Saving electricity with better lights....
Today's post: Wednesday, 9-21-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects.
And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with an economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Today’s post:
Saving electricity with better lights....
We need massive new installation of renewable energy sources including solar and wind and to become much more energy efficient soon to prevent economic collapse when oil prices surge sometime in the next decade or two.
That’s true even if global warming stops by itself. (The recent fires and drought and record temperatures in Texas suggest the reverse! The people there who don’t believe in global warming didn’t notice apparently.)
Since we don’t yet have massive installations of renewable energy sources, that means it becomes even more critical to find and install all kinds of energy saving and more energy efficient devices that use electricity.
We’ve posted on ways to make homes more heat proof in sunny, hot weather because it can cut air conditioning costs up to 100 %. Even worst case locations can easily save over 50% on air conditioning costs with doable heat proofing.
We’ve posted on how solar canopies or roofs over parking lots not only generate the most electricity on the same sunny, hot days, they save the air conditioning costs for the people who park under them.
Today, lighting uses as much as 25% of all the electricity we use. So if we cut the electricity used by our lights five to one, that gives us about 20% of the electricity we use now for things like electric and plug-in hybrid cars and more computers and severs – WITHOUT needing to add any more electricity generation.
LED lights use as little as 10 % to 12% of the energy incandescent light bulbs use to make the same amount of light. LED lights also use half as much electricity or less than compact fluorescent bulbs – AND, unlike compact fluorescent bulbs, LED lights contain no toxic mercury.
(Many people who have compact fluorescent bulbs don’t know they contain mercury. They are unaware that when one breaks, the mercury causes that room to have a hazardous materials problem and that failure to deal with this correctly can harm their health. And people often are careless in disposing of things. So putting lots of compact fluorescent bulbs into homes is guaranteed to cause lots of added mercury in household trash.)
LED lights also last something like a hundred times longer than incandescent light bulbs and many times as long as compact fluorescent bulbs.
That means that LED lights are dramatically better and more desirable to use.
So why haven’t LED light bulbs already replaced everything out there?
The reasons that has not already happened are these three.:
1. Like the early compact fluorescent bulbs, LED light bulbs that fit in the fixtures that were made for incandescent light bulbs have not been available. This one is beginning to be solved. There are some LED bulbs that make the same amount of light that do fit.
2. Even now when LED bulbs that do fit fixtures are beginning to be available, they can cost $60 each or more while incandescent light bulbs cost a dollar and compact fluorescent bulbs cost less than $10 often.
3. Even though over time LED bulbs last so much longer and use so much less electricity to make light, they are already a good deal on lifetime costs, few people have replaced their other bulbs with LED bulbs. If your house takes 20 bulbs now, replacing all 20 with LED bulbs takes over $1200!
So, the third thing we don’t yet have is financing to buy all the LED bulbs you need at one time. A five year loan for $1200 would be about $24 a month. Most people can afford $24 a month.
The good news is that more and more companies are already making LED bulbs that will fit in the fixtures that were made for incandescent light bulbs.
And, two companies I know of are already working to cut the cost of making LED lights at least in half, Bridgelux and GLO AB.
Once all three of these problems are solved, the only light bulbs that won’t be LED light bulbs are those that are specialty lights of some kind. LED lights don’t yet make some colors or very high intensity lights.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Solyndra had problems but its federal backing was and is a good idea....
Today's post: Wednesday, 9-14-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects.
And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with an economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Today’s post:
Solyndra had problems but its federal backing was and is a good idea….
We need massive new installation of renewable energy sources including solar and wind and to become much more energy efficient soon to prevent economic collapse when oil prices surge sometime in the next decade or two.
That’s true even if global warming stops by itself. (The recent fires and drought and record temperatures in Texas suggest the reverse! The people there who don’t believe in global warming didn’t notice apparently.)
Solyndra proposed a way to install efficient solar photovoltaic cells quickly and on a large scale.
Had it worked, it would have helped produce the badly needed new solar power in the large amounts we need.
So the federal funding had the correct goal.
Their solution turned out to be overpriced as prices in their market dropped before they became established. Some companies have recovered from that.
But they also got too much funding before they got enough sales and feedback from buyers. They also got too much upfront funding instead of having funding contingent on meeting milestones and did NOT use the safer progress payment funding model.
Many very smart people with money and experienced venture capitalists have made these same mistakes.
But what they people trying to criticize the investment or make political capital of Solyndra’s failure don’t know is that success in backing new companies in growth industries does NOT require they all be successful.
If three of ten survive and one does really well investing in the ten often more than doubles your starting money. And, this can happen in few enough years to be interesting indeed!
Secondly, investing in new industry actually works BETTER if you invest quickly and fail quickly. That way, you learn enough to make more successful investments while that industry is still in high growth mode.
So, the federal government program that backed Solyndra invested in a potential solution for the problem that needed solving.
In this case, they failed quickly. They will be better informed for their next investments.
So even in the next few months, they should make better investments than they would have done had Solyndra not failed.
But there is far, far more to this story.
The government was working to get large scale solutions in place and build momentum for even more growth in these solutions.
Solyndra DID fail.
But the exact same program that gave Solyndra the money they lost also looks very much as if the whole program has ALREADY succeeded.
Tesla Motors has successfully created huge and unstoppable momentum in enabling us to power vehicles and transport without oil or while using dramatically less of it.
Moreover that’s true even if Tesla fails also. And, with Toyota as a partner it is increasingly unlikely Tesla will fail.
But thanks to Tesla and its initial success and genius for publicity, virtually every serious player in car manufacturing is working on plug-in hybrids and all electric cars.
In addition, thousands of charging stations for such cars are already in place and several companies are building more.
Solyndra did fail. But the federal program that lost money on it was doing the right things and has already succeeded in its underlying goal. And there’s more good news coming.
Today's post: Wednesday, 9-14-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects.
And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with an economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Today’s post:
Solyndra had problems but its federal backing was and is a good idea….
We need massive new installation of renewable energy sources including solar and wind and to become much more energy efficient soon to prevent economic collapse when oil prices surge sometime in the next decade or two.
That’s true even if global warming stops by itself. (The recent fires and drought and record temperatures in Texas suggest the reverse! The people there who don’t believe in global warming didn’t notice apparently.)
Solyndra proposed a way to install efficient solar photovoltaic cells quickly and on a large scale.
Had it worked, it would have helped produce the badly needed new solar power in the large amounts we need.
So the federal funding had the correct goal.
Their solution turned out to be overpriced as prices in their market dropped before they became established. Some companies have recovered from that.
But they also got too much funding before they got enough sales and feedback from buyers. They also got too much upfront funding instead of having funding contingent on meeting milestones and did NOT use the safer progress payment funding model.
Many very smart people with money and experienced venture capitalists have made these same mistakes.
But what they people trying to criticize the investment or make political capital of Solyndra’s failure don’t know is that success in backing new companies in growth industries does NOT require they all be successful.
If three of ten survive and one does really well investing in the ten often more than doubles your starting money. And, this can happen in few enough years to be interesting indeed!
Secondly, investing in new industry actually works BETTER if you invest quickly and fail quickly. That way, you learn enough to make more successful investments while that industry is still in high growth mode.
So, the federal government program that backed Solyndra invested in a potential solution for the problem that needed solving.
In this case, they failed quickly. They will be better informed for their next investments.
So even in the next few months, they should make better investments than they would have done had Solyndra not failed.
But there is far, far more to this story.
The government was working to get large scale solutions in place and build momentum for even more growth in these solutions.
Solyndra DID fail.
But the exact same program that gave Solyndra the money they lost also looks very much as if the whole program has ALREADY succeeded.
Tesla Motors has successfully created huge and unstoppable momentum in enabling us to power vehicles and transport without oil or while using dramatically less of it.
Moreover that’s true even if Tesla fails also. And, with Toyota as a partner it is increasingly unlikely Tesla will fail.
But thanks to Tesla and its initial success and genius for publicity, virtually every serious player in car manufacturing is working on plug-in hybrids and all electric cars.
In addition, thousands of charging stations for such cars are already in place and several companies are building more.
Solyndra did fail. But the federal program that lost money on it was doing the right things and has already succeeded in its underlying goal. And there’s more good news coming.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Ways communities and utilities can create jobs and clean energy....
Today's post: Wednesday, 8-10-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects.
And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Today’s post:
Ways communities and utilities can create jobs and clean energy....
I see 3 ways this can be done.
1. They can sponsor homes and businesses they serve to do just a few things that will make a major difference if lots of the homeowners and businesses do them.
Such things as:
adding insulation
and weather stripping or heat proofing buildings with peaked roofs by adding well screened intake ports around their perimeter and convection powered turbines so that the spaces between the roof and ceiling stay very warm and cool off when the sun goes down instead of being much hotter than the air temperature and staying that way all night
or replacing all or most of the light bulbs with LED bulbs fit here.
2. They can sponsor a special program for homeowners and businesses to do all or add most of the energy saving or renewable or onsite power generation methods they don’t already have in place.
That would add doing things like double pane windows and adding solar power in addition to doing all three of the things above.
3. They can in addition sponsor a program for all local organizations and businesses that have parking lots that get sun now to cover them with solar photovoltaic canopies.
This one is a surprisingly large opportunity that has extra benefits.
Every community in the United States has from hundreds to thousands of parking lots where people park where they work or where they shop. With minor exceptions such as some breaks for daytime light or trees now in the larger parking lots, every square foot of those parking lots could be generating solar electricity for the businesses or shops involved.
But that’s not the only benefit. The canopies and the solar cells will make the cars and people in the parking lots MUCH cooler in the summer. On a 100 degree summer day, the cars will be up to 100 degrees inside instead of the 120 to 150 degrees they often are now. That will give the shops that offer them a competitive advantage. And it will save the energy now spent by the people running their car air conditioners to remove all that heat. Lastly, it will make getting in and out of their cars and going to and from their cars much drier and less of a hassle in rainy weather.
A. Given the sparse money currently available to the governments of communities from small towns to large states, their main role will likely need to be to:
Encourage the utilities serving them to offer and finance such programs.
Encourage the companies that now finance solar installations to offer similar financing to other energy saving work to new customers even without solar and to other energy saving work for their current solar clients.
Publicize to everyone in their communities that these programs exist as they become available so everyone who lives there knows they exist. This one they can do immediately because of the programs that already exist that companies such as Solar City and Sungevity offer.
Offer lower permit fees or fast track the project approvals or both for the work to install such projects.
B) Utilities have more to gain and more money available to promote such projects.
They can publicize the value of doing these things and the national and local companies that offer them in the areas they serve.
But in addition, they can offer to help finance all such upgrades that save energy in the summer or which add more solar power either for homeowners or businesses that have no other way to finance them or offer incentives for using other financing options.
Doing this would likely add more to their ability to meet peak summer demand than adding more fossil fuel or nuclear power plants, do it in a tenth of the time, and at far less cost.
Lastly, they could ask for small increases in rates to help pay to do even more in this area. Germany is doing extremely well using this technique, FIT or feed-in tariff, to add more solar and such energy saving upgrades.
Every one of these actions will improve the economy and add jobs in the communities that do them.
The money saved from the energy savings over time will also strengthen the local economy as the residents will have more money to spend.
And, it will give the utility companies a more diverse and stable way to generate and supply energy and meet peak demands.
Today's post: Wednesday, 8-10-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects.
And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Today’s post:
Ways communities and utilities can create jobs and clean energy....
I see 3 ways this can be done.
1. They can sponsor homes and businesses they serve to do just a few things that will make a major difference if lots of the homeowners and businesses do them.
Such things as:
adding insulation
and weather stripping or heat proofing buildings with peaked roofs by adding well screened intake ports around their perimeter and convection powered turbines so that the spaces between the roof and ceiling stay very warm and cool off when the sun goes down instead of being much hotter than the air temperature and staying that way all night
or replacing all or most of the light bulbs with LED bulbs fit here.
2. They can sponsor a special program for homeowners and businesses to do all or add most of the energy saving or renewable or onsite power generation methods they don’t already have in place.
That would add doing things like double pane windows and adding solar power in addition to doing all three of the things above.
3. They can in addition sponsor a program for all local organizations and businesses that have parking lots that get sun now to cover them with solar photovoltaic canopies.
This one is a surprisingly large opportunity that has extra benefits.
Every community in the United States has from hundreds to thousands of parking lots where people park where they work or where they shop. With minor exceptions such as some breaks for daytime light or trees now in the larger parking lots, every square foot of those parking lots could be generating solar electricity for the businesses or shops involved.
But that’s not the only benefit. The canopies and the solar cells will make the cars and people in the parking lots MUCH cooler in the summer. On a 100 degree summer day, the cars will be up to 100 degrees inside instead of the 120 to 150 degrees they often are now. That will give the shops that offer them a competitive advantage. And it will save the energy now spent by the people running their car air conditioners to remove all that heat. Lastly, it will make getting in and out of their cars and going to and from their cars much drier and less of a hassle in rainy weather.
