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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Photovoltaics

Here’s a video presented by a gentleman who calls himself “Rich,” making me wonder, for a millisecond, why he didn’t use his full name.

It’s an offer to sell instructions on how to build a small solar PV array that generates electricity for “one-tenth the current price per kilowatt-hour,” using panels that are “100% efficient.”

Their introduction: “This free video presentation reveals an MIT-Designed “Smart Tower” capable of generating up to 20x more electricity than conventional solar panels.”

Coincidentally, I was just explaining to an old friend why all this is scientific bs.  The first and most obvious is that the “100% efficiency” claim violates the second law of thermodynamics.

Also, current day PV is ~25% efficient.  To say that these solar panels generate 20 times more energy means that they are now, not 100% efficient, but 500%.

My friend totally gets that part, but what she didn’t understand is why the theoretical limit of PV efficiency is far below that. It’s because the energy of the sun’s photons that are incident on the Earth’s surface have a huge range of frequencies, thus energies.  Some are too low to dislodge an electron in the substrate, and others are so great that, although they do dislodge an electron, the rest of their energy is lost.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Epictetus said this, though not in modern-day Spanish.

It’s just another way of saying what is attributed to Bertrand Russell: “The problem with the world is that fools are completely sure of their beliefs, where wise men are so full of doubts.”

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Everywhere we look on social media we see references to the concept that Donald Trump is the leader of a cult, and that his supporters are incapable of understanding that they are following a sociopath.

Fortunately, it seems that his support base is shrinking, as the former president’s behavior becomes increasingly unhinged.

Having said that, with the general election 14 months away, we need to understand that Trump will receive votes from two distinct camps: a) what’s left of his support base, and b) those who would rather vote for an orangutan than a Democrat.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

A couple of comments on the meme.

There is a distinction to be made between a natural disaster like an earthquake, which has virtually nothing to do with human activity, and wildfires and hurricanes which are greatly exacerbated by human-caused climate change.

The frequency and severity of disasters is not the only criterion for deciding on a place to live.  If you’re not a hateful moron, you probably don’t want to live in a state in which you’ll be surrounded by rednecks.  I would not live in Florida, even if its physical environment were Shangi-la.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

The ridiculous claims made by cleantech scammers are made possible by Americans’ amazing level of ignorance when it comes to science.

Ask yourself how it is remotely possible that driving a hydrogen fuel-cell based car purifies the air.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Uncategorized
From Arizona Republican political figure Kari Lake, “I just want the people of AZ and America to know that I’m (still) fighting it .. and that’s why we created Save Arizona Fund.”  
Adds a reader:  possibly the “Save Kari Lake” fund.

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Between environmental collapse, world fascism, and nuclear holocaust, it’s not easy to name the threat that is most likely to take us down.

And let’s not forget runaway AI.  Carl Sagan warned us many decades ago that we are a civilization built on the exponential development of technology in the context of a society that is almost entirely ignorant of even the most basic elements of science.

We Americans have a tendency to be insular in our thinking, i.e., to entertain the belief that nothing of any real consequence happens outside our borders.  Yet, I think there is a great deal of validity to the idea that the U.S. is at a make-break point, and, that if we can stave off the attack on our democracy and restore rule of law and the acceptance of science in the policy-making, we can lead the world back into some level of rationality and normality.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

There are a number of kitchen appliances on the market that claim to have benefits over the way garbage is traditionally processed, i.e., by being thrown away to decompose in landfills. Of these, Lomi (shown at left) seems to be the largest in terms of sales.

Some of these claims are exaggerated, while others are blatantly false.  True, if you overfill your trash bags, they will spill unwanted garbage onto the floor.  If you leave an open garbage bag under your sink for more than a few days, it will stink.  If you live in rural environments and have no trashcan lids, you may attract raccoons.

But if you think you’re doing the environment a favor by plugging this device into the grid and using electricity to remove the water from your garbage, you’re 100% incorrect.  The scene in their promotional video that shows a net savings in pollution from processing garbage and other green waste using this device isn’t just misleading; it’s a lie.

Notice that they never show a power cord; the device is always photographed with the cord tucked away.

They claim:  Lomi is the easiest, lowest cost investment you can make in fighting climate change. Pure bullshit.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Re: this meme on atheism, I doubt that an examination of the bible causes any significant number of people to disbelieve in God.

I suggest that, like so many other aspects of human behavior, it’s a matter of how our brains are “wired.” Some people are incapable of accepting ideas, especially ideas with huge impact on ourselves and our civilization, without evidence.  The matter becomes ever clearer with each passing year and the accumulation of physical evidence in scientific disciplines like astrophysics and evolutionary biology.

Others, whether it’s through fear of death or the teachings of their parents, are eager to glom onto a concept that puts their fate in the hands of a loving God, who has a plan for their lives, albeit a mysterious and unknowable one.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

At left is a screen shot from this video that suggests that we will soon have robots to fill our gas tanks.

That means that somewhere, someone thinks there will be enormous investments in this infrastructure that will pay for themselves before electric transportation becomes ubiquitous.

Preposterous.

 

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