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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

I spent a few hours this afternoon at the Los Angeles Auto Show, checking out the displays of the carmakers that are in the process of rolling out EVs. This year, I went on a “public” (vs. “press”) day, to get a sense for the overall market appreciation for EVs: How many people are interested? Who are they?

Here’s an observation:

If you spend time at EVWorld or AutoBlogGreen, you may conclude that the whole world is beating a path to EVs. Of course, the vast majority of this super-skewed audience craves EVs, but they’re not at all representative of the typical car consumer; just a few seconds at today’s show served as a slap-in-the-face type reminder of this obvious fact.

At a certain point, I found myself standing in Nissan’s area — a bright, clean car lot of a half-acre or so in size, with many dozen gas-powered cars and trucks — and one lonely EV: the LEAF. I couldn’t help notice the swarms of people taking pictures of one another smiling in front of the sleek, shiny, GT-R sportscar — and the occasional tree-hugger asking questions of the lady assigned to the LEAF.

So let’s start with what we knew all along: the first EV adopters will be a slim minority with a decided commitment to eco-friendliness. The question then becomes: how quickly will everyone else follow? (more…)

by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

This is a follow up to a Vector story that appeared August 24th, 2010, called “Opposing Ethanol”.  In that story, we discussed that an effort in the form of an energy bill was poised to allow an increase of ethanol mix. The mix was 10%, but the bill was seeking to raise this to 15%.

Many from various sectors and industries were very opposed to this.  Why?  Ethanol can be damaging and corrosive to engines, and is known to damage engines as well as exhaust systems; and increasing emissions from engines defeat emission control devices. I will add that in my opinion, corn-based ethanol has many problems (discussed in the August 24th post.)

Despite reasonable science, and despite heaving lobbying against raising the cap of ethanol allowed to be mixed into gasoline, the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) passed the bill on October 13th. It seems ironic that an agency that is supposed to protect the environment and our safety would allow this.  The EPA says that from its testing, cars built in 2007 and forward “shouldn’t” be damaged from the new blend called E-15. (Cars owned that were built in 2007 and later accounts for 18% of our nation’s cars, according to David Sedgwick at Translogic).  The EPA will apparently test older cars later to see what they find. 

In the meantime, gas station owners are furious. They are afraid of being sued if a car is damaged, even if EPA labels are put (more…)

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

From what I hear from those who have attended, there is nothing magically different about this year’s Los Angeles Auto Show.  Of course, it would be hard to expect anything markedly different, with the economy continuing to spuitter; it’s only when car-buyers have money burning a hole in their pockets that the car companies really pour on the promotional dollars. 

Yet the total number of alternate fuel vehicles continues to grow;  there are 50 AFVs on display, according to this list from the show itself. 

I missed the Press Days last week, but I plan to attend one day this week as a regular guy, to check out the outward, consumer-facing progress that the electric vehicle world is making. If anyone wants to meet me down there for a cup of Joe, please hit the “contact” button and I’ll get right back to you.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

When my father left this Earth a couple of months ago, he left me some stock in ExxonMobil.  I posted my musings on the subject here, on my blog at Renewable Energy World.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

The proper role of government in our lives is the biggest single issue confronting politically involved Americans today. Want to rile up an audience about healthcare, for instance? Just tell them either:

a) The government with its bloated bureaucracies, inefficiencies, and corrupt catering to special interests is taking over healthcare and doling it out, at your expense, to people who haven’t earned it, or

b) Healthcare should continue to be run by profit-motivated corporations whose goal is to minimize costs by denying medical coverage (especially to those who need it most) — and government has no business interfering in this cruel and inhuman process.

The same polar arguments could be made for financial regulation, labor and unemployment, economic stimulus, and almost every other major area of debate we face as a society.

I bring this up because (more…)

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

I had the pleasure of meeting 2GreenEnergy associate Annemarie Osbourne for lunch yesterday. Annemarie is lucky enough to live “bicontinentally,” with homes both in Ansbach (near Nurenberg) Germany and Orange County, CA.

A skilled and savvy PR professional, Annemarie is a constant reminder to me of how much bang for one’s buck public relations can deliver. I came across a dilemma recently that served as the perfect illustration: A client with a consumer product with a tiny budget (about $50K) that wanted to tell its story to the world.

So we had a choice:

a) Recommend some essentially unresearched creative and run a few fairly insignificant ads, or

b) Suggest that Annemarie ply her trade, using her vast network of relationships, and more important, her genius in presenting the concept in a unique and clever way to an entire universe of print and electronic media editors.

It was something of a no-brainer.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), which is under the Department of Energy, announced selection of nineteen national leaders for its 2010 Executive Energy Leadership Program. Now in its fourth year, the 5 month program gives executive decision-makers at local levels in-depth knowledge and skills about renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies.  The program includes briefings from NREL, technology experts, and well as research lab tours and visits to field applications along with classroom study. At the end of the program, the students each present a viable renewable energy project.

In the first three years of the program, participants were solely based in Colorado. NREL said it was ready to expand the Colorado-based pilot to a national scale.  “As a national laboratory, we launched this (more…)

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Wind Energy

I just got off the phone with Christopher Barry, a fascinating naval engineer who comes from decades of work in nautical science.  Chris was good enough to take me through scads of examples all of which illustrated a very important fact:

There are dozens of points of crossover between the tons of engineering work that has already gone into the traditional world of shipbuilding and offshore drilling – and what the renewables industry is now trying to accomplish in offshore wind and ocean energy, e.g., tidal, wave, etc.

(more…)

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

When I sit down with my family at dinner each night and we talk about our experiences of the day, my kids often remark how seriously I take all this renewable energy stuff.  “Dad, isn’t there anything you can smile about here?” they might ask. 

I’ve come to realize that they’re largely right; in fact, I do need to lighten up and see this subject with a bit more whimsy. And to that end, here’s a fun little piece I wrote recently: The Clean Energy IQ Test. I invite you to take the test and see how well you do.

I also invite you to comment, to suggest new questions, to make any recommendations that you feel will make this a better experience for other people who may come across it in the future. As always, thanks.

　

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Trenton Panels courtesy PSE&G

Public Service Electric & Gas (PSE&G), the largest gas and electric utility in New Jersey, is converting an oil coal-gas manufacturing facility in Trenton into a 1.3 MW solar farm. It will provide enough energy to power about 207 residences.

This is the kind of story we see popping up around the U.S. and can be part of the green energy movement to create jobs, make old manufacturing sites useful again, and create clean power for homes and businesses.

New Jersey has become focused on green energy plans. The state committed last year to a half-billion dollar program to install 80 MW of solar power, which will nearly double its current solar capacity.  Called “Solar 4 All”, the plan includes solar panel installation on utility poles in the six largest cities and 300 towns, and 20 projects around the state. The manufacturing facility conversion in Trenton is part of the investment. To date, PSE&G has already installed more than 40,000 solar panels on its utility poles and it plans to put up 160,000 by the end of 2013.

The Trenton site is one of four solar farms underway, and it is a former brownfield (contaminated) site. It is one of the oldest (more…)

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