A. Given the sparse money currently available to the governments of communities from small towns to large states, their main role will likely need to be to:
Encourage the utilities serving them to offer and finance such programs.
Encourage the companies that now finance solar installations to offer similar financing to other energy saving work to new customers even without solar and to other energy saving work for their current solar clients.
Publicize to everyone in their communities that these programs exist as they become available so everyone who lives there knows they exist. This one they can do immediately because of the programs that already exist that companies such as Solar City and Sungevity offer.
Offer lower permit fees or fast track the project approvals or both for the work to install such projects.
B) Utilities have more to gain and more money available to promote such projects.
They can publicize the value of doing these things and the national and local companies that offer them in the areas they serve.
But in addition, they can offer to help finance all such upgrades that save energy in the summer or which add more solar power either for homeowners or businesses that have no other way to finance them or offer incentives for using other financing options.
Doing this would likely add more to their ability to meet peak summer demand than adding more fossil fuel or nuclear power plants, do it in a tenth of the time, and at far less cost.
Lastly, they could ask for small increases in rates to help pay to do even more in this area. Germany is doing extremely well using this technique, FIT or feed-in tariff, to add more solar and such energy saving upgrades.
Every one of these actions will improve the economy and add jobs in the communities that do them.
The money saved from the energy savings over time will also strengthen the local economy as the residents will have more money to spend.
And, it will give the utility companies a more diverse and stable way to generate and supply energy and meet peak demands.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Clean and sustainable energy is beginning to add jobs
Today's post: Wednesday, 8-3-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects.
And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Today's post:
Clean and sustainable energy is beginning to add jobs
We need more jobs to put people to work and boost the economy.
The more jobs we add, the better off we are.
And, the more reliable, sustainable, clean, and efficient our energy production and use becomes, the stronger our economy will be and the more jobs there will be.
So the recent uptrend in new solar projects and new solar financing is very good news indeed!
We recently did a post or two on this uptrend. And, today on www.greentechmedia.com is an article on the recent uptrend in solar and solar financing.
The two GreenTech Media stories that caught my attention were:
1. A company called Prologis apparently is of massive size and owns warehouses throughout the United States. They now have the financing to put photovoltaic cells on every one of the roofs of their warehouses that it can be placed on.
Why is that so important?
If that project gets done successfully, it will add as much PV electricity as ALL the PV electricity we had in place in 2010. (I hope they do a phase 2 to put up solar canopies over all the parking lots involved.)
2. A story highlights that solar thermal power can store the heat it collects to generate electricity for hours after the sun goes down and to be able to match the electricty they send to the grid to the demand for it.
BrightSource Energy with its solar thermal tower design says the higher temperatures of its design can do this better than thermal solar trough design. That may or may not be true. And it's less likely to be true for doing better per dollar spent since the trough design is far cheaper and faster to deploy.
But this is great to see either way since it begins to make solar more capable of replacing electricity made by burning fossil fuels or from nuclear power.
A thermal solar plant in Spain has even provided 24 hour electricity during the summer and other times of year with lots of sun.
At some point, larger solar power locations will also add batteries to enable 24 hour electricity supply as needed to match demand on the grid. The technology to make this doable and cost effective is coming I believe.
Clearly this will likely happen first at solar thermal locations.
Today's post: Wednesday, 8-3-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects.
And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Today's post:
Clean and sustainable energy is beginning to add jobs
We need more jobs to put people to work and boost the economy.
The more jobs we add, the better off we are.
And, the more reliable, sustainable, clean, and efficient our energy production and use becomes, the stronger our economy will be and the more jobs there will be.
So the recent uptrend in new solar projects and new solar financing is very good news indeed!
We recently did a post or two on this uptrend. And, today on www.greentechmedia.com is an article on the recent uptrend in solar and solar financing.
The two GreenTech Media stories that caught my attention were:
1. A company called Prologis apparently is of massive size and owns warehouses throughout the United States. They now have the financing to put photovoltaic cells on every one of the roofs of their warehouses that it can be placed on.
Why is that so important?
If that project gets done successfully, it will add as much PV electricity as ALL the PV electricity we had in place in 2010. (I hope they do a phase 2 to put up solar canopies over all the parking lots involved.)
2. A story highlights that solar thermal power can store the heat it collects to generate electricity for hours after the sun goes down and to be able to match the electricty they send to the grid to the demand for it.
BrightSource Energy with its solar thermal tower design says the higher temperatures of its design can do this better than thermal solar trough design. That may or may not be true. And it's less likely to be true for doing better per dollar spent since the trough design is far cheaper and faster to deploy.
But this is great to see either way since it begins to make solar more capable of replacing electricity made by burning fossil fuels or from nuclear power.
A thermal solar plant in Spain has even provided 24 hour electricity during the summer and other times of year with lots of sun.
At some point, larger solar power locations will also add batteries to enable 24 hour electricity supply as needed to match demand on the grid. The technology to make this doable and cost effective is coming I believe.
Clearly this will likely happen first at solar thermal locations.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Several kinds of good news on solar....
Today's post: Wednesday, 7-27-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects.
And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Today’s post:
Several kinds of good news on solar....
1. For years now, the Germans have done the world’s best job on adding solar capacity. And they are now out to double that to help replace using even less nuclear power.
2. As we posted on last week, China is beginning to add significant solar capacity & the CEO we posted on then of Suntech Solar said that China was on its way to becoming one of the two largest solar markets.
3. He also said that the United States is also on its way to becoming one of the two largest solar markets.
For example, in California, where there is lots of sun, a lot of innovation driven companies, and a lot of voters who value renewable energy, three good things are happening.
Now that no upfront money needed financing is available to add solar, the number of homeowners adding solar to their homes has already about doubled since before that happened.
Solar City and Sungevity are two of the strongest players in that market; but there are many more.
Second and third, California Governor, Jerry Brown just announced a plan to also add about 12% of the state’s future electricity in medium to small sized solar locations near existing transmission lines (and near where people will use the electricity are living.) Nanosolar is a thin film solar company specializing in serving this market at lowest cost and fastest deployment. They have already been installing such systems in Germany.
The other part of his plan is to add large solar farms both photovoltaic and thermal in locations where there is room to put them and lots of sun to add another 10% of the states future electricity. Many of those projects also got federal support and are already being built.
There are three pieces of good news in this.
California is a state that because of its innovations is often copied by other states when the innovations work.
The cash going into solar companies that supply California will cause them to grow and gradually drive prices down so the day is near when solar is one of the cheapest ways to generate electricity per watt.
And, since almost all of Mexico has multiple times the solar potential of the sunniest part of California, Mexico will begin to copy California and initially buy from solar companies in the United States.
4. Many major corporations in the world are also increasing their investment in solar products.
Just this week DuPont bought Innovalight, a Silicon Valley company, that makes specialty inks that can increase the electricity produced in a solar cell or installation in a given area.
I also heard an ad on the radio a few days ago sponsored by Sharp Solar, a Japanese technology company. They were advertising adding their panels with a solar lease program to the people in our area.
Applied Materials in the United States is a large technology company in the Silicon Valley and already has millions of dollars a year in sales from its thin film solar related products.
5. And, this is the tip of the iceberg. The events I’m reporting here may be as little as a ninth or tenth of what is happening in real solar progress that I haven’t yet learned about.
Global warming related costs are already going up and the world wide recession and rising health care costs are still with us.
But in solar, there is increasingly good news!
Today's post: Wednesday, 7-27-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects.
And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Today’s post:
Several kinds of good news on solar....
1. For years now, the Germans have done the world’s best job on adding solar capacity. And they are now out to double that to help replace using even less nuclear power.
2. As we posted on last week, China is beginning to add significant solar capacity & the CEO we posted on then of Suntech Solar said that China was on its way to becoming one of the two largest solar markets.
3. He also said that the United States is also on its way to becoming one of the two largest solar markets.
For example, in California, where there is lots of sun, a lot of innovation driven companies, and a lot of voters who value renewable energy, three good things are happening.
Now that no upfront money needed financing is available to add solar, the number of homeowners adding solar to their homes has already about doubled since before that happened.
Solar City and Sungevity are two of the strongest players in that market; but there are many more.
Second and third, California Governor, Jerry Brown just announced a plan to also add about 12% of the state’s future electricity in medium to small sized solar locations near existing transmission lines (and near where people will use the electricity are living.) Nanosolar is a thin film solar company specializing in serving this market at lowest cost and fastest deployment. They have already been installing such systems in Germany.
The other part of his plan is to add large solar farms both photovoltaic and thermal in locations where there is room to put them and lots of sun to add another 10% of the states future electricity. Many of those projects also got federal support and are already being built.
There are three pieces of good news in this.
California is a state that because of its innovations is often copied by other states when the innovations work.
The cash going into solar companies that supply California will cause them to grow and gradually drive prices down so the day is near when solar is one of the cheapest ways to generate electricity per watt.
And, since almost all of Mexico has multiple times the solar potential of the sunniest part of California, Mexico will begin to copy California and initially buy from solar companies in the United States.
4. Many major corporations in the world are also increasing their investment in solar products.
Just this week DuPont bought Innovalight, a Silicon Valley company, that makes specialty inks that can increase the electricity produced in a solar cell or installation in a given area.
I also heard an ad on the radio a few days ago sponsored by Sharp Solar, a Japanese technology company. They were advertising adding their panels with a solar lease program to the people in our area.
Applied Materials in the United States is a large technology company in the Silicon Valley and already has millions of dollars a year in sales from its thin film solar related products.
5. And, this is the tip of the iceberg. The events I’m reporting here may be as little as a ninth or tenth of what is happening in real solar progress that I haven’t yet learned about.
Global warming related costs are already going up and the world wide recession and rising health care costs are still with us.
But in solar, there is increasingly good news!
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Positive comments from a world class solar CEO....
Today's post: Wednesday, 7-20-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects.
And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Today’s post:
Positive comments from a world class solar CEO....
Suntech Power is one of the largest solar companies in the world. Its CEO and founder, Mr. Zengrong Shi is a world class CEO and entrepreneur.
As his name suggests, he and Suntech are from China. (His quotes appeared yesterday in the San Jose Mercury News.)
They have cut the cost per watt of solar cells from $6 per watt to about $1.60. “This is all manufacturing innovation….along the supply chain.” “…it is not revolutionary. It looks more incremental, but it is very effective.”
He is visiting the Silicon Valley which he does about every month and a half to also check out innovations and new technology or potential joint venture partners here.
He said, “There is a lot of R&D activity going on in the Silicon Valley. Results are encouraging. But we need to see a viable commercial solution because with solar we are talking about scale, costs, and reliability.”
So far, the largest market in the world is in Europe and Germany in particular. But Shi thinks that will change. “In the future, the Chinese and American market will be the major markets.”
He also said that if a company drives the cost down and the solar panels are “cheaper, the market is bigger.”
He also said that “The installation of one megawatt of electricity….creates 35 jobs, most of them locally.”
“From that perspective, protectionism is not a winning policy.”
When the United States was often building the best and most innovative products, we felt the same way.
But he has an added point that local jobs are created no matter who provides the solar panels.
But there are still other reasons for not being protectionist against superior or as good but cheaper products from outside the United States in the areas of renewable energy.
1. The need for more and affordable sources of renewable energy is huge. If we do get a lot more, our economy will expand instead of shrink and there will be more jobs.
It’s hard to understate how important that is. When effective energy use goes up the economy grows. Recently, when the cost of gasoline shot up, it became one of the two triggers of our current recession.
Putting up protectionist barriers in renewable energy fields will reliably remove more jobs than it adds!
2. Here in the United States, we also have a second traditional competitive advantage that is still intact. Even if things are not invented here or made here, if they do a good job where there is demand for them, we tend to be the best in the world at selling them. The money from doing so ALSO creates jobs.
So, if protectionism cuts our access to the best products to sell or makes them cost more, that too decreases jobs.
So, I like the way Mr. Shi thinks. He understands exactly what the worldwide market needs from the solar industry. And I sincerely hope his optimistic forecast about China and the United States becoming the biggest solar markets comes to pass.
I think he is a world class CEO. And we would do well to emulate him instead of throwing roadblocks in his path.
Today's post: Wednesday, 7-20-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects.
And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Today’s post:
Positive comments from a world class solar CEO....
Suntech Power is one of the largest solar companies in the world. Its CEO and founder, Mr. Zengrong Shi is a world class CEO and entrepreneur.
As his name suggests, he and Suntech are from China. (His quotes appeared yesterday in the San Jose Mercury News.)
They have cut the cost per watt of solar cells from $6 per watt to about $1.60. “This is all manufacturing innovation….along the supply chain.” “…it is not revolutionary. It looks more incremental, but it is very effective.”
He is visiting the Silicon Valley which he does about every month and a half to also check out innovations and new technology or potential joint venture partners here.
