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Guest Post from Wayne Mackey: A Case for Solar Photovoltaics Today

craigshieldsPosted on January 17, 2011 Posted in Photovoltaics

Guest Post from Wayne Mackey: A Case for Solar Photovoltaics Today

Systems can last for 40 or more years. By going solar, you can lock in your current and future energy costs in at today’s lower rates.

The first crude modern solar photovoltaic Solar cells were created in the Bell Telephone Labs in 1952 – 1954 by Daryl Chapin, Calvin Fuller, and Gerald Pearson. They were trying to find a way to power telephones in remote areas of the country. They were able to produce a solar cell that was 6% efficient at converting sunlight into electrical energy.

Solar energy is not diminished by harvesting, unlike fossil fuels. The amount of energy we capture today in no way diminishes how much we can take tomorrow, or how much is left for our children and grandchildren. Every single day enough solar energy falls on the earth to supply all of the world’s energy needs for four or five years. Solar energy shows up directly in the form as sunlight which can be harvested by panels that can create either heat or electricity. Our allotment of solar energy can also show up indirectly as wind, the result of uneven heating on the earth’s surface. (more…)

Guest Blogger Cameron Atwood — Part Two: Why Aren’t We Moving?! – Practical and Philosophical Obstacles to Achieving A Renewable, Efficient and Sustainable Energy Infrastructure

craigshieldsPosted on January 17, 2011 Posted in Renewables - Politics

Here is Part Two of Cameron Atwood’s article discussing: Where are we going now? Where do we want to go? Where do we need to go? What stands in our way?

Taxpayer Sacrifices for Our Continued Inefficiency and Dependence

There are many closely related grounds for urgently arriving at a more enlightened energy strategy. In another example of cruelly regressive wealth transfer and force projection, $1.05 trillion has been borrowed from present and future taxpayers to wage war in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001 – averaging a drain of more than $116 billion per year. (This doesn’t include the tragic human cost, or the loss of productivity and treatment costs as a result of that butchery.)

(more…)

Tagged with: sustainable energy infrastructure, Why Aren’t We Moving?

[The Vector] World Future Energy Summit January 17-20th, 2011

craigshieldsPosted on January 17, 2011 Posted in Renewables - Business

[The Vector] World Future Energy Summit January 17-20th, 2011

Secretary of State Clinton and Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, courtesy of Masdar

The exciting World Future Energy Summit (WFES) opens January 17^th and continues through January 20^th in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates. WFES is one of the few international events that brings together policy makers, government leaders, private industry, the financing sector and the public sector. The summit will include a Business Forum, specific days devoted to specific clean tech industries and innovation, and economic/analyst/government forums.

Held under the patronage of Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi, the summit is hosted by Masdar, a firm devoted to energy sustainability. More than 600 exhibitors, 33 international delegations and 25,000 visitors are expected. We recently wrote about Masdar and its graduate-level institute devoted to sustainability solutions.

“Financing has always been a pivotal step, and a challenging one, for renewable energy project innovators (more…)

Tagged with: Abu Dhabi, alternative energy, clean energy, green energy, Renewable Energy, solar energy, solar panel, solar power, Solar Thermal, The Vector, UAE, World Future Energy Summit

Sustainability — It’s About Physics, not Politics

craigshieldsPosted on January 16, 2011 Posted in Sustainability

Sustainability — It’s About Physics, not Politics

A reader whose political sensibilities obviously do not parallel those in “The Story of Stuff” writes in:

As for “Stuff,” I don’t doubt that most of what [Annie Leonard] says is true and it certainly is deplorable, but I missed her solutions unless she proposes an anti-consuming society, which wouldn’t work here or anyplace else.

Thanks for your observations.

I see that you and she diverge on the issues.　But even as wide as the gap there may be, I’m sure a common meeting ground is the notion of sustainability itself.　 (more…)

Tagged with: Annie Leonard, Earth's population, famine, physics, politics, Russia heat wave, sustainability, The Story of Stuff, wheat harvet

Guest Blogger Lucas Jones Offers Suggestions for Electric Vehicle Design

craigshieldsPosted on January 16, 2011 Posted in Electric Vehicles

Guest Blogger Lucas Jones Offers Suggestions for Electric Vehicle Design

Retired engineer Lucas Jones writes:

Automotive structure will have to go to a much lighter composition. Currently Carbon fiber is near the top, but there is a lot more than that available. Nobody seems to be talking much about Boron for instance. Structures where the voids are filled with energy absorbing materials like EPP will significantly reduce weight while improving safety. Whole new methods will have to be devised to manufacture vehicles. Maybe methods
currently being used to produce Boats can be adapted. Certainly manufacturing in a specialized structure with highly trained staff will be necessary. Robots will have to be devised to increase speed and productivity.

