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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Question: What popular television news show brought the ecological dangers of coal ash to the nation’s attention in 2009? Approximately how much do we create annually in the US alone?

Answer: Can be found at http://2greenenergy.com/cool-guess-answers/8732.

Relevance: In another “lemons to lemonade” story, one of our clients has developed a proprietary resin-based process to take massive amounts of coal ash and cost-effectively manufacture building products (e.g., roof shingles) from it.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

In a typical year, I try to attend most of the major local energy industry conferences, and another three or four scattered around the globe that I deem to be particularly important – especially if I can combine them with other business purposes, or visits to family and friends within a reasonable drive. There are plenty of good, solid reasons to go. We learn from smart people who live and breathe this stuff, we do what we can to scope out the state of the art, and we network. The food’s great, and after hours we have a couple of drinks.

The Renewable Energy Finance Forum is always on my radar screen, as it provides all these benefits in spades. (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Biomass

Question: Amount how many tons of C&D (construction and demolition) waste comes out of New England and New York every year? Where does almost all of that stuff go?

Answer: Can be found at http://2greenenergy.com/cool-guess-answers/8732.

Relevance: Almost 30% of C&D waste is wood, whose energy content can be extracted with any of a number of gasification technologies. A client of ours has nailed down a consistent source of feedstock, a low-cost way of shipping and sorting it, and a technique (thermal anaerobic gasification) to process it without creating carcinogenic slag as a byproduct. The ultimate in “turning lemons to lemonade.”

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

The Emirates Solar Industry Association was launched in early January 2011. The association is bringing together industry players in photovoltaics, concentrating solar power and solar thermal as well as those involved in supplying and subsidiary roles, like engineering or glass firms. But a goal of the industry is to aid international solar companies that want to set up business or bases in the Emirates.

The Masdar Institute of Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi is behind the initiative. The Masdar Institute is an independent, graduate-level, not-for-profit, research-driven institute that works in cooperation with MIT. Its mission is to solve world problems on the issues of sustainability. The Institute is situated in Masdar City, an (more…)

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Biomass

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Question: Approximately how many chickens are there in North America, and how much manure do they produce annually?

Answer: Can be found at http://2greenenergy.com/cool-guess-answers/8732.

Relevance: While the manure from chickens, turkeys, pigs, and cows is becoming a terrible ecological hazard, many straightforward and low-cost technologies exist to convert that manure into biofuels and electricity. As one of our clients is in this business, I’ve seen a live demo. Glad I remembered to bring my old shoes.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

For those of you who like brain teasers, we’ve introduced “Take a COOL Guess – the Fun Quiz on Clean Energy (and Global Warming Remedy)”  Get it?  Cool?  Warming? 

It’s a series of questions, each of which have some relevance to clean energy.  Click here to see the “Take a COOL Guess” entries.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

On December 23, 2009 my wife Diane and I installed a 5.4Kwh PV Array on the roof of our home at 920 Cypress Street, Chambersburg, PA.

Prior to our “going solar” we had reduced our home’s energy use by 65% over the previous 3 years beginning in 2007 through energy conservation, energy efficiency and renewable energy. Had we not made these reductions in energy usage before hand, this same 5.4Kwh PV Array would have only been able to supply our home with just 27% of its energy needs. Therefore, the actual pay off on our investments would have taken perhaps as much as 20 years rather than what we now estimate to be at just over 4-5 years.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

A well-meaning reader quotes some figures from energy industry author Robert Bryce:

Nuclear 300 hp/acre
Nat gas 288 hp/acre
Solar 36 hp/acre
Wind 6.4 hp/acre
Corn ethanol 1/4 hp/acre

From what I’ve seen, Bryce appears to have made his fortune as a well-paid pawn of the traditional energy industry, offering a torrent of spurious reasons that renewables will never work. Here, he talks about a statistic that has virtually no meaning: power/area ratio; it’s certainly not in the top 20 reasons to like or dislike an energy technology. Robert, we have plenty of room, and I have to think that you know that.

So nuclear’s good because you can develop a lot of energy in a small space — by endangering every man, woman and child on Earth for the next 500,000 years — at tremendous cost?

Malicious nonsense.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Uncategorized

I invite readers in Southern California to Vanguard University in Costa Mesa on February 4th for their annual Environmental Sustinability Conference, at which I’ll be speaking.  They’ve given me 20 minutes with another 10 for Q&A; I’m on sometime in the mid-afternoon (to be arranged).  Hope to see you there.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

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When people ask me to explain my position on global warming, I normally assert what I’ve learned from the interviews I’ve conducted, while politely acknowledging that I’m not an expert on the subject.  I also point out that the specifics of the subject that are yet to be — and probably never will be — fully understood.  When I encounter adamant climate change deniers, I calmly suggest that they find one of any number of other reasons to urge a rapid migration away from fossil fuels: national security, public health, etc. 

However, when pressed for my true beliefs, I have to admit that I get really stern.  What remaining hair I have on the back of my arms stands up and blood vessels swell in my forehead as I (more…)

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