He said, “There is a lot of R&D activity going on in the Silicon Valley. Results are encouraging. But we need to see a viable commercial solution because with solar we are talking about scale, costs, and reliability.”
So far, the largest market in the world is in Europe and Germany in particular. But Shi thinks that will change. “In the future, the Chinese and American market will be the major markets.”
He also said that if a company drives the cost down and the solar panels are “cheaper, the market is bigger.”
He also said that “The installation of one megawatt of electricity….creates 35 jobs, most of them locally.”
“From that perspective, protectionism is not a winning policy.”
When the United States was often building the best and most innovative products, we felt the same way.
But he has an added point that local jobs are created no matter who provides the solar panels.
But there are still other reasons for not being protectionist against superior or as good but cheaper products from outside the United States in the areas of renewable energy.
1. The need for more and affordable sources of renewable energy is huge. If we do get a lot more, our economy will expand instead of shrink and there will be more jobs.
It’s hard to understate how important that is. When effective energy use goes up the economy grows. Recently, when the cost of gasoline shot up, it became one of the two triggers of our current recession.
Putting up protectionist barriers in renewable energy fields will reliably remove more jobs than it adds!
2. Here in the United States, we also have a second traditional competitive advantage that is still intact. Even if things are not invented here or made here, if they do a good job where there is demand for them, we tend to be the best in the world at selling them. The money from doing so ALSO creates jobs.
So, if protectionism cuts our access to the best products to sell or makes them cost more, that too decreases jobs.
So, I like the way Mr. Shi thinks. He understands exactly what the worldwide market needs from the solar industry. And I sincerely hope his optimistic forecast about China and the United States becoming the biggest solar markets comes to pass.
I think he is a world class CEO. And we would do well to emulate him instead of throwing roadblocks in his path.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Lower your summer AC bills with Lowe’s Home Improvement....
Today's post: Wednesday, 7-13-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects.
And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Today’s post:
Lower your summer AC bills with Lowe’s Home Improvement....
(See our post: Slash summer air conditioning costs two ways….Wednesday, 6-22-2010 for why to do the things listed and more details.)
The summary:
1. You can dramatically cut the heat going into your house so that you have to pay far less to pump it out.
a) You can add regular insulation &/or buy radiant barrier insulation with styrofoam backing as little as one fourth inch thick at Lowes.
(Doing it both ways to also reflect heat back in the winter can be just a bit over a half inch thick and save on your heating bills too.) This does a good job of preventing the radiant heat from the sun from getting into your house.
b) You can add several well screened new ways to get air to the underside of your roof between it and your ceiling AND add convection powered roof turbines.
That way you stop having the space between your roof and ceiling as a solar heater with air between 160 & over 200 degree still air.
Instead, that air is just a few degrees warmer than the outside air because the extra heat leaves out of the spinning roof turbines. The air between your roof and ceiling can be 100 degrees when it’s 95 and sunny instead of 185! Even better, when the day gets later and when the sun goes down it can be 70 degrees there when it’s 70 outside instead of 170!
c) You can install ceiling fans in the rooms you spend the most time in. And, if mounted in the ceiling instead of hanging down, they don’t wobble all over as the hanging ones do.
Even on a moderately low and quiet setting, they cut the perceived temperature by about 5 degrees. You can set your AC for 75 degrees and with the ceiling fans it feels like 70. And if your utility wants you to set your AC to 78 on the hottest days, it will still feel like 73 with ceiling fans.
I just checked. Lowes sells the sheets of styrofoam backed radiant heat barrier insulation and the roof turbines.
But Lowes does NOT arrange installation of the roof turbines that leaves your roof watertight nor do they arrange for a contractor to add several well screened new ways to get air to the underside of your roof between it and your ceiling.
With the interior ceiling fans they provide both the ceiling fans and a local installer. (That local installer is prohibited though by contract from doing other work for you. So the other work has to be from a different contractor or two.)
d) You can also install more regular insulation if you have little or none now. And, you can install all double pane windows if you don’t already have them. Pella, Anderson, and Marvin all make good double pane windows. Marvin I think is the only one that offers wood both inside and out if you prefer that.
Once you have this heat proofing in place, you may well be able to cut 70 to 100 % on your AC bill. And, in most places hot nights after hot days will be a memory!
(We only had gotten to the added entry ports and roof fans plus ceiling fans. We hadn’t gotten yet to the double pane windows and radiant barrier insulation and more regular insulation.
On a day that was 95 degrees outside before, it would be about 85 degrees inside from 3 PM to 3 AM inside.
But after just adding the roof turbine system and the ceiling fans it was 75 degrees inside and felt fine with the ceiling fans. Then at night it dropped to below 70 inside.
If we had had AC, our bill would have dropped to zero since we would never have turned it on.)
In locations that get hotter than 95 and stay above 75 degrees at night, AC would still have been needed. But you begin to get the idea from our experience how much less you’d need to run it and pay the bill for.
2. You can also add solar panels to make extra electricity at your home. If you heat proof first, you may find your summer AC bill drops to zero since the solar panels provide enough for what you use in hot, sunny weather.
It’s not rolled out to all the Lowe’s stores yet. But you can work from your local store once it is to get accurate solar bids from your location and the satellite view of it AND a lease so you don’t need a lot of money upfront to have solar panels added.
In some cases the lease payment will be less than the savings on your AC bill!
Sungevity is the company that is partnering with Lowe’s to provide this.
3. If on days you do need AC, if you lower your inside temperature to 68 degrees in the morning and you have done this heat proofing, you get several benefits.
The outside air at that hour of the morning is coolest. So the AC is most efficient and produces cooler temperatures using less electricity. Even better, the rates at that time of day are lowest due to low demand.
It will stay cool inside your house so it will be comfortable to be in during the day and it will be cool at night so you can sleep in cool temperatures.
If after doing this you then set the AC to 75, it will only go on AT ALL on the very hottest days.
By combining these steps you can drop a several hundred dollar month bill for electricity to run your AC to less than $50 or even zero!
Today's post: Wednesday, 7-13-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects.
And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Today’s post:
Lower your summer AC bills with Lowe’s Home Improvement....
(See our post: Slash summer air conditioning costs two ways….Wednesday, 6-22-2010 for why to do the things listed and more details.)
The summary:
1. You can dramatically cut the heat going into your house so that you have to pay far less to pump it out.
a) You can add regular insulation &/or buy radiant barrier insulation with styrofoam backing as little as one fourth inch thick at Lowes.
(Doing it both ways to also reflect heat back in the winter can be just a bit over a half inch thick and save on your heating bills too.) This does a good job of preventing the radiant heat from the sun from getting into your house.
b) You can add several well screened new ways to get air to the underside of your roof between it and your ceiling AND add convection powered roof turbines.
That way you stop having the space between your roof and ceiling as a solar heater with air between 160 & over 200 degree still air.
Instead, that air is just a few degrees warmer than the outside air because the extra heat leaves out of the spinning roof turbines. The air between your roof and ceiling can be 100 degrees when it’s 95 and sunny instead of 185! Even better, when the day gets later and when the sun goes down it can be 70 degrees there when it’s 70 outside instead of 170!
c) You can install ceiling fans in the rooms you spend the most time in. And, if mounted in the ceiling instead of hanging down, they don’t wobble all over as the hanging ones do.
Even on a moderately low and quiet setting, they cut the perceived temperature by about 5 degrees. You can set your AC for 75 degrees and with the ceiling fans it feels like 70. And if your utility wants you to set your AC to 78 on the hottest days, it will still feel like 73 with ceiling fans.
I just checked. Lowes sells the sheets of styrofoam backed radiant heat barrier insulation and the roof turbines.
But Lowes does NOT arrange installation of the roof turbines that leaves your roof watertight nor do they arrange for a contractor to add several well screened new ways to get air to the underside of your roof between it and your ceiling.
With the interior ceiling fans they provide both the ceiling fans and a local installer. (That local installer is prohibited though by contract from doing other work for you. So the other work has to be from a different contractor or two.)
d) You can also install more regular insulation if you have little or none now. And, you can install all double pane windows if you don’t already have them. Pella, Anderson, and Marvin all make good double pane windows. Marvin I think is the only one that offers wood both inside and out if you prefer that.
Once you have this heat proofing in place, you may well be able to cut 70 to 100 % on your AC bill. And, in most places hot nights after hot days will be a memory!
(We only had gotten to the added entry ports and roof fans plus ceiling fans. We hadn’t gotten yet to the double pane windows and radiant barrier insulation and more regular insulation.
On a day that was 95 degrees outside before, it would be about 85 degrees inside from 3 PM to 3 AM inside.
But after just adding the roof turbine system and the ceiling fans it was 75 degrees inside and felt fine with the ceiling fans. Then at night it dropped to below 70 inside.
If we had had AC, our bill would have dropped to zero since we would never have turned it on.)
In locations that get hotter than 95 and stay above 75 degrees at night, AC would still have been needed. But you begin to get the idea from our experience how much less you’d need to run it and pay the bill for.
2. You can also add solar panels to make extra electricity at your home. If you heat proof first, you may find your summer AC bill drops to zero since the solar panels provide enough for what you use in hot, sunny weather.
It’s not rolled out to all the Lowe’s stores yet. But you can work from your local store once it is to get accurate solar bids from your location and the satellite view of it AND a lease so you don’t need a lot of money upfront to have solar panels added.
In some cases the lease payment will be less than the savings on your AC bill!
Sungevity is the company that is partnering with Lowe’s to provide this.
3. If on days you do need AC, if you lower your inside temperature to 68 degrees in the morning and you have done this heat proofing, you get several benefits.
The outside air at that hour of the morning is coolest. So the AC is most efficient and produces cooler temperatures using less electricity. Even better, the rates at that time of day are lowest due to low demand.
It will stay cool inside your house so it will be comfortable to be in during the day and it will be cool at night so you can sleep in cool temperatures.
If after doing this you then set the AC to 75, it will only go on AT ALL on the very hottest days.
By combining these steps you can drop a several hundred dollar month bill for electricity to run your AC to less than $50 or even zero!
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Google research report shows clean energy adds jobs and grows the economy....
Today's post: Wednesday, 7-6-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects.
And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Today’s post:
Google research report shows clean energy adds jobs and grows the economy....
See the full report at:
http://leadenergy.org/2011/06/google-energy-innovation-offers-transformative-impact/
Here’s the key summary:
“Achieving breakthroughs in energy technology could have a “transformative impact” on United States, offering major benefits for economic growth, job creation, lower energy costs for American families, and reduced oil consumption and carbon emissions. By 2030, the economic analysis finds that key energy innovations alone could provide the following benefits over business-as-usual:
Grow the US economy by over $155 billion in GDP/year
Create over 1.1 million new net jobs
Save US consumers over $942/household/year
Reduce US oil consumption by over 1.1 billion barrels/year
Reduce US total greenhouse gas emissions by 13%.”
Research on such technology is a first priority based on this analysis. So, is using the clean technology we already have more than we have already done.
1. Such research has some support even from conservative groups:
"...there’s one tried and true method for the federal government to drive breakthroughs in technology: major investment in research and development.
That’s why a growing bipartisan group of think tanks and business leaders — including groups like the American Energy Innovation Council, American Enterprise Institute, Breakthrough Institute, Brookings Institution, Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, Association of American Universities, Third Way, President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, New England Clean Energy Council, and many others — have been calling on the federal government to increase its investment in advanced energy research and development from approximately $3 billion to $15 billion per year.
As David Leonhardt wrote in the New York Times last fall, “To put it another way, the death of cap and trade doesn’t have to mean the death of climate policy. The alternative revolves around much more, and much better organized, financing for clean energy research. It’s an idea with a growing list of supporters, a list that even includes conservatives — most of whom opposed cap and trade.”
One of Google’s key executives invested in a company working on battery technology enabling more electricity to be stored in a given size or weight of batteries.
(The report describes the importance of such technology well: “Breakthroughs in electric vehicle (EV) batteries could be transformative: cheaper and denser battery technology could enable mass adoption of electric vehicles and unlock much of the potential economic benefits. The report notes, “This leads to EVs, Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV) and Plug-In Electric Vehicles (PHEV) achieving 90% market share for light duty vehicle sales, reducing oil consumption by 1.1 billion barrels per year by 2030 -- or more than Canada’s entire 2009 oil production.”
2. Google also has invested in expanding the use of clean technology we already have more than we have already done.
They have helped back solar thermal and solar photovoltaic large scale “farms” to produce clean electricity on a large scale.
They have supported a program to allow homeowners to install solar photovoltaic panels at no money down. (In some cases the savings on the energy bills of homeowners will start out being less than the payment for their solar system in the first year!)
And, Google has supported a major project to build more wind generated electricity.
Here’s my comment on this report:
“Very, very well done.