There is no need to use an inefficient mechanical transmission in a modern vehicle. A simple copper wire is all that is needed. The wire goes from the battery to the motors via a controller and pushing on an accelerator or letting off is all that is needed. (more…)

Tagged with: carbon fiber, electric vehicle design, EVs

Two Worthwhile Pieces on Sustainability

craigshieldsPosted on January 15, 2011 Posted in Uncategorized

Two pieces on sustainability for your consideration:

1) I don’t know anyone who doesn’t admire the insight — not to mention the popularity — of best-selling business author and NY Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman. Here’s a good article he wrote in 2009 on the importance of sustainability.

2) While Friedman is very bright, he colors within the lines of our conforming cultural viewpoints; this, in fact, is my only complaint of his work. I’m reminded of the conclusion to his groundbreaking work The World Is Flat, which, in my mind, was a rather Pollyanna-ish reminder that Americans are creative souls, and thus the forecast of more Googles and Microsofts to lead us through the 21st Century. I’m not so sure.

So here’s a video made by a far more outspoken critic of our modern way of life, Annie Leonard, called “The Story of Stuff.” I wish I had the power to get everyone in the world — at least the US — to spend the 20 minutes required to take in this message, rendered to perfection by one of my true heroes. She and I have been in touch, and I’m going to try to interview her for my next book; it will certainly be my honor.

Tagged with: Annie Leonard, NY Times, sustainability, The Story of Stuff, Tom Friedman

[The Vector] Progress in Solar Thermal / CSP (Concentrating Solar Power)

craigshieldsPosted on January 15, 2011 Posted in Solar Thermal

[The Vector] Progress in Solar Thermal / CSP (Concentrating Solar Power)

The Vector is pleased to see progress made in the solar thermal / CSP (concentrating solar power) space. We have always believed that solar thermal is the heavy betting favorite to be the ultimate winner in the race for a clean energy technology to replace fossil fuels – at least through the remainder of the 21^st Century.

The US Department of Energy recently provided a loan guarantee that will act as the foundation for Abengoa Solar’s (Gila Bend, Arizona) Solana project — the world’s largest parabolic trough concentrating solar plant. US DoE Secretary Stephen Chu announced the project last month: a 250-megawatt (MW) project — the first large-scale solar plant in the United States capable of storing energy it generates, using large insulated molten salt tanks.

No sooner than the announcement was posted at Renewable Energy World did the detractors start in, deliberately misrepresenting the overall effectiveness of the technology, and referring to the project as (more…)

Tagged with: alternative energy, clean energy, concentrated solar power, CSP, green energy, progress in solar thermal, Renewable Energy, solar energy, solar panel, solar power, Solar Thermal, The Vector, Wind Energy, wind power, wind turbines

Global Warming and the World Food Supply

craigshieldsPosted on January 14, 2011 Posted in Renewables - Science

Global Warming and the World Food Supply

I’ve had the pleasure of speaking several times with Mario Gottfried, inventor, visionary, and all-around cool guy at his home in Mexico. In response to my recent piece on global warming, he writes:

I was asked to predict the effects of global weather change around 10 years ago, and was accused of being dramatic and overexaggerating, but the prediction has come true, food worldwide has increased in price by +/-50%. Soon, to be 100%, then 200%. I said fuel would increase by 100%, which was short.

You don’t want to know what I am predicting for the next 10 years….

Mario, I hear you. If last summer’s heat wave that decimated Russia’s wheat harvest of (100 million bushels) had hit Chicago (400 million bushels), it would have severely impacted the world food supply.

Very few people are facing up to the real danger of famine here. Thanks for being one of them.

Tagged with: Global Warming and World Food Supply

Vision Motors and Its Insights into the Electric Vehicle Market

craigshieldsPosted on January 14, 2011 Posted in Electric Vehicles

Vision Motors and Its Insights into the Electric Vehicle Market

Vision Motors is in the process of bringing us on board to do some marketing work for them. This will truly be a labor of love; I can’t wait to sink my teeth into the task of promoting a company with a terrific product that, I believe, will essentially sell itself.

I developed an instant affinity for the company’s CEO, Brooks Agnew, when I first met him in Charlotte, NC last year. He’s sharp, likeable, treats people well, and carries himself with a bearing of success. It’s always best to work with people that you personally respect and admire.

Here’s a paper he just sent me that explains the company’s approach. I think readers will find it quite informative about the nature of the electric vehicle market and the direction that he (and I) believe it will be taking. (more…)

Tagged with: Brooks Agnew, electric trucks, Electric Vehicles, EV MSRP, EVs, marketing, Vision Motors