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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Biomass

Ever hear of a “Croton?” You know, the oil-bearing tree, indigenous to Tanzania? How familiar are you with babassu?

Don’t be ashamed if you’ve never heard of either. Besides the two people who brought me business plans that promote biomass-to-energy projects using the fruits of these two exotic trees, I’ve yet to run into a single person who’s ever heard of either one.

The former bears nuts about the size of walnuts; the latter, found primarily in another but equally wild part of the world (northeastern Brazil), provides something akin to a small coconut. Harvesting neither affects the world food supply, and both have characteristics that make them very attractive for biomass feedstock. Suffice it to say that 2GreenEnergy is a great place to work if you want to learn about life forms that you would have been extremely unlikely to come across in any other way.

More to the point, the people forwarding these two business plans are both fantastic human beings — engaged on incredible missions. Want a great experience? Talk to Joe Scali of African Biofuels and ask him about his plans for the Croton — actually Croton megalocarpus (locally called muhihi). This tree grows robustly in semi-arid climates on marginal lands, produces 25-50 kg seeds annually with 32% oil content. In a few minutes, you’ll get a background on a magnificent project — one that actually will, I’m completely convinced, provide a positive (if perhaps a bit longer-term than some) return on investors’ money. And you’ll be more than a little bit tuned into the what’s happening in Tanzania with respect to renewable energy.

The people of Third World countries contribute far less per capita to the production of greenhouse gases and other pollutants than those in developed nations. But they contribute far more per Watt-hour of energy consumed, since their access to energy tends to be rather low-tech, e.g., cooking over open wood fires.

So, for anyone wishing to make a difference, let me ask you, does it make more sense to improve the MPG rating of the cars we Americans drive a few percent, or eliminate 90+% of noxious emissions that come from the way of life of an equal number of Africans? If you’re interested, go to the African Biofuels website, and talk to Joe. Tell him Craig sent you.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Below is a link to a piece I wrote recently for Renewable Energy World in which I attempt to explain President Obama’s falling approval ratings. In it, I point out that, although his administration has been hamstrung with compromises from Congress whose end products are garbled, wrong-headed trash that wind up pleasing no one, he has been far more effective than its predecessors in supporting the development of clean energy. (more…)

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

There’s a lot to like about GE’s design (announced just the other day) for their electric vehicle charging station. It looks cools, offers “Level 2” (240 Volt) charging, and provides its customers with “future-proofing,” easily swapping in new technology when it becomes available.

But the most important feature GE’s product is that it exists at all. As I reported in my piece Tough Realities for Renewable Energy Businesses, I urge people to look at the actions of Fortune 25 companies as indications of the underlying truth in the world – and this is a fabulous example. A company with revenues of $157 billion is extremely unlikely to make a commitment to a product space whose revenues will come from a small minority of tree-huggers. This announcement is further evidence that the public and private sectors and moving very quickly – in lock-step with one another – to move electric transportation ahead.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

Perhaps foolishly, I try to keep an open mind about “inventions” that are tantamount to perpetual motion machines.  Having said that, when I run across people who claim to have invented one — and who want to show it to me — (which happens every few weeks), I tell them in advance that they need to show me a working model, and solid proof that what I’m seeing is real. 

Yesterday’s encounter was a classic example of how these turn out.  I set up a meeting (which wasn’t inconvenient, as it was on my way to the beach with the kids) on the basis that I could be shown clearly that the device (which I can’t describe because I signed a non-disclosure agreement) generates more power than it consumes.  Instead, I saw a device consuming power, and generating some — the comparison between the two quantities entirely lacking. 

“This doesn’t demonstrate what you claimed,” I told the guy. 

“Oh don’t worry about that,” he replied, “That will be clear in what we’re working on now.  All we need is a couple of million dollars from our investors, and we’ll have it within a few weeks.” 

“Sorry.  I won’t be participating.  Best of luck.”

I think we need to be open to ideas that lie outside of our paradigms.  I also think that we need to the hold the bar quite high re: credibility.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

I love to be productive on the weekends.  And so, when I was invited to see a demonstation of a new energy-related invention today, I jumped at the chance. 

Making the whole experience more interesting: from its description, it sounds like a perpetual motion machine.  A friend of the inventor said he could explain it to me over the phone.  “Oh no,” I responded.  “I don’t want to hear about it; I want to see it.  If the guy’s defied the laws of physics, that’s worth a trip across town to see any day.” 

So who knows?  I’ll check in with you later.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEbVFbose1g&w=445&h=364]

Lance Miller, president of clean diesel start-up DieselTek discusses the harmony between the company’s managers and its investors. In my experience, this is commonly a sticking point for fledgling organizations, where investors want to make a quick filling, drive to a liquidity event, e.g., an IPO or a merger with a publicly traded organization, and get out. This often contrasts with the intention of managers who may a deep and abiding passion for the subject, and may wish to make it their life’s work.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Here’s another interesting article on liquid ammonia as fuel. The author, Dr. Paul A. Curto, a retired NASA scientist residing in Potomac, MD, has a wonderfully lucid writing style. Give me a Ph.D. who writes like a real person any day!