I most liked this part: "The alternative revolves around much more, and much better organized, financing for clean energy research. It’s an idea with a growing list of supporters, a list that even includes conservatives most of whom opposed cap and trade."
That potentially makes it politically doable.
I also like that the analysis says this policy will add jobs, add GDP, and save people money. Most people support those things. That too makes it doable politically.
That’s in addition to the reduction of our extremely dangerous dependence on the fossil fuels we are using up faster and faster.
And it’s in addition to halting excess CO2 release. That’s less salable now; but it is just as true and important.
Thanks much to Google and its key people for helping make this happen in so many ways.”
Today's post: Wednesday, 7-6-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects.
And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Today’s post:
Google research report shows clean energy adds jobs and grows the economy....
See the full report at:
http://leadenergy.org/2011/06/google-energy-innovation-offers-transformative-impact/
Here’s the key summary:
“Achieving breakthroughs in energy technology could have a “transformative impact” on United States, offering major benefits for economic growth, job creation, lower energy costs for American families, and reduced oil consumption and carbon emissions. By 2030, the economic analysis finds that key energy innovations alone could provide the following benefits over business-as-usual:
Grow the US economy by over $155 billion in GDP/year
Create over 1.1 million new net jobs
Save US consumers over $942/household/year
Reduce US oil consumption by over 1.1 billion barrels/year
Reduce US total greenhouse gas emissions by 13%.”
Research on such technology is a first priority based on this analysis. So, is using the clean technology we already have more than we have already done.
1. Such research has some support even from conservative groups:
"...there’s one tried and true method for the federal government to drive breakthroughs in technology: major investment in research and development.
That’s why a growing bipartisan group of think tanks and business leaders — including groups like the American Energy Innovation Council, American Enterprise Institute, Breakthrough Institute, Brookings Institution, Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, Association of American Universities, Third Way, President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, New England Clean Energy Council, and many others — have been calling on the federal government to increase its investment in advanced energy research and development from approximately $3 billion to $15 billion per year.
As David Leonhardt wrote in the New York Times last fall, “To put it another way, the death of cap and trade doesn’t have to mean the death of climate policy. The alternative revolves around much more, and much better organized, financing for clean energy research. It’s an idea with a growing list of supporters, a list that even includes conservatives — most of whom opposed cap and trade.”
One of Google’s key executives invested in a company working on battery technology enabling more electricity to be stored in a given size or weight of batteries.
(The report describes the importance of such technology well: “Breakthroughs in electric vehicle (EV) batteries could be transformative: cheaper and denser battery technology could enable mass adoption of electric vehicles and unlock much of the potential economic benefits. The report notes, “This leads to EVs, Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV) and Plug-In Electric Vehicles (PHEV) achieving 90% market share for light duty vehicle sales, reducing oil consumption by 1.1 billion barrels per year by 2030 -- or more than Canada’s entire 2009 oil production.”
2. Google also has invested in expanding the use of clean technology we already have more than we have already done.
They have helped back solar thermal and solar photovoltaic large scale “farms” to produce clean electricity on a large scale.
They have supported a program to allow homeowners to install solar photovoltaic panels at no money down. (In some cases the savings on the energy bills of homeowners will start out being less than the payment for their solar system in the first year!)
And, Google has supported a major project to build more wind generated electricity.
Here’s my comment on this report:
“Very, very well done.
I most liked this part: "The alternative revolves around much more, and much better organized, financing for clean energy research. It’s an idea with a growing list of supporters, a list that even includes conservatives most of whom opposed cap and trade."
That potentially makes it politically doable.
I also like that the analysis says this policy will add jobs, add GDP, and save people money. Most people support those things. That too makes it doable politically.
That’s in addition to the reduction of our extremely dangerous dependence on the fossil fuels we are using up faster and faster.
And it’s in addition to halting excess CO2 release. That’s less salable now; but it is just as true and important.
Thanks much to Google and its key people for helping make this happen in so many ways.”
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Slash summer air conditioning costs two ways....
Today's post: Wednesday, 6-22-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects.
And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Today’s post: Slash summer air conditioning costs two ways....
I. The first way is for your home if you are a homeowner.
(In some areas you can save $2,000 or more in one summer.) And, in all areas, your home will be dramatically more comfortable to live in. This can be very important in having your home cool off at night on hot days!
II. When you go outside on a hot day and have to cool your car from over 120 degrees inside, it’s obnoxious and uncomfortable at first. But you also have to pay for the extra gas or electricity to do that job. The second part of this post has a way to prevent this that also actually generates electricity. (It’s just after the first part.)
I. This part of this post reviews some information that was in previous posts for those of you who didn’t see them or know the information otherwise.
1. In the Northern hemisphere we are now having truly hot summer temperatures in many places. And, in many parts of the United States, a major energy use is for residential air conditioning.
In fact, during the hottest days, it is exactly that air conditioning use that dictates what your utility needs to be able to deliver for peak demand.
Did you know that for many people you can drop your electricity use for air conditioning so much you do pay off the costs in one year and save literally hundreds to thousands of dollars on your summer electric bill for every year after that?
You can. And, it even has a bonus. Your home will be dramatically more comfortable. And the night time temperature in your home will be so much lower that you’ll sleep much better and have a good deal more energy each day!
Here’s our post on this method from April, 2008.:
Slash your Air Conditioning bills this summer....
Today’s post: Weds, 4-9-2008
How does cutting your bill to zero or by 70 % sound?
Hot weather is coming soon to where you live & work this year. In some areas you already have it!
(In our area, in the Silicon Valley, after below average temps recently, our first hot weather of this year just started a few days ago.)
Unfortunately, in many homes & buildings a huge amount of money & energy is spent on air conditioning to pump heat out of buildings it could easily never have gotten into to begin with.
For many buildings & most homes, moderately inexpensive fixes can keep enough heat from getting in to cut well over 50% from air conditioning costs & energy use or even eliminate them totally & do it each summer after they are installed.
In addition, the more people do this, the less new electric generating capacity has to be built to manage peak demand for electricity which is now driven by afternoon air conditioning use on the hottest days.
In climates where the temperature falls enough at night, you can let in cool night air to remove any left over heat from the day before by opening the windows &/or by using fans to pull in air from outside & push out the inside air. Often, if you have things well set up to prevent heat from getting in &/or have ceiling fans to lower the perceived temperature a few degrees, from 76 actual to 72 perceived, for example, on most days you then will need NO air conditioning use at all.
In climates where it is much hotter or only falls to a level where you still need to run the air conditioning, if you have things well set up to prevent heat from getting in &/or have ceiling fans to lower the perceived temperature a few degrees, you can get a triple play. You only will need to run your air conditioner at night on most days. That means you can get maximum efficiency per unit of energy as the AC works better with cooler temps to dump the excess heat into so your bill is less. And, you use the electricity at night when it often costs less per kilowatt than at peak times in the afternoon. Lastly, you no longer need to add a lot of load in the afternoon to overstress your local power grid. The idea is to have the house at or office at 68 degrees F or even a bit less in the early morning when it’s coolest outside & have it not set to turn back on until the inside gets to 76 degrees (or perhaps 72 if you don’t have ceiling fans yet. Then, if your heat proofing is good enough, your AC will rarely need to come back on. And, if it does, it will need to run a LOT less.
Well insulated buildings with a lot of thermal mass, ideally with few windows or with double pane windows, that also have good passive design to prevent heat from entering do this very well.
New buildings with part underground or with thick walls made of rammed earth or adobe or straw or well insulated concrete block & heat resistant roofs do this well.
But in most homes today & some commercial buildings, the main problem is in the roof crawl space.
Usually there is no insulation between the roof & the crawl space -- & in some areas not much below it. In addition, the crawl space has almost no ventilation. As a result, instead of the under the roof temperature being only slightly above the outside air, it can be as much as 70 or 80 degrees hotter. Then this trapped heat re-radiates into the rooms beneath acting as a solar heater all afternoon. Even worse, this heat continues to radiate well into the night making the people inside miserable or running up their AC bills like crazy.
My wife & I had a house like that which was also badly insulated and had no air conditioning. On sunny days much above 79 degrees for a high, it was often well over 80 or even 90 until about the time the next morning we had to get up to go to work. This was NOT fun. And, if we had decent air conditioning then, we would have run it a LOT.
We then discovered & installed a system that uses NO OUTSIDE ENERGY AT ALL which prevented this under the roof heat build up. And, we installed ceiling fans.
We didn’t even get to upgrading the insulation and got this result.:
After doing this, we experienced a day well into the high 90’s outside. It would have been over 100 inside from 3 PM to midnight before. After installing this system & adding ceiling fans, it only got up to about 75 inside & then only from about 3 to 6 PM – AND the 75 felt Ok with just the ceiling fans alone. It was in the high 90’s outside and we needed NO air conditioning at all. And, remember, that was before we upgraded our ceiling insulation to R19 or better.
Here is the magic trick we used that I cannot recommend more highly after this experience.:
Hot air rises. So, what we did is to install several very well screened air intake vents around the perimeter of our roof’s crawl space that were under the shade of the roof & we had a competent workman also install several convection powered turbines in the roof near its peak. Then we added ceiling fans to our bedrooms & living room. The entire project cost less than $1,000. And, this was a one time fee.
The very same hot air that was giving us such grief before now happily spun the turbines as it rose & drew the much less hot outside air in behind it. This was all solar powered. We needed no outside energy at all to run it.
If we had more money at the time, I would have liked to add the extra ceiling insulation & a radiant heat barrier in our attic and installed wood frame double pane windows.
Even better would have been to add a decent heat pump system also to deliver efficient air conditioning if we ever needed it for days above 100 degrees & install enough solar panels to run it all. And, added window shading on the west & south sides of the house would have also helped.
But, much to my delight, we got close to 100 % of the cooling we needed from this single inexpensive fix that still needs no energy bills at all to operate these several years later.
So, if you have a roof that traps heat the way our roof then did, you can add all sorts of useful extras as I would have liked to do. But for about $2500 or less you can heat proof your house better than you might imagine with this simple system.
(In our area we bought the convection powered turbines & ceiling fans at Home Depot.)
The next part is from our 7-7-2010 post.:
These relatively inexpensive fixes can save enough on electricity bills for air conditioning to pay for themselves in one summer in some places while in others, it may take more like 4 summers. But the savings start the minute they are installed. The increased livability and comfort start the minute they are installed. And, once installed, they save money and electricity use every year at virtually no added cost.
2. Consider adding solar photovoltaic cells to your roof. By using this electricity during the time when you are most likely to use your air conditioning, you save paying the higher costs for grid electricity at those times. Even better, at those same times, you will have extra sun to produce extra electricity.
This does cost more than heat proofing and venting the air from under your roof. But there are now some innovative programs to pay the upfront costs for solar installation.
Sungevity and SolarCity now have this kind of no upfront cost financing. And, Sungevity needs no in home appointment to know what solar you can build on your roof. (They have a website and are also available at Lowe’s stores.)
3. Best of all, if most homeowners in a community do both things, they can cut the peak use of electricity by a great deal on the hottest summer days.
II. When you go outside on a hot day and have to cool your car from over 120 degrees inside, it’s obnoxious and uncomfortable at first. But you also have to pay for the extra gas or electricity to do that job. The second part of this post has a way to prevent this that also actually generates electricity.
Quite often, particularly at work and at large shopping centers, you have this problem. BUT, in these large, open parking lots, it’s possible to install an inexpensive canopy or roof that will give you shade on hot sunny days. (These also enable you to get into and our of your car with far less hassle on rainy days.)
That means on hot, sunny days, your car will be LESS hot inside than the air outside instead of 20 to 40 degrees hotter.
This would give a competitive advantage to shopping centers that install them.
But here’s the great added value. In most cities and towns today, many such parking lots exist. That totals millions of square feet of such parking in most states!
If each owner of such parking lots of any size installed such canopies over these parking lots AND added solar cells, they could almost power their own air conditioners each summer at no added cost.
This would be great for the utilities too since this added electricity would peak just when their load on the grid peaks now. (This is so much so, it would pay utilities to help finance such solar canopies or give price breaks to companies who do it.)
Any shopping center owner or owner of real estate where businesses are located or businesses wanting to add more solar could do this. (Applied Materials in Santa Clara, California is the only company I know of to do this so far. There may be others.)
It would also pay states and cities and counties to make permits for such solar canopies easy to get or even offer financial incentives for building them.
Today's post: Wednesday, 6-22-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects.
And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Today’s post: Slash summer air conditioning costs two ways....
I. The first way is for your home if you are a homeowner.
(In some areas you can save $2,000 or more in one summer.) And, in all areas, your home will be dramatically more comfortable to live in. This can be very important in having your home cool off at night on hot days!
II. When you go outside on a hot day and have to cool your car from over 120 degrees inside, it’s obnoxious and uncomfortable at first. But you also have to pay for the extra gas or electricity to do that job. The second part of this post has a way to prevent this that also actually generates electricity. (It’s just after the first part.)
