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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

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…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on 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.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Solar Thermal

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 21st 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…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

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.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

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…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

I’d like to ask a quick favor of you. 

Would you provide me with your thoughts re: 2GreenEnergy’s being sponsored by a commercial organization?  What type of company do you think would be acceptable?  Are there one or two in particular that you think we should approach proactively? 

I hope you’ll post your ideas as comments, or hit “Contact” and reach me directly.

Thanks in advance, 

Craig

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Each week, I hear from a dozen or so 2GreenEnergy readers, asking for help in forwarding a business concept in sustainability.  One of the areas of need I come across frequently is the requirement to develop effective business partners. Someone has a great idea, a breakthrough technology, a revolutionary business concept – but needs an introduction to a strong, well-established group such that together, they can take the idea forward to the global marketplace.

If that describes your current situation, I urge you to go to our marketing-specific website here, and review each of the five short videos that our clients at Hewlett-Packard, Unisys, Computer Sciences Corporation, Olicom, and Litton have made on our behalf.  Each of these five vignettes testifies to the results we nailed down for them generally. But in many cases, behind the scenes lay hidden business partnerships we recommended they develop —  and actively helped them develop: partnerships with distributors, value-added resellers, content providers, software applications providers, etc.

If you suspect that a partnership with a powerful business interest may help your cause, I hope you’ll let us know. We can help.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

Craig, I’ve been reading the chapter of you book on Electric Vehicles like the New Ford Focus Electric and the new Electric Hybrids like the Chevy Volt. I was surprised to have received a correspondence from Bob Lutz at GM back in the Spring of 2007 saying that he would do everything in his power to make it a reality in 2010. I must say, he kept his word. I went to purchase one from a dealer in Washington, D.C. in late December 2010 and ran headlong into a stone wall. Yes, I could have purchased one by now if I would have been willing to pay the additional $5,000 early delivery fee…which I wasn’t and will not. I told the dealer that when they want to sell me a vehicle in the future, they will have to meet my price, not the other way around. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

There can never be anything approaching a full economic recovery without the deliberate and active participation of the American consumer period. We, the American consumer, make up 70% of the entire U.S. economy. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Last March, I became aware of a situation that gave me great pause of concern. I read that U.S. Intelligence had captured a U.S. Citizen in Somalia and while interrogating him they discovered that he had worked as a laborer in 5 of our nuclear power plants here in the eastern part of the country. Having worked for NSA back in the early 1970’s I quickly realized that he wasn’t there just for the money. I suspect that he was there probing for ways to plan future attacks on our nuclear power plants. The M.O. was similarly eerie to that of the planning and implimentation that brought down the World Trade Centers on 9/11.  Instead of their trying to bring a nuclear device into this country, why not take advantage of the ones that are readily available in this country (our nuclear power plants). The terrorists found a way to circumvent our security right underneath our eyes and used what they found readily available in our aviation training schools and used our own planes as low level missiles. (more…)

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