My only issue here — and it’s a criticism of myself as well, as I’ve done this many times personally — is the statement that liquid ammonia will create 30 million jobs. That’s not incorrect, per se, but it fails to address the question: Who’s going to hire these people? The government? Some blend of the public and private sectors? Why? By what mechanism can we create an environment in which there will be sufficient incentive for the private sector to embrace ammonia with a full-on commitment?

The answer, of course, goes back to the old “internalizing the externalities” argument. Until we, as a civilization, pay the full and true costs of the carbon-based energy we’re producing and consuming, there is no reason on Earth to considering any other solution. But making that happen is a political impossibility. How far we are away from looking at this issue fairly? The EPA and the DoE don’t even list ammonia as a fuel — that’s should give you some idea.

Having said all this, I think we need to agree that the Obama administration has really opened things un in terms of renewable energy. Obama’s popularity is falling — due, I believe,  to the horrible compromises that have left no one happy: shoddy, half-way healthcare reform, ineffective financial reform, and a foreign policy that no one could possibly like. But a great number of new conversations — and even investments — are happening in the energy space that never, ever would have taken place a few years ago.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Solar Thermal

Though the Intersolar show in San Francisco last week was represented far more heavily by PV than solar thermal, there are indications that concentrated solar power (CSP) is enjoying a significant up-tick in public attention. In particular, CSP, rather quiet in the last decade, is expected to experience 46% CAGR in the coming 20 years.

As Heidi Hafes of CSP Today writes in Renewable Energy World, almost 11 gW is “under development.” The problem appears when we pull apart exactly what Ms. Hafes means by that. As she points out, this is a minefield full of delays and blind alleys — in many cases, created by the forces that oppose renewables. She writes: “Three out of four Americans support putting solar power plants on public lands. Yet while oil and gas companies have received more than 74,000 permits to operate on federal lands in the past two decades, utility-scale solar developers have received zero.”

The political supremacy of the fossil fuel industries, achieved in large part through the work of its 7000 lobbyists, has successfully extorted enough votes in Washington to make the migration to renewables very difficult indeed. And if you think they’re good at corruption inside the Beltway and in our state capitals, they’re even better at covering their tracks with public relations. Unfortunately, most people will never even notice the outrageous doubletalk of the oil companies’ vigorously repositioning themselves as “energy” companies – to be perceived as “part of the solution” — to use Chevron’s obscene language. Most people will find it perfectly credible that BP wants to take us “Beyond Petroleum.” And they’ll fall in love with Shell’s extensive new ad campaign, launched directly into the teeth of public outrage of the entire oil sector.

As EnvironmentalLeader.com reports:

The campaign, which Shell is calling “Let’s Go,” repositions Shell as an energy, rather than oil, company, with one television spot implying Shell is investing more money on cleaner-burning natural gas than any other oil company. The campaign will be rolled out across TV, print, and online mediums, and also features two new websites: shell.us/letsgo and energygalaxy.com.

That’s simply nauseating.

It’s hard to encounter this and not be reminded of the famous words of Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”  Of course, Goebbels didn’t exactly meet a happy end; he remained loyal to Hitler until the end, and, in April 1945, he killed his family and himself while Berlin was falling to Soviet troops.  Maybe there’s some sort of lesson to be learned there.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IY7faqvBVz8&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00&border=1]

I point out to my guest (Pat Mahan from FunRide) that I see a great deal of reason for alarm with the expanding war, no clean energy policy in the US, etc. — and I ask, “Does the story have a happy ending?” Pat sees the phenomenon of car sharing as a reason for hope for a brighter tomorrow, and discusses his rationale with me here.

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by Craig ShieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

A few hours ago, I met Dr. Kurt Chistienson, whose company Optomec “paints” the thin silver “fingers” onto PV cells – using proprietary technology that makes them as thin as 30 microns – (a considerable advantage over his competitors’ 40 microns as these conductive circuits cast unwanted shadows on the silicon).  A few minutes later, I ran into a fellow whose group had recently drilled 13,000 holes (for a large solar array) in 20 days.

Within a few yards of one another, this year’s visitors to the Intersolar show found everything from the incredible high-tech machine tools that control physical processes to within 70 nanometers, to eight-foot-long “ground screws” that form the foundation for solar farms. Then, add in all the folks with products and services that complement the physical industry: financiers, print and electronic media, and representatives of various states and regions, hoping to attract projects – and thus jobs.

Another element of diversity that one couldn’t help notice is the global nature of the solar industry. As I’ve been lamenting recently, it’s clear that the US lags behind many other countries in renewable energy, and this phenomenon became that much more painfully obvious at the show. There were plenty of Chinese manufacturers, but entire sections of each of the three floors were exclusively German – with their almost religious devotion to the subject and their perennial stranglehold on state-of-the art engineering.

The omnipresence of the Germans was not entirely a bad thing, however. Of course, anyone with any sense deeply respects what they’ve done in the industry. But even those lacking that sense had to be impressed with the strong coffee they served in the mornings, and the cold beer (Becks and Spaten — what’s not to like there?) in the evenings.

Yet, again, the whole experience, exhilarating as it may have been, was a painful reminder that the US has been caught unawares in the migration to renewables. When I wasn’t running 100 miles per hour myself, I stood and watched thousands of others Americans: job seekers, entrepreneurs, investors — people from all walks of life — scrambling — like so many salmon swimming against the current.

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