I. This part of this post reviews some information that was in previous posts for those of you who didn’t see them or know the information otherwise.
1. In the Northern hemisphere we are now having truly hot summer temperatures in many places. And, in many parts of the United States, a major energy use is for residential air conditioning.
In fact, during the hottest days, it is exactly that air conditioning use that dictates what your utility needs to be able to deliver for peak demand.
Did you know that for many people you can drop your electricity use for air conditioning so much you do pay off the costs in one year and save literally hundreds to thousands of dollars on your summer electric bill for every year after that?
You can. And, it even has a bonus. Your home will be dramatically more comfortable. And the night time temperature in your home will be so much lower that you’ll sleep much better and have a good deal more energy each day!
Here’s our post on this method from April, 2008.:
Slash your Air Conditioning bills this summer....
Today’s post: Weds, 4-9-2008
How does cutting your bill to zero or by 70 % sound?
Hot weather is coming soon to where you live & work this year. In some areas you already have it!
(In our area, in the Silicon Valley, after below average temps recently, our first hot weather of this year just started a few days ago.)
Unfortunately, in many homes & buildings a huge amount of money & energy is spent on air conditioning to pump heat out of buildings it could easily never have gotten into to begin with.
For many buildings & most homes, moderately inexpensive fixes can keep enough heat from getting in to cut well over 50% from air conditioning costs & energy use or even eliminate them totally & do it each summer after they are installed.
In addition, the more people do this, the less new electric generating capacity has to be built to manage peak demand for electricity which is now driven by afternoon air conditioning use on the hottest days.
In climates where the temperature falls enough at night, you can let in cool night air to remove any left over heat from the day before by opening the windows &/or by using fans to pull in air from outside & push out the inside air. Often, if you have things well set up to prevent heat from getting in &/or have ceiling fans to lower the perceived temperature a few degrees, from 76 actual to 72 perceived, for example, on most days you then will need NO air conditioning use at all.
In climates where it is much hotter or only falls to a level where you still need to run the air conditioning, if you have things well set up to prevent heat from getting in &/or have ceiling fans to lower the perceived temperature a few degrees, you can get a triple play. You only will need to run your air conditioner at night on most days. That means you can get maximum efficiency per unit of energy as the AC works better with cooler temps to dump the excess heat into so your bill is less. And, you use the electricity at night when it often costs less per kilowatt than at peak times in the afternoon. Lastly, you no longer need to add a lot of load in the afternoon to overstress your local power grid. The idea is to have the house at or office at 68 degrees F or even a bit less in the early morning when it’s coolest outside & have it not set to turn back on until the inside gets to 76 degrees (or perhaps 72 if you don’t have ceiling fans yet. Then, if your heat proofing is good enough, your AC will rarely need to come back on. And, if it does, it will need to run a LOT less.
Well insulated buildings with a lot of thermal mass, ideally with few windows or with double pane windows, that also have good passive design to prevent heat from entering do this very well.
New buildings with part underground or with thick walls made of rammed earth or adobe or straw or well insulated concrete block & heat resistant roofs do this well.
But in most homes today & some commercial buildings, the main problem is in the roof crawl space.
Usually there is no insulation between the roof & the crawl space -- & in some areas not much below it. In addition, the crawl space has almost no ventilation. As a result, instead of the under the roof temperature being only slightly above the outside air, it can be as much as 70 or 80 degrees hotter. Then this trapped heat re-radiates into the rooms beneath acting as a solar heater all afternoon. Even worse, this heat continues to radiate well into the night making the people inside miserable or running up their AC bills like crazy.
My wife & I had a house like that which was also badly insulated and had no air conditioning. On sunny days much above 79 degrees for a high, it was often well over 80 or even 90 until about the time the next morning we had to get up to go to work. This was NOT fun. And, if we had decent air conditioning then, we would have run it a LOT.
We then discovered & installed a system that uses NO OUTSIDE ENERGY AT ALL which prevented this under the roof heat build up. And, we installed ceiling fans.
We didn’t even get to upgrading the insulation and got this result.:
After doing this, we experienced a day well into the high 90’s outside. It would have been over 100 inside from 3 PM to midnight before. After installing this system & adding ceiling fans, it only got up to about 75 inside & then only from about 3 to 6 PM – AND the 75 felt Ok with just the ceiling fans alone. It was in the high 90’s outside and we needed NO air conditioning at all. And, remember, that was before we upgraded our ceiling insulation to R19 or better.
Here is the magic trick we used that I cannot recommend more highly after this experience.:
Hot air rises. So, what we did is to install several very well screened air intake vents around the perimeter of our roof’s crawl space that were under the shade of the roof & we had a competent workman also install several convection powered turbines in the roof near its peak. Then we added ceiling fans to our bedrooms & living room. The entire project cost less than $1,000. And, this was a one time fee.
The very same hot air that was giving us such grief before now happily spun the turbines as it rose & drew the much less hot outside air in behind it. This was all solar powered. We needed no outside energy at all to run it.
If we had more money at the time, I would have liked to add the extra ceiling insulation & a radiant heat barrier in our attic and installed wood frame double pane windows.
Even better would have been to add a decent heat pump system also to deliver efficient air conditioning if we ever needed it for days above 100 degrees & install enough solar panels to run it all. And, added window shading on the west & south sides of the house would have also helped.
But, much to my delight, we got close to 100 % of the cooling we needed from this single inexpensive fix that still needs no energy bills at all to operate these several years later.
So, if you have a roof that traps heat the way our roof then did, you can add all sorts of useful extras as I would have liked to do. But for about $2500 or less you can heat proof your house better than you might imagine with this simple system.
(In our area we bought the convection powered turbines & ceiling fans at Home Depot.)
The next part is from our 7-7-2010 post.:
These relatively inexpensive fixes can save enough on electricity bills for air conditioning to pay for themselves in one summer in some places while in others, it may take more like 4 summers. But the savings start the minute they are installed. The increased livability and comfort start the minute they are installed. And, once installed, they save money and electricity use every year at virtually no added cost.
2. Consider adding solar photovoltaic cells to your roof. By using this electricity during the time when you are most likely to use your air conditioning, you save paying the higher costs for grid electricity at those times. Even better, at those same times, you will have extra sun to produce extra electricity.
This does cost more than heat proofing and venting the air from under your roof. But there are now some innovative programs to pay the upfront costs for solar installation.
Sungevity and SolarCity now have this kind of no upfront cost financing. And, Sungevity needs no in home appointment to know what solar you can build on your roof. (They have a website and are also available at Lowe’s stores.)
3. Best of all, if most homeowners in a community do both things, they can cut the peak use of electricity by a great deal on the hottest summer days.
II. When you go outside on a hot day and have to cool your car from over 120 degrees inside, it’s obnoxious and uncomfortable at first. But you also have to pay for the extra gas or electricity to do that job. The second part of this post has a way to prevent this that also actually generates electricity.
Quite often, particularly at work and at large shopping centers, you have this problem. BUT, in these large, open parking lots, it’s possible to install an inexpensive canopy or roof that will give you shade on hot sunny days. (These also enable you to get into and our of your car with far less hassle on rainy days.)
That means on hot, sunny days, your car will be LESS hot inside than the air outside instead of 20 to 40 degrees hotter.
This would give a competitive advantage to shopping centers that install them.
But here’s the great added value. In most cities and towns today, many such parking lots exist. That totals millions of square feet of such parking in most states!
If each owner of such parking lots of any size installed such canopies over these parking lots AND added solar cells, they could almost power their own air conditioners each summer at no added cost.
This would be great for the utilities too since this added electricity would peak just when their load on the grid peaks now. (This is so much so, it would pay utilities to help finance such solar canopies or give price breaks to companies who do it.)
Any shopping center owner or owner of real estate where businesses are located or businesses wanting to add more solar could do this. (Applied Materials in Santa Clara, California is the only company I know of to do this so far. There may be others.)
It would also pay states and cities and counties to make permits for such solar canopies easy to get or even offer financial incentives for building them.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Google and SolarCity are building clean energy....
Today's post: Wednesday, 6-15-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects.
And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Today’s post:
Google and SolarCity are building clean energy....
Between the two companies, Google and SolarCity have invested several hundred million dollars to well over a billion dollars in bringing clean energy sources online.
These two companies were in the news together in the past few days.
SAN MATEO, Calif. & MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)—
June 14, 2011 09:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time
SolarCity® and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), today announced the creation of a new $280 million fund to finance residential solar projects. The Google-backed fund is the first collaboration between the Internet giant and the nation’s leading solar power and energy efficiency service provider, and represents Google’s largest investment to date in the clean energy sector.
The fund is SolarCity’s largest project financing fund and the largest residential solar fund created in the U.S.
SolarCity has now created 15 project funds with seven different partners to finance $1.28 billion in solar projects.
(Homeowners who desire to have solar photovoltaic panels on their home but do not have several thousand dollars in one chunk to have them installed far outnumber those who would break even or better if they could finance the installation. That’s because many months of the year the monthly payment will be less than the savings on the bill for electricity from their utility.
SolarCity is literally installing five times as much solar with these partnerships with companies like Google backing up their financing. Note that they have 6 other such partners in addition to this new deal with Google.)
(Sungevity of Oakland, CA also finances solar installations in addition to giving you an accurate quote based on satellite views of your house. I don’t know how they back their financing. But as we recently posted Lowe’s home improvement stores are beginning to sell Sungevity’s service in their over 1700 locations!)
In addition to these increases in local and near or connected to local transmission grid photovoltaic sources of electricity or distributed generation, Google and its founders and just previous CEO have invested and will invest in many other kinds of clean energy technology, companies, and kinds of sources.
For example:
From http://googlegreenblog.blogspot.com :
"We believe the world needs a wide range of clean energy options in the future, each serving different needs. We’ve already invested in several large-scale renewable energy projects, so we’re excited that this new partnership with SolarCity helps people power their homes directly with solar energy, too. We think “distributed” renewable energy (generated and used right at home) is a smart way to use solar photovoltaic (PV) technology to improve our power system since it helps avoid or alleviate distribution constraints on the traditional electricity grid.
Our investment is a quadruple-win for Google, SolarCity, its new customers and the environment. We continue to look for other renewable energy investments that make business sense and help develop and deploy cleaner sources of energy. Whether harnessing the sun on rooftops like Michael’s or in the desert sands of the Mojave, it’s all part of building a clean energy future.
Posted by Rick Needham, Director of Green Business Operations"
From: http://www.google.com/green/collaborations/support-innovations.html :
"To date, we’ve invested over $350 million in innovative clean energy companies and projects through Google.org, Google Ventures and Google corporate investments.
Through Google.org we’ve supported cleantech companies with scalable and potentially breakthrough technologies that could produce renewable energy cheaper than coal.
At Google Ventures, we look for passionate entrepreneurs who are excited about building disruptive companies that address a range of market and technical problems in this sector and beyond.
And recently, we’ve made project investments that offer a solid return on investment and could have a transformational impact on the sector, such as:
A $280 million investment to create a fund, in partnership with SolarCity, to help the company finance more solar installations across the country. This is our first investment in "distributed" renewable energy (generated and used right at home). We believe our investment is a quadruple-win for Google, SolarCity, the environment, and new customers who get access to clean energy at a economic rates.
Providing $55 million to finance part of the Alta Wind Energy Center (AWEC), a new wind installation being built in several phases to generate combined 1,550 MW -- enough to power 450,000 homes. It'll use some of the first transmission lines being developed specifically to transport renewable energy from remote areas to major population centers.
A $5 million investment in a solar photovoltaic power plant near Berlin, Germany – our first investment in Europe. The 18.65MW facility will provide clean energy to more than 5,000 households.
A $168 million investment in BrightSource Energy's Ivanpah solar power tower plant in the Mojave Desert in California, one of the world's largest solar energy projects. Ivanpah will deploy a compelling clean energy technology and produce 392MW of energy, enough to take 90,000 cars off the road during the lifetime of the plant.
An approximately $100 million investment in the Shepherds Flat Wind Farm, anticipated to be the largest in the world. When completed in 2012, Shepherds Flat will produce 845MW of energy -- enough to power more than 235,000 homes.
An investment in the critical development stage of a project to build a transmission backbone off the mid-Atlantic coast to accelerate offshore wind development, with the potential to connect 6,000MW of wind, enough to serve 1.9 million households.
A $38.8 million investment in two North Dakota wind farms that generate 169.5 megawatts (MW), enough to power 55,000 homes. These wind farms uses some of the latest wind turbine technology and control systems to provide one of the lowest-cost sources of renewable energy to the local grid."
So Google, through these investments, has now invested in distributed photovoltaic solar generation of electricity.
They’ve invested in a large solar thermal farm to generate electicity.
And, they’ve invested in wind generated electricity.
The local paper added that they are looking at investing in geothermal power also and that their google.org investments in clean energy technology have totaled $45 million.
