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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

At the rate of about a dozen a week, I’m approached with ideas in clean energy/transportation. Here’s a rough breakdown of my perception of  the concepts I’ve received over the last three years:

2%: Crackpots. An attempt to raise money to build a prototype of something that is theoretically impossible, where the principal (I think) actually believes it to be possible. I speak (briefly) with people fairly frequently who are trying to convince me that their idea is the very one that has successfully violated the First or Second Law of Thermodynamics.

3%: Fraud. Same as above, except that the “inventor” doesn’t believe his own story.  It’s a not-too-cleverly disguised attempt to bilk investors out of money to build a prototype of some that the principal knows very well to be theoretically impossible. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

I have a mixed bag of things that don’t go under any category or could have gone under several recent blogs.

My second AC and more panels to run it.  I guess this could have gone under “Heat Wave in the U.S. Has an Effect”.  Things have been so hot that for the first time since I moved into this house 9 years ago I was forced to assemble a window AC unit I had received from my father that was short cycling which I found the problem with it last summer but didn’t install last year. I used it the year before which is how I found out it was faulty. I bought one last year, which I put in the bedroom, but I needed another to help make the house livable. So, two window AC units seems to be enough for a total of 10,000BTU. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels

The newfound abundance of natural gas carries with it a few main issues, some good, some bad, which I abbreviate as follows:

1) Good news: It holds the potential to lessen the cost and environmental impact of our energy consumption for at least the short term.

2) Bad news: That lowering of costs will make the R&D of renewables less attractive. The consumption of natural gas, a fossil fuel, increases the concentration of CO2 in our atmosphere, contributing to climate change. To the degree that natural gas reduces our exploration of clean energy sources, it’s actually causing more harm than good overall.

3) Bad news: Fracking, which makes the whole enterprise of natural gas so appealing, is highly controversial. I hope you’ll take a few minutes and check out this video.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

In a comment on my recent piece on Bernie Sanders and the attack on our democracy represented by the U.S. Supreme Court decision Citizens United, one reader attacked Sanders as a communist.  In response, another notes: 

There are some words you just can’t use in the U.S. “Communism” is (one). “Socialism” is right behind it.

Better words are “Prioritarianism,” or its better-known cousin, “Utilitarianism.” Utilitarianism argues that human beings and their governments should make decisions based on the greatest benefit (increase in pleasure/decrease in pain) for the greatest number of people. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Efficiency

Frequent commenter Brian McGowan writes:

While I don’t have flush-free urinals in my house, I do collect the water from the water softener regeneration and the rinse cycles of my washing machine and use that to flush my toilet.

Brian, you are truly an inspiration to us all — to me, at least — with your incredibly creative and diverse use of energy efficiency devices. But trust me, you don’t want a waterless urinal in your house. It’s a great tool to reduce water use if you have dozens of flushes per hour, but I think (at least I hope) that’s not the situation at your house. Having said that, what you may want is suggested in the next paragraph.

I’m reminded of a visit I made years ago to a fine friend at least 40 years my senior, Kelly Kreyling, a somber gentleman, a philosopher of amazing proportion — a kind of modern-day H. D. Thoreau, I suppose. He lived in Southern Virginia (Fincastle, to be exact), and, essentially regardless of the weather, would walk outside to urinate. He once told me, “We live on top of the most effective filtration system one could possibly imagine – and we pee in our drinking water. That alone shows our depravity.”

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

I just returned from a ~7-mile hike I took by myself in preparation for next weekend’s far more strenuous Point Sal hike with a friend. Check out these images!

At the risk of appearing to be a weirdo, when I hike by myself I often contemplate the world’s situation at a macro level and what, if anything, I can do about it. This afternoon, I traversed a few of those miles thinking about the words of the eminent oceanographer Sylvia Earle, whose viewpoints I summarize as follows:

If you have a colony of bacteria in a petri dish, they multiply and eat, multiply and eat, multiply and eat, until they run out of food and room, and soon thereafter they’re all dead. They have no capacity for any other behavior; in particular, they have no sense that there could be consequences to unsustainable growth and runaway consumption of resources. People, on the other hand, most certainly have a sense of future, and recognize that there are consequences to right vs. wrong, to prudent vs. foolish actions.

But, I ask, given the outrageous rate at which we’re destroying our natural environment and chewing through our resources, will this capacity manifest itself in time to prevent us from the same fate as the bacteria?  There certainly are a few factors that provide cause for alarm: (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Everyone knows that there is a limited supply of fossil fuel left on Earth and this may pose a big problem in the future. This issue is not only a major concern for the big corporations and businesses, but is also affecting the masses too. With the recent energy price hike, people are now looking for alternative energy sources to keep their bills to a minimum. Businesses are also looking for alternate sources of energy as a backup power source in case of blackouts. There are many alternative sources of energy and some have even taken the liberty of turning it into business, which is quite convenient for home owners.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Fossil Fuels

There’s a bitter irony that strikes us all in our quest for total energy independence and a sustainable, clean energy future. Few will argue that natural gas is our ticket to the freedom of domestic energy production. It’s clean, cheaper than ever, and bountiful throughout the continental United States.

The natural gas that lingers between the Earth’s shallow soil layers are close to becoming depleted in the next decade or two. But about 10,000 feet down across the county lays the mother of all natural gas reserves – about 1,887 trillion cubic feet in total – which can be tapped with a process called hydraulic fracturing. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

Ukraine is intended to become a new leader in solar energy production in Europe! Modern energy trends and statistics feature a rapid growth of solar power generation, which is associated with favorable natural conditions. According to experts’ opinion, Ukraine can boast of better irradiation facilities, than Germany – a current front-runner in solar energy production. In addition, effective energy policy of Ukrainian government has drawn an attention of numerous foreign investors, interested in distribution of solar cell panels. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

I may have mentioned that, when it comes to travel, I’m almost always able to combine business with pleasure. This Monday morning I’m taking off with my wife and 16-year-old daughter to visit a few colleges between here (near Santa Barbara) and San Francisco. Simultaneously, I’ll be sneaking in a day at Intersolar 2012, an absolutely huge conference in which speakers and exhibitors with cutting-edge products and ideas, primarily in the photovoltaics space, come from all over the world.

I encourage anyone in the Bay Area who wishes to say hello to contact me and arrange a time and place to meet.

 

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