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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

In response to my recent piece on renewable energy politics, Ron Hill, very bright guy, writes some cogent stuff on his position as a climate change denier, and concludes:

The failure to insist on objective science is part of the problem with you folks who make your living in the “alternative” energy field. I do not make any money on either existing energy or alternative energy. Can you truthfully make the same statement?

The answer is no, I can’t.  And I agree that those who stand to profit from the world’s acceptance or rejection of global climate change (obviously) have an incentive to shade the data in their direction.  But, as I point on in my recent book on renewable energy: “What would you guess represents more money (and thus more incentive to bias one’s findings): the business of atmospheric research, or the business of selling of trillions of gallons of gasoline?”

I also point out that the vast majority of climate scientists who have studied global warming and published peer-reviewed papers on the subject support the theory.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I always feel sorry for the people who live in swing states in presidential elections, as they are bombarded with messages around the clock for periods of several months leading up to November.  Of course, we all take the brunt of the chicanery and lies that goes into each one of the ads for state and local representatives and ballot iniatives, and, just like Christmas shopping season, it seems to start earlier ever year.

Campaign ads generally skirt the true issues and push voters’ buttons on emotionally sensitive areas that often have nothing to do with the subject at hand.  As an example, Prop 23 in California would destroy the progress that the state has made in the direction of clean energy, setting us back decades in our attempts to curtail emissions.  Yet the clever Yes on 23 people have taken the enormous funding that they’ve received from a couple of oil companies and have created a near dead-heat in the polls, convincing obliging voters that Prop 23 will result in jobs.  An attractive and apparently reasonable lady tells us (incessantly), “The economy should come first.  It’s just common sense.” 

No, it’s just heinous — that big money can manipulate millions of people into voting for a bill that so cleary benefits only one constituency: the oil companies who sponsored it.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

In 2009, for the second year in a row, both the US and Europe added more power capacity from renewable sources such as wind and solar than conventional sources like coal, gas and nuclear, according to reports by the United Nations Environment Programme and the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21).

Renewables accounted for 60% of newly installed capacity in Europe and more than 50% in the USA in 2009. This year or next, the world as a whole is expected to add more capacity to the electricity supply from renewable than non-renewable sources.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

I was speaking with my mother yesterday, a decided political conservative.  During our talk, she noted gently, “Your blog is left of center, but not so far as to be revolting.”  I got a terrific laugh out of that.  How nice it is not to be considered revolting by one’s parents! 

In any case, I don’t think of myself as left-wing, unless by that we mean “concerned” or “disillusioned”; I’m more than a little of both. 

I believe that we have to work hard to uncover the truth about the difficulties we face in the migration to renewable energy. Let’s begin by asking ourselves a simple question: Why is this so damn hard?  (more…)
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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

I don’t claim to be an expert at unravelling the lingo surrounding the many NGOs that are a part of the renewable energy movement.  I do, however, want to do my part in promoting the good works of as many of these fine folks as possible.  To that end, I urge readers to check out CoNGO, the Committee of Non-governmental Organizations.

CoNGO represents civil society in issues such as human rights, sustainable development, migration, etc. at the United Nations.  The group has issued a declaration, “Climate Change: Summary and Recommendations to Governments” that will be signed by hundreds of NGOs, then delivered to the PermanentMissions to the United Nations and presented to various actors during the United Nations Framework on Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC) in Cancun this December 2010.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

A recent guest post called attention to IBM’s announcements and recent initiatives in Smart Energy-Management and Sustainability Solutions for the enterprise.

I thank our guest for the post. I did a great deal of work for IBM over my three-decade career as a marketing consultant. In fact, about a million years ago, I wrote extensively about PC-mainframe connectivity, and brought thousands of attendees to IBM seminars. Seems like another lifetime.

Seriously, I have the highest respect for IBM’s commitment to smart grid. Keep up the good work.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

Maybe it just comes with the territory, but I run across a couple of people per week who rattle off calculations that suggest that renewable energy makes no sense in terms of its basic physics and mathematics. The website http://renewable.50webs.com/ and its owner Christopher Calder who claim that “Renewable energy is a disaster, not a solution!” seem to be an example:

It is a mathematically provable fact that you cannot replace oil, coal, and natural gas with windmills, solar panels, and biofuels. Renewable energy schemes other than traditional hydroelectric power are resource hogs that take up huge amounts of space while providing very little usable energy in return. Contrary to popular belief, solar, wind, wave energy, and biofuel schemes are not “energy efficient,” and their ultra-high cost is an accurate measurement of that inherent inefficiency. Solar photovoltaic cells are so inefficient that it would take about 60 square miles of expensive solar panels to generate just one gigawatt of electricity.

The guy goes on for pages like this, and seems not to be at all mollified by my comments that the cost of PV continues to fall and will be equivalent to coal by sometime between 2014 and 2018, or by the concept that IBM, GE, Siemens, and the world’s most successful investors are pouring billions of dollars into this “hoax.”

Who is this guy?  Better question:  For whom does he work?

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Many leaders from various industries and geographies indicate that the emerging sustainable economy will be the biggest economic game changer in the next two decades. Last week, I attended West Coast Green 2010 conference in San Francisco and learned about IBM’s announcements and recent initiatives: the new Smart Energy-Management and Sustainability Solutions for the enterprise.

Smarter Buildings/Sustainability Solutions (courtesy of IBM)

The new technological offerings address energy efficiency and sustainable buildings in commercial settings and are part of IBM’s expanding collection of solutions that are designed for creating smarter urban infrastructures.

IBM’s sustainability offerings are based on homegrown solutions that were developed internally to manage the corporation’s environmental responsibility. Then, IBM expanded their learnings, strategies and solutions to alliances as well as customers.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Thanks so much to Marc Vendetti for recommending the website The Story of Stuff.  That is truly brilliant stuff.  I hope everyone will do as he suggests, take 20 minutes, and check it out.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

As a marketing consultant, sometimes my job is to avoid making a stupid mistake. As I mentioned the other day, we’re doing a project for an importer of natural and sustainable silk bedding, and discussing the enagement of a celebrity spokesperson who actually favors silk over polycotton.

In my recommendations, I wrote: The choice should be made in favor of an attractive woman with a youthful appearance, preferably one who is known for a considered, deliberate (rather than frivolous, irresponsible) approach to life.  Though the initial list of candidates is fairly long, it’s gets short quickly once this criterion is applied.  As much as we may admire Dustin Hoffman, I think it goes without saying that the world would much rather imagine Scarlett Johansson lying on a silk sheet; the reader is invited to review this photographic comparison if he’s having trouble agreeing with me here. 

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