In addition, Google’s founders invested in Nanosolar which uses a rolled printing approach and a fast and easy installation method to install thin film solar cells at a low cost per kilowatt hour of electricity.
More recently, their just previous CEO, Eric Schmidt, invested in Amprius which looks to have a technology allowing for batteries for electric cars that store enough more electricity to be lighter or go farther on a charge or both.
We need a 100 times more such efforts soon. But even so, these things do help keep optimism alive. And, they are helping build the multiple part foundation we must have for a clean energy economy.
Today's post: Wednesday, 6-15-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects.
And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Today’s post:
Google and SolarCity are building clean energy....
Between the two companies, Google and SolarCity have invested several hundred million dollars to well over a billion dollars in bringing clean energy sources online.
These two companies were in the news together in the past few days.
SAN MATEO, Calif. & MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)—
June 14, 2011 09:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time
SolarCity® and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), today announced the creation of a new $280 million fund to finance residential solar projects. The Google-backed fund is the first collaboration between the Internet giant and the nation’s leading solar power and energy efficiency service provider, and represents Google’s largest investment to date in the clean energy sector.
The fund is SolarCity’s largest project financing fund and the largest residential solar fund created in the U.S.
SolarCity has now created 15 project funds with seven different partners to finance $1.28 billion in solar projects.
(Homeowners who desire to have solar photovoltaic panels on their home but do not have several thousand dollars in one chunk to have them installed far outnumber those who would break even or better if they could finance the installation. That’s because many months of the year the monthly payment will be less than the savings on the bill for electricity from their utility.
SolarCity is literally installing five times as much solar with these partnerships with companies like Google backing up their financing. Note that they have 6 other such partners in addition to this new deal with Google.)
(Sungevity of Oakland, CA also finances solar installations in addition to giving you an accurate quote based on satellite views of your house. I don’t know how they back their financing. But as we recently posted Lowe’s home improvement stores are beginning to sell Sungevity’s service in their over 1700 locations!)
In addition to these increases in local and near or connected to local transmission grid photovoltaic sources of electricity or distributed generation, Google and its founders and just previous CEO have invested and will invest in many other kinds of clean energy technology, companies, and kinds of sources.
For example:
From http://googlegreenblog.blogspot.com :
"We believe the world needs a wide range of clean energy options in the future, each serving different needs. We’ve already invested in several large-scale renewable energy projects, so we’re excited that this new partnership with SolarCity helps people power their homes directly with solar energy, too. We think “distributed” renewable energy (generated and used right at home) is a smart way to use solar photovoltaic (PV) technology to improve our power system since it helps avoid or alleviate distribution constraints on the traditional electricity grid.
Our investment is a quadruple-win for Google, SolarCity, its new customers and the environment. We continue to look for other renewable energy investments that make business sense and help develop and deploy cleaner sources of energy. Whether harnessing the sun on rooftops like Michael’s or in the desert sands of the Mojave, it’s all part of building a clean energy future.
Posted by Rick Needham, Director of Green Business Operations"
From: http://www.google.com/green/collaborations/support-innovations.html :
"To date, we’ve invested over $350 million in innovative clean energy companies and projects through Google.org, Google Ventures and Google corporate investments.
Through Google.org we’ve supported cleantech companies with scalable and potentially breakthrough technologies that could produce renewable energy cheaper than coal.
At Google Ventures, we look for passionate entrepreneurs who are excited about building disruptive companies that address a range of market and technical problems in this sector and beyond.
And recently, we’ve made project investments that offer a solid return on investment and could have a transformational impact on the sector, such as:
A $280 million investment to create a fund, in partnership with SolarCity, to help the company finance more solar installations across the country. This is our first investment in "distributed" renewable energy (generated and used right at home). We believe our investment is a quadruple-win for Google, SolarCity, the environment, and new customers who get access to clean energy at a economic rates.
Providing $55 million to finance part of the Alta Wind Energy Center (AWEC), a new wind installation being built in several phases to generate combined 1,550 MW -- enough to power 450,000 homes. It'll use some of the first transmission lines being developed specifically to transport renewable energy from remote areas to major population centers.
A $5 million investment in a solar photovoltaic power plant near Berlin, Germany – our first investment in Europe. The 18.65MW facility will provide clean energy to more than 5,000 households.
A $168 million investment in BrightSource Energy's Ivanpah solar power tower plant in the Mojave Desert in California, one of the world's largest solar energy projects. Ivanpah will deploy a compelling clean energy technology and produce 392MW of energy, enough to take 90,000 cars off the road during the lifetime of the plant.
An approximately $100 million investment in the Shepherds Flat Wind Farm, anticipated to be the largest in the world. When completed in 2012, Shepherds Flat will produce 845MW of energy -- enough to power more than 235,000 homes.
An investment in the critical development stage of a project to build a transmission backbone off the mid-Atlantic coast to accelerate offshore wind development, with the potential to connect 6,000MW of wind, enough to serve 1.9 million households.
A $38.8 million investment in two North Dakota wind farms that generate 169.5 megawatts (MW), enough to power 55,000 homes. These wind farms uses some of the latest wind turbine technology and control systems to provide one of the lowest-cost sources of renewable energy to the local grid."
So Google, through these investments, has now invested in distributed photovoltaic solar generation of electricity.
They’ve invested in a large solar thermal farm to generate electicity.
And, they’ve invested in wind generated electricity.
The local paper added that they are looking at investing in geothermal power also and that their google.org investments in clean energy technology have totaled $45 million.
In addition, Google’s founders invested in Nanosolar which uses a rolled printing approach and a fast and easy installation method to install thin film solar cells at a low cost per kilowatt hour of electricity.
More recently, their just previous CEO, Eric Schmidt, invested in Amprius which looks to have a technology allowing for batteries for electric cars that store enough more electricity to be lighter or go farther on a charge or both.
We need a 100 times more such efforts soon. But even so, these things do help keep optimism alive. And, they are helping build the multiple part foundation we must have for a clean energy economy.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Germany’s decision is very good news but for an unusual reason....
Today's post: Wednesday, 6-8-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects. And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Today’s post:
Germany’s decision is very good news but for an unusual reason....
A bit before I normally would have done this post last week, Germany announced that it will close its nuclear reactors and cancel plans to build more. They also plan to double their sources of renewable energy from 17% to 34%.
Because they experienced being downwind from Chernobyl, they already have done one of the world’s best jobs in adding renewable energy in general and photovoltaic solar in particular. Despite getting less sunlight than California they recently have been installing NINE times as much solar as California has!
In practice, since I think they were getting something like 25% of their electricity from nuclear power, that may mean buying electricity from France where 80% of it comes from nuclear power.
But here’s the really good news.
To keep our economies strong and continue having our earth support people with an OK quality of life, we must dramatically add more renewable sources for electricity and transport. AND we must sharply improve the energy efficiency in every way we use it.
Because of this decision, Germany will move even more to pioneering ways to add more renewable energy and to improve energy efficiency in every way we use it.
That will cause Germany to become perhaps the world’s best, first customer for improved generation of renewable energy and technologies that save energy.
To some extent that was already true for photovoltaic solar. Now it will be even more true for technologies that make renewable energy more usable and for every kind of technology that saves energy in any and every part of their economy.
That may wind up acting as a catalyst for the rest of the world to make better energy technology available. Old and new companies now have and will come to have even more of a ready market for products or services using such technologies.
By selling first to their best local markets AND Germany, it will make it economically more doable to develop and market clean energy technologies and products.
I think that will turn out to be very, very good news indeed.
Today's post: Wednesday, 6-8-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects. And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Today’s post:
Germany’s decision is very good news but for an unusual reason....
A bit before I normally would have done this post last week, Germany announced that it will close its nuclear reactors and cancel plans to build more. They also plan to double their sources of renewable energy from 17% to 34%.
Because they experienced being downwind from Chernobyl, they already have done one of the world’s best jobs in adding renewable energy in general and photovoltaic solar in particular. Despite getting less sunlight than California they recently have been installing NINE times as much solar as California has!
In practice, since I think they were getting something like 25% of their electricity from nuclear power, that may mean buying electricity from France where 80% of it comes from nuclear power.
But here’s the really good news.
To keep our economies strong and continue having our earth support people with an OK quality of life, we must dramatically add more renewable sources for electricity and transport. AND we must sharply improve the energy efficiency in every way we use it.
Because of this decision, Germany will move even more to pioneering ways to add more renewable energy and to improve energy efficiency in every way we use it.
That will cause Germany to become perhaps the world’s best, first customer for improved generation of renewable energy and technologies that save energy.
To some extent that was already true for photovoltaic solar. Now it will be even more true for technologies that make renewable energy more usable and for every kind of technology that saves energy in any and every part of their economy.
That may wind up acting as a catalyst for the rest of the world to make better energy technology available. Old and new companies now have and will come to have even more of a ready market for products or services using such technologies.
By selling first to their best local markets AND Germany, it will make it economically more doable to develop and market clean energy technologies and products.
I think that will turn out to be very, very good news indeed.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Energy Policy for the United States....
Today's post: Wednesday, 5-25-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects. And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Today’s post:
Energy Policy for the United States....
An energy policy for the United States ideally needs to meet several goals. In decision making, Peter Drucker called them boundary conditions.
1. The policy needs to support economic growth or at least not harm it too much initially. But at the same time, it needs to prevent serious harm or collapse to our economy due to our current overdependence on fossil fuels, particularly oil and coal.
2. It needs to lower our dependence on imported fuels from near 60% to 10 % or less.
3. It needs to begin to reduce our net CO2 release. We should stop all of it but cannot now do so because of the dependence of our economy on fossil fuels. But we can lessen the disasters in the future by making a start and then speeding up the solutions.
And, related to that, the policy in this area needs to be informed by facts. The scientists who have studied the matter have established the facts. And, events are beginning to show they have their facts right.
4. It needs to find a way to allow the existing fossil fuel companies to move from making money from providing energy from burning fossil fuels to providing energy in other ways or making money from the fossil fuels in other ways than burning them. At the same time, it needs to find a way to stop or penalize the industry for using their profits to prevent action on the established facts and their risks to our economy.
So far, so far the Obama administration has had a less than perfect track record on improving the economy and adding jobs and on selling their policies to the American people.
But otherwise, the Obama administration’s actual policy and actions have done well on this list.
They’ve backed the production of electric cars and plug-in hybrids. They have backed solar companies with capital to do large projects. And they have backed companies with technologies to lower the cost of solar electricity.
This was in several recent news stories.:
“President Barack Obama has called for a one-third reduction in oil imports by 2025 and wants to put 1 million plug-in electric vehicles on the road by 2015.
In a related announcement, the White House formalized a directive Obama issued in March ordering the government to purchase only fuel-efficient cars and trucks by 2015.
A memorandum issued Tuesday directs federal agencies to develop practices to move toward the 2015 goal and come up with a plan to determine the best size of their vehicle fleet.
Under a separate executive order, Obama has called on the government to reduce gasoline usage by federal vehicles 30 percent by 2020.”
This is in addition to beginning to move the federal government’s fleet of cars to plug-in hybrids and all electric cars and build charging stations in key cities that was recently announced.
He also hired a capable scientist with energy knowledge and management experience to be his Secretary of Energy. And, Secretary Chu has also performed relatively well. At the very least he bases his decisions on scientific facts and not incorrect beliefs that are less scary.
So far, President Obama is well ahead of the energy policies or lack thereof of the candidates for President next time that the Republican party might run that are now considered to be leading.
Today, however, the San Francisco Chronicle had a story about a possible Republican candidate who may have the chops to follow up with a good energy policy.
“Republican Jon Huntsman Jr., the former U.S. ambassador to China, has a political profile that sets him apart from the pack of possible 2012 GOP presidential candidates. For starters, he starred in a 2004 advertisement with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger lobbying for congressional action on climate change.”
If he runs on that basis and finds a Vice Presidential candidate who supports good energy policy, that might work.
But, so far, it looks like the Republicans are likely to nominate much weaker candidates on energy in 2012.
If so, that leaves Obama as the best choice for President in 2012. His energy policy has actually been relatively good.
If he wins, and if his energy policy begins to add more jobs while gasoline and diesel prices continue to rise faster than new drilling could fix, maybe the Republicans will get some sense and nominate Jon Huntsman Jr for President in 2016.
That might work well.
Today's post: Wednesday, 5-25-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects. And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Today’s post:
Energy Policy for the United States....
An energy policy for the United States ideally needs to meet several goals. In decision making, Peter Drucker called them boundary conditions.
1. The policy needs to support economic growth or at least not harm it too much initially. But at the same time, it needs to prevent serious harm or collapse to our economy due to our current overdependence on fossil fuels, particularly oil and coal.
2. It needs to lower our dependence on imported fuels from near 60% to 10 % or less.
3. It needs to begin to reduce our net CO2 release. We should stop all of it but cannot now do so because of the dependence of our economy on fossil fuels. But we can lessen the disasters in the future by making a start and then speeding up the solutions.
