millions of people for the first time. 

 

 

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

A friend of a friend has come across a major piece of corruption, and is unsure what to do about it.  He’s thinking of publishing an expose’, but he’s older, in failing health, and doesn’t want the stress.

I hope he doesn’t regard my response as unsympathetic:

Well thank you very much.  I’ll look forward to hearing which direction you take. 

For what it’s worth, it’s quite clear to me that our civilization is doomed if we can’t get a grasp on corruption.  To put it concisely, the private sector, left unregulated, will exploit people and natural resources until our planet fails to support any form of reasonably decent and pleasant life.  We see this everywhere we look: rich lawyers helping their super-rich clients to steal from what’s left of the middle class, declines in education, destruction of the ecosystem, Wall Street rip-offs, etc.

The public sector, on the other hand, is so monstrously corrupt and bureaucratic that only complete idiots look for real help from this arena. 

Having said this, I understand you don’t need the stress.

Again, I’ll look forward to hearing from you.  I’m sure you’ll make the right decision.

 

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