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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Solar Thermal

A common tactic of Big Oil and the rest of the Trump-supporting world is to point out that some of our government’s investments in cleantech do not pan out.

Unscrupulous people, as well as tens of millions of idiots, are enraged by these failures and interpret them as evidence of incompetence and/or corruption.

On the other hand, fair-minded people understand that it’s impossible for all these investments to be winners; some are bound to fail as the advancement of technology makes unforeseeable twists and turns.

The plummeting costs of solar PV and wind over the past 10 years wiped out a great number of investors in both the private and public sectors, and solar thermal (shown here) was only one.

As an example, I used to attend the annual conferences on hydrokinetics, and I always looked forward to them.  Guess what?  They’re gone. They no longer exist, as a result of the fact that the LCOE (levelized cost of energy) of all forms of hydro can’t compete on large-scale projects, and thus have been relegated to small, niche applications.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

If you don’t mind crying like a little kid, I hope you’ll watch the video below featuring Iris Dement singing “Our Town”; the theme is a sad one indeed.

“Can’t you see, the sun’s sinkin’ fast, but just like they say, nothing good ever lasts” is perhaps a retelling of what our greatest minds have been telling us for ages. For example, we have “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” the work of America’s perhaps most beloved poet, Robert Frost.

The third verse:

I buried my Mama and I buried my Pa
They sleep up the street beside that pretty brick wall
I bring them flowers about every day
But I just gotta cry when I think what they’d say…

I buried both my parents, who were lifelong Republicans, but “I just gotta cry when I think what they’d say” not about the demise of our town, but our nation.

What’s happening to this country is horrible. Maybe it’s reversible, but maybe it’s not.

It’s up to us.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

What JD Vance says at left cuts across everything this country was founded on, and for that reason, it’s bound to fail.

Yes, our population is far more hateful, uneducated, and ignorant of the core principles that underlie the basic formation of our country than it’s ever been before.

But most of us are people of tolerance with a base-level understanding of our history, and therefore, people like Vance have gone as far forward as they possibly can.

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Hydrokinetics

I can’t swear that the meme here speaks the truth, but it’s certainly possible, and more to the point, it illustrates the fact that hydrokinetics has important (although narrow) applications in the constellation of renewable energy.

There are places that a) have terrific hydro resources, and b) are incredibly difficult to power in any other way.

The islands that surround Scotland are perhaps the very best example of this on the entire planet.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

There are dozens of changes in what it means to be a conservative in America that have been made over the past decade, but perhaps the most glaring is the disdain these folks suddenly have for education.

When we baby-boomers were young, learning was universally revered.  “To get a good job, get a good education,” was the mantra.

Now, in the age of Donald Trump, millions of conspiracy theorists believe that our schools promote homosexuality, socialism, and a variety of different “hoaxes” like climate change is real, and vaccines are safe and effective.

What’s driving this?  Some people believe that the people who call the shots in the United States don’t want people who are capable of critical thinking.

One thing is certain: there is a huge correlation between people who didn’t go to college and Trump supporters.  If you’re Donald Trump, you want as much ignorance as you can possibly generate.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

Here’s a video (from Big Oil?) that explains how climate change mitigation is ruining farmer’s lives.

I’m sure you can convince a few morons that what you’re saying here is true.  But the farmer’s I’ve spoken to feel the exact opposite; they see the renewable energy industry as an opportunity to make money.

And that’s especially important now that the tariff situation has made it harder for them to sell their crops.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

We all need to hope that the thought expressed at left becomes true, because the only alternative is Trump’s reaching the same status in the United States that Putin has in Russia, Xi has in China, and Jong Un has in North Korea, i.e., supreme leader for life.

In that scenario, our kids will be reading in their school textbooks that Trump is a kind, honest, hardworking, and intelligent servant of the American people, who saved our country from incipient ruin brought on by the radical socialists who were elected by huge numbers of illegal immigrants let into the U.S. by the “open borders” policies of the Democrats.  All of this was aided by massive voter fraud, i.e., the rigging of voting machines.

There will be 60-foot-high murals and massive statutes of him everywhere, along with frequent military parades in his honor. His birthday will be a national holiday.

Sure, there will be people who reject all this, but countless millions of semiliterate morons will gleefully celebrate their hero’s fine character and his vast accomplishments on their behalf.

Loyalist members of congress will know that they enabled the ruination of a formerly great country, but they will be rewarded with even greater power and wealth than they now enjoy.

Billionaires may not like living in a country that is indistinguishable from North Korea, but they certainly won’t be physically uncomfortable.  And most will remove themselves from this country, if they haven’t already done so.

 

 

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

In the United States, we are a million miles away from a government that works to ensure that its citizens are taken care of, and that at least their basic needs are met.

When we look at Europe, as well as countries like New Zealand, Iceland, Costa Rica, etc., we see that it is possible to blend free enterprise with personal integrity and a sense of community.

Btw, if you get a chance to read the “Essays” of Montaigne, it’s worth your while.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Business

If you think that Trump’s brand is toxic now, just wait and see how this all turns out.

When was the last time you saw a building marked “Hitler Tower?”

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

Is it possible that a (supposedly) more efficient internal combustion engine powered by fossil fuels could win the day as we move further forward into the 21st Century?

If you think so, a) verify for yourself that this technology is legitimate, and then b) if that checks out, by all means, jump on in.

Realize, however, that the whole world is moving to electric transportation, and, for that reason, if a single investor gets back a dime, I’ll be stupefied.

 

 

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