And, related to that, the policy in this area needs to be informed by facts. The scientists who have studied the matter have established the facts. And, events are beginning to show they have their facts right.
4. It needs to find a way to allow the existing fossil fuel companies to move from making money from providing energy from burning fossil fuels to providing energy in other ways or making money from the fossil fuels in other ways than burning them. At the same time, it needs to find a way to stop or penalize the industry for using their profits to prevent action on the established facts and their risks to our economy.
So far, so far the Obama administration has had a less than perfect track record on improving the economy and adding jobs and on selling their policies to the American people.
But otherwise, the Obama administration’s actual policy and actions have done well on this list.
They’ve backed the production of electric cars and plug-in hybrids. They have backed solar companies with capital to do large projects. And they have backed companies with technologies to lower the cost of solar electricity.
This was in several recent news stories.:
“President Barack Obama has called for a one-third reduction in oil imports by 2025 and wants to put 1 million plug-in electric vehicles on the road by 2015.
In a related announcement, the White House formalized a directive Obama issued in March ordering the government to purchase only fuel-efficient cars and trucks by 2015.
A memorandum issued Tuesday directs federal agencies to develop practices to move toward the 2015 goal and come up with a plan to determine the best size of their vehicle fleet.
Under a separate executive order, Obama has called on the government to reduce gasoline usage by federal vehicles 30 percent by 2020.”
This is in addition to beginning to move the federal government’s fleet of cars to plug-in hybrids and all electric cars and build charging stations in key cities that was recently announced.
He also hired a capable scientist with energy knowledge and management experience to be his Secretary of Energy. And, Secretary Chu has also performed relatively well. At the very least he bases his decisions on scientific facts and not incorrect beliefs that are less scary.
So far, President Obama is well ahead of the energy policies or lack thereof of the candidates for President next time that the Republican party might run that are now considered to be leading.
Today, however, the San Francisco Chronicle had a story about a possible Republican candidate who may have the chops to follow up with a good energy policy.
“Republican Jon Huntsman Jr., the former U.S. ambassador to China, has a political profile that sets him apart from the pack of possible 2012 GOP presidential candidates. For starters, he starred in a 2004 advertisement with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger lobbying for congressional action on climate change.”
If he runs on that basis and finds a Vice Presidential candidate who supports good energy policy, that might work.
But, so far, it looks like the Republicans are likely to nominate much weaker candidates on energy in 2012.
If so, that leaves Obama as the best choice for President in 2012. His energy policy has actually been relatively good.
If he wins, and if his energy policy begins to add more jobs while gasoline and diesel prices continue to rise faster than new drilling could fix, maybe the Republicans will get some sense and nominate Jon Huntsman Jr for President in 2016.
That might work well.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Four clean energy good news reports....
Today's post: Wednesday, 5-18-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects. And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Today’s post:
Four clean energy good news reports....
1. LED bulbs that can be used in existing lamps and light fixtures now in homes are very important. They use 11 to 14 % of the energy when compared to incandescent bulbs.
Compact fluorescent bulbs use about 15%. But compact fluorescent bulbs cause environmental mercury pollution when discarded as most people likely still do and may harm you if you break one in your home because of the mercury and mercury vapor released. Some are better now but often still take a bit to come on to fully bright after you turn them on. And, compacts like all fluorescent lights, often have a harsh tint.
LED bulbs are the most efficient bulbs. They contain no mercury! They now come in warmer looking colors. And they are truly instant on as well. LED bulbs also are notably cooler in their temperature than fluorescents and incandescent bulbs. So they warm a room less in hot weather and are less of a potential fire hazard in some uses. They also really do last dramatically longer than incandescent bulbs and also longer than compact fluorescents have done in practice.
The problem has been their too large size physically and great expense and the very low availability in stores and the low light sizes they were coming in.
**I read that you can now go to Home Depot stores and buy Philips 60 watt LED bulbs for just $40!
I’ve not yet bought one yet or seen one. But the report is that they do fit most fixtures and lamps designed originally for incandescent bulbs.
At that price, they begin to be affordable enough to replace all the incandescent bulbs & compact fluorescents in people’s homes.
If you have room on your credit card or enough savings to buy enough for your whole house once you’ve bought one and tested it fits everywhere, that can work for you.
Or, you can simply buy one a month until you’ve replaced all your light bulbs with them.
It’s still pricey. But I’ve read they last over 10 years or maybe even 20. And once those who can afford them now do this, the price will come down and more people will buy them.
In addition, utilities may yet realize it will pay them to finance people to buy them. For some utilities, even buying them for customers or selling them to customers for an 80% discount may save money compared with adding a new plant to generate electricity.
So this is extremely good news indeed.
2. The quick to charge but low range Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrids ARE resulting in quite large reductions in the gasoline needed to drive according to actual owner experience as reported a couple of weeks ago yesterday by GM.
**Here’s part of their press release and my comments.
“2011-05-03 DETROIT – Chevrolet Volt owners made fewer trips to the gas station in March, going an average of 30 days – or nearly a month – between fill-ups.
“Volt owners drove an average of 800 miles between fill-ups since the Volt launched in December, and in March they averaged 1,000 miles,” said Cristi Landy, Volt marketing director.
Steve Wojtanek, a Volt buyer in Boca Raton, Fla. “I have made it my goal to drive as efficiently as possible and I am seeing the results, with more than 3,417 miles under my belt – of which 2,225 are EV miles.” A Volt owner since December, Wojtanek is averaging 122 miles per gallon and visiting the gas station about once a month.”
That means he is using only about 35% as much gas as he would in a comparable gasoline only car of the Volt’s size.
So, we are on our way now, I think, to having a third of the drivers have short range plug-in hybrids like the Volt, a third having longer range hybrids that cut gasoline buying and use by more like 90% , and one third all electrics that cut back gasoline by 100 %.
Once that happens, we will likely get to the point we no longer need to import oil. So this initial report is good news indeed. It will also cut back on the CO2 released by driving and truck transport now. And, it will do so even more as clean energy production of electricity comes online more and more.
It may take more like 30 years than the 5 years I’d prefer to see. But this report shows it is on its way!
3. Solar thermal generation of electricity is very important for several reasons.
The Southwest United States has enough solar thermal potential to supply the total electricity needs of the entire country.
(Since virtually all of Mexico has that potential – about three times that much – that is quite significant. If even some of that potential solar thermal is built, there will be enough new jobs in Mexico to stop worries about people their going to the United States for jobs.)
In addition, solar thermal energy can be stored very efficiently for several hours. That means that sunshine in the afternoon in California can produce electricity for Chicago or Dallas that night. It certainly can be used that night in San Diego!
The good news is that there are several big players in building solar thermal electricity generation. Many of them are making progress around the world.
**Here’s the recent good news in California.:
BrightSource Energy is about to raise $250 million in an initial public offering which will likely help achieve its goal to use solar-thermal technology across the southwest United States at generators with the equivalent capacity of 11 atomic plants.
They are planning to build solar thermal large scale electric generation plants “that could potentially earn $4 billion of revenue and produce 11 gigawatts on 110,000 acres in California and elsewhere in the southwest United States.”
"BrightSource Energy, Inc. designs, develops and sells solar thermal power systems that deliver reliable and cost-competitive clean energy to utilities and industrial companies." (http://www.brightsourceenergy.com )
4. Although there are many companies also building large scale photovoltaic plants to generate electricity as well, the very valuable potential of photovoltaic solar is to have it put on nearly every roof of every building and on canopies over most parking lots. Those may be smaller. But tens of thousands of them or more will add up!
(SunPower is one of the companies building the large scale power plants and Sun Edison is helping large businesses install photovoltaic systems.)
But until now, it has been very challenging to install solar for homeowners. They had to be able to finance and be willing to pay large dollars up front to install solar AND arrange one or more in-home appointments with estimators etc.
What if all homeowners could simply give their address and be willing to make a modest monthly payment and have the solar installed by next week?
That would certainly launch large increases all over the country of photovoltaic solar installations.
What has been a well kept secret is that this has already been possible for a while!
Sungevity here in the San Francisco Bay area does just exactly that!
By using satellite technology and their knowledge of solar, they can give homeowners an accurate quote to install solar with no need for an in-home visit. And, their financing makes the solar easy to finance.
See http://www.sungevity.com .
**Here’s the news.
Sungevity is about to get a huge boost for its sales efforts as they just signed a deal with the 1725 store Lowe's home improvement chain and company to market their solar quote and financing service.
As this news gets out, solar installations all over the country will go up. And it will happen in every state.
It’s still early in the process and far too late for my taste, but the net result of news like these four reports is that the clean energy economy is really beginning to pick up momentum and accelerate!
Today's post: Wednesday, 5-18-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects. And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Today’s post:
Four clean energy good news reports....
1. LED bulbs that can be used in existing lamps and light fixtures now in homes are very important. They use 11 to 14 % of the energy when compared to incandescent bulbs.
Compact fluorescent bulbs use about 15%. But compact fluorescent bulbs cause environmental mercury pollution when discarded as most people likely still do and may harm you if you break one in your home because of the mercury and mercury vapor released. Some are better now but often still take a bit to come on to fully bright after you turn them on. And, compacts like all fluorescent lights, often have a harsh tint.
LED bulbs are the most efficient bulbs. They contain no mercury! They now come in warmer looking colors. And they are truly instant on as well. LED bulbs also are notably cooler in their temperature than fluorescents and incandescent bulbs. So they warm a room less in hot weather and are less of a potential fire hazard in some uses. They also really do last dramatically longer than incandescent bulbs and also longer than compact fluorescents have done in practice.
The problem has been their too large size physically and great expense and the very low availability in stores and the low light sizes they were coming in.
**I read that you can now go to Home Depot stores and buy Philips 60 watt LED bulbs for just $40!
I’ve not yet bought one yet or seen one. But the report is that they do fit most fixtures and lamps designed originally for incandescent bulbs.
At that price, they begin to be affordable enough to replace all the incandescent bulbs & compact fluorescents in people’s homes.
If you have room on your credit card or enough savings to buy enough for your whole house once you’ve bought one and tested it fits everywhere, that can work for you.
Or, you can simply buy one a month until you’ve replaced all your light bulbs with them.
It’s still pricey. But I’ve read they last over 10 years or maybe even 20. And once those who can afford them now do this, the price will come down and more people will buy them.
In addition, utilities may yet realize it will pay them to finance people to buy them. For some utilities, even buying them for customers or selling them to customers for an 80% discount may save money compared with adding a new plant to generate electricity.
So this is extremely good news indeed.
2. The quick to charge but low range Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrids ARE resulting in quite large reductions in the gasoline needed to drive according to actual owner experience as reported a couple of weeks ago yesterday by GM.
**Here’s part of their press release and my comments.
“2011-05-03 DETROIT – Chevrolet Volt owners made fewer trips to the gas station in March, going an average of 30 days – or nearly a month – between fill-ups.
“Volt owners drove an average of 800 miles between fill-ups since the Volt launched in December, and in March they averaged 1,000 miles,” said Cristi Landy, Volt marketing director.
Steve Wojtanek, a Volt buyer in Boca Raton, Fla. “I have made it my goal to drive as efficiently as possible and I am seeing the results, with more than 3,417 miles under my belt – of which 2,225 are EV miles.” A Volt owner since December, Wojtanek is averaging 122 miles per gallon and visiting the gas station about once a month.”
That means he is using only about 35% as much gas as he would in a comparable gasoline only car of the Volt’s size.
So, we are on our way now, I think, to having a third of the drivers have short range plug-in hybrids like the Volt, a third having longer range hybrids that cut gasoline buying and use by more like 90% , and one third all electrics that cut back gasoline by 100 %.
Once that happens, we will likely get to the point we no longer need to import oil. So this initial report is good news indeed. It will also cut back on the CO2 released by driving and truck transport now. And, it will do so even more as clean energy production of electricity comes online more and more.
It may take more like 30 years than the 5 years I’d prefer to see. But this report shows it is on its way!
3. Solar thermal generation of electricity is very important for several reasons.
The Southwest United States has enough solar thermal potential to supply the total electricity needs of the entire country.
(Since virtually all of Mexico has that potential – about three times that much – that is quite significant. If even some of that potential solar thermal is built, there will be enough new jobs in Mexico to stop worries about people their going to the United States for jobs.)
In addition, solar thermal energy can be stored very efficiently for several hours. That means that sunshine in the afternoon in California can produce electricity for Chicago or Dallas that night. It certainly can be used that night in San Diego!
The good news is that there are several big players in building solar thermal electricity generation. Many of them are making progress around the world.
**Here’s the recent good news in California.:
BrightSource Energy is about to raise $250 million in an initial public offering which will likely help achieve its goal to use solar-thermal technology across the southwest United States at generators with the equivalent capacity of 11 atomic plants.
They are planning to build solar thermal large scale electric generation plants “that could potentially earn $4 billion of revenue and produce 11 gigawatts on 110,000 acres in California and elsewhere in the southwest United States.”
"BrightSource Energy, Inc. designs, develops and sells solar thermal power systems that deliver reliable and cost-competitive clean energy to utilities and industrial companies." (http://www.brightsourceenergy.com )
4. Although there are many companies also building large scale photovoltaic plants to generate electricity as well, the very valuable potential of photovoltaic solar is to have it put on nearly every roof of every building and on canopies over most parking lots. Those may be smaller. But tens of thousands of them or more will add up!
(SunPower is one of the companies building the large scale power plants and Sun Edison is helping large businesses install photovoltaic systems.)
But until now, it has been very challenging to install solar for homeowners. They had to be able to finance and be willing to pay large dollars up front to install solar AND arrange one or more in-home appointments with estimators etc.
What if all homeowners could simply give their address and be willing to make a modest monthly payment and have the solar installed by next week?
That would certainly launch large increases all over the country of photovoltaic solar installations.
What has been a well kept secret is that this has already been possible for a while!
Sungevity here in the San Francisco Bay area does just exactly that!
By using satellite technology and their knowledge of solar, they can give homeowners an accurate quote to install solar with no need for an in-home visit. And, their financing makes the solar easy to finance.
See http://www.sungevity.com .
**Here’s the news.
Sungevity is about to get a huge boost for its sales efforts as they just signed a deal with the 1725 store Lowe's home improvement chain and company to market their solar quote and financing service.
As this news gets out, solar installations all over the country will go up. And it will happen in every state.
It’s still early in the process and far too late for my taste, but the net result of news like these four reports is that the clean energy economy is really beginning to pick up momentum and accelerate!
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Why California should have an oil severance tax....
Today's post: Wednesday, 5-11-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects. And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Today’s post:
Why California should have an oil severance tax....
There are three reasons for this.
1. The most important reason is that in the current weakened economy, the State of California is planning to cut virtually every area of education spending.
Despite the fact that public education needs many other improvements besides more money, many parts of education do support both economic growth and a continuation of the economy we already have. And, severe cuts will make it work even less well than it has been.
Without adequate funding for education, more people will enter the workforce unable to read well enough or do a minimum of calculation to be employable for most jobs.
Without adequate funding for education, fewer people will get training at our community colleges for jobs that need those trained people.
Without adequate funding for education past high school, we will run short of people able to do many kinds of specialized work.
Clearly, if the money is short enough, this must be done. But it is extremely bad public policy. It will make California’s economy worse!
But California is the only oil producing state without a severance tax on oil. Even oil states such as Texas and Oklahoma have them. And, a comparable severance tax to theirs in California would make these added cuts to education unnecessary.
2. For the reasons we keep posting about, we need to begin to charge the oil companies for the true costs associated with using oil.
To avoid dramatic problems with price increases for oil caused by less of the cheap to extract sources and more energy demand by growing economies and populations, we need badly to begin to switch to other forms of energy to power transport. If oil begins to be charged for its consequences and to cost somewhat more in the short run, the alternatives will become economically competitive sooner.
To avoid making climate change worse, we need to use less burning of fossil fuels for energy. For this reason also, if oil begins to be charged for its consequences and to cost somewhat more in the short run, the alternatives will become economically competitive sooner.
A severance tax is one way to do this.
3. Many parts of California need somewhat more refined gasoline to avoid bad air pollution and many parts do better economically than many places in the United States. In those parts of the state, people pay more for gasoline since they can afford to do so.
So, gasoline costs more in California than elsewhere.
Meanwhile in those states where people pay less for gasoline, they get part of the money they spend back in taxes.
In California, we pay more for gasoline and get no money back. This is unfair and should be changed in my opinion.
Today's post: Wednesday, 5-11-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects. And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Today’s post:
Why California should have an oil severance tax....
There are three reasons for this.
1. The most important reason is that in the current weakened economy, the State of California is planning to cut virtually every area of education spending.
Despite the fact that public education needs many other improvements besides more money, many parts of education do support both economic growth and a continuation of the economy we already have. And, severe cuts will make it work even less well than it has been.
Without adequate funding for education, more people will enter the workforce unable to read well enough or do a minimum of calculation to be employable for most jobs.
Without adequate funding for education, fewer people will get training at our community colleges for jobs that need those trained people.
Without adequate funding for education past high school, we will run short of people able to do many kinds of specialized work.
Clearly, if the money is short enough, this must be done. But it is extremely bad public policy. It will make California’s economy worse!
But California is the only oil producing state without a severance tax on oil. Even oil states such as Texas and Oklahoma have them. And, a comparable severance tax to theirs in California would make these added cuts to education unnecessary.
2. For the reasons we keep posting about, we need to begin to charge the oil companies for the true costs associated with using oil.
To avoid dramatic problems with price increases for oil caused by less of the cheap to extract sources and more energy demand by growing economies and populations, we need badly to begin to switch to other forms of energy to power transport. If oil begins to be charged for its consequences and to cost somewhat more in the short run, the alternatives will become economically competitive sooner.
To avoid making climate change worse, we need to use less burning of fossil fuels for energy. For this reason also, if oil begins to be charged for its consequences and to cost somewhat more in the short run, the alternatives will become economically competitive sooner.
A severance tax is one way to do this.
3. Many parts of California need somewhat more refined gasoline to avoid bad air pollution and many parts do better economically than many places in the United States. In those parts of the state, people pay more for gasoline since they can afford to do so.
So, gasoline costs more in California than elsewhere.
Meanwhile in those states where people pay less for gasoline, they get part of the money they spend back in taxes.
In California, we pay more for gasoline and get no money back. This is unfair and should be changed in my opinion.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Oil company bills to drill more look to be ineffective and risky.....
Today's post: Wednesday, 5-4-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects. And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Today’s post:
Oil company bills to drill more look to be ineffective and risky.....
I just saw a story online that: “Congress considers West Coast oil drilling.”
May 4, 2011 by Susanne Rust Environment Reporter From: California Watch A Project of the Center for Investigative Reporting
“Nearly a year after a BP oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico and created one of the largest environmental catastrophes of all time, federal lawmakers are considering encouraging drilling off the West Coast, including the rich oil beds off Southern California.
Lawmakers say allowing the drilling would ease the burden of high oil prices and provide an alternative to foreign oil.”
“Critics say the bills (HR 1229, HR 1230 and HR 1231) set the stage for environmental disaster and will have little or no effect on oil prices.
“Not only will the bills expand drilling, they would leave oversight of offshore drilling weaker than it was before last year’s oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico,” said Bob Keefe, a spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense Council.”
The article also notes: “…. a study conducted by the federal government's Energy Information Administration, which showed that new drilling off the country's coasts would only reduce gas prices by a few cents.
The bills passed the House Committee on Natural Resources in April, and two of the three bills are scheduled for a vote on Thursday. The third bill, which some call the most sweeping, will likely go to the floor next week, Charter said.
That third bill, HR 1231, or “Reversing President Obama’s Offshore Moratorium Act,” would require the federal government to lease at least 50 percent of available unleased acreage off the West Coast, Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico and much of the East Coast, every five years.”
“Under existing law, the government decides which areas to lease. This new law would effectively double the current level of offshore drilling.
And states, such as California, would have no say in the matter.
“Earlier versions of bills like this generally allowed a state to veto projects,” said Regan Nelson of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
“Californians have consistently made it clear that they oppose new offshore drilling off their coast," she said. “This bill is so out of sync of what people want. They’re willing to put oil production over all other considerations.”
Supporters of the bills say the need for more domestic oil is urgent.
"Gas prices in California’s Central Valley have skyrocketed to above $4 a gallon and remained above the national average for weeks," said Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Calif., one of the three local congressmen who voted for the bills.
"We can no longer afford to rely on energy supplies from unstable foreign sources. The time for inaction is over. We must expand domestic energy production to get Americans back to work, bring relief at the pump and create jobs,” he said.”
Here’s my take.:
These bills are likely to be ineffective in lowering gas prices and are likely to cause billions of dollars of damages to the coast of California.
But there are some amendments that could upgrade them enough they might make sense
1. China is very likely to begin importing as much or more oil than we are quite soon. So, it looks like having more oil from offshore drilling will likely only cut back gasoline from $8 a gallon or $9 a gallon that looks to be coming by ten cents a gallon.
If, for every dollar the oil industry spent for offshore drilling had to be matched with three times that much money in switching transport to other fuels than petroleum and in converting existing vehicles into plug-in hybrids AND installing a more efficient gasoline and diesel engine, then that combination might have an effect.
We can deal with double the price of gasoline and diesel if we also begin to only need half as much of these fuels to drive the same number of miles!
2. Since billions of dollars in potential damages are at stake and the oil very irresponsible impression of the safety competence of the oil companies is at stake.
These bills should ONLY be passed if the safety managers on these new offshore drilling rigs are NOT prevented by trying to save money cutting corners on safety.
If the chances are literally one in 10 million of one problematic spill that will be stopped with less than 5% of the oil released by the BP problem in the Gulf, why not allow it?
(This hurry up and drill program looks like a spill about once every ten years and just as big as the Gulf oftentimes will occur if these bills are passed!)
But, if those two provisions are not forceful enough or included, these bills won’t protect our economy from the doubling of gasoline and diesel nor will they make more than the damages they will likely cost.
So, in their present form, it is essential they not be passed!
With these two amendments though, they might make sense.
The one last point is that any state that remains unconvinced of the safety programs for this new drilling should be able to say no to it off the shores of that state.
So, the third amendment is to add that or leave it as is. If the safety procedures are good enough and work in practice other places, states will OK drilling for the new money they get. But they should have the right to say no if the data they see are unconvincing.
These bills in their current form do not make that confidence at all likely!
Today's post: Wednesday, 5-4-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects. And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Today’s post:
Oil company bills to drill more look to be ineffective and risky.....
I just saw a story online that: “Congress considers West Coast oil drilling.”
May 4, 2011 by Susanne Rust Environment Reporter From: California Watch A Project of the Center for Investigative Reporting
“Nearly a year after a BP oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico and created one of the largest environmental catastrophes of all time, federal lawmakers are considering encouraging drilling off the West Coast, including the rich oil beds off Southern California.
Lawmakers say allowing the drilling would ease the burden of high oil prices and provide an alternative to foreign oil.”
“Critics say the bills (HR 1229, HR 1230 and HR 1231) set the stage for environmental disaster and will have little or no effect on oil prices.
“Not only will the bills expand drilling, they would leave oversight of offshore drilling weaker than it was before last year’s oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico,” said Bob Keefe, a spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense Council.”
The article also notes: “…. a study conducted by the federal government's Energy Information Administration, which showed that new drilling off the country's coasts would only reduce gas prices by a few cents.
The bills passed the House Committee on Natural Resources in April, and two of the three bills are scheduled for a vote on Thursday. The third bill, which some call the most sweeping, will likely go to the floor next week, Charter said.
That third bill, HR 1231, or “Reversing President Obama’s Offshore Moratorium Act,” would require the federal government to lease at least 50 percent of available unleased acreage off the West Coast, Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico and much of the East Coast, every five years.”
“Under existing law, the government decides which areas to lease. This new law would effectively double the current level of offshore drilling.
And states, such as California, would have no say in the matter.
“Earlier versions of bills like this generally allowed a state to veto projects,” said Regan Nelson of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
“Californians have consistently made it clear that they oppose new offshore drilling off their coast," she said. “This bill is so out of sync of what people want. They’re willing to put oil production over all other considerations.”
Supporters of the bills say the need for more domestic oil is urgent.
"Gas prices in California’s Central Valley have skyrocketed to above $4 a gallon and remained above the national average for weeks," said Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Calif., one of the three local congressmen who voted for the bills.
"We can no longer afford to rely on energy supplies from unstable foreign sources. The time for inaction is over. We must expand domestic energy production to get Americans back to work, bring relief at the pump and create jobs,” he said.”
Here’s my take.:
These bills are likely to be ineffective in lowering gas prices and are likely to cause billions of dollars of damages to the coast of California.
But there are some amendments that could upgrade them enough they might make sense
1. China is very likely to begin importing as much or more oil than we are quite soon. So, it looks like having more oil from offshore drilling will likely only cut back gasoline from $8 a gallon or $9 a gallon that looks to be coming by ten cents a gallon.
If, for every dollar the oil industry spent for offshore drilling had to be matched with three times that much money in switching transport to other fuels than petroleum and in converting existing vehicles into plug-in hybrids AND installing a more efficient gasoline and diesel engine, then that combination might have an effect.
We can deal with double the price of gasoline and diesel if we also begin to only need half as much of these fuels to drive the same number of miles!
2. Since billions of dollars in potential damages are at stake and the oil very irresponsible impression of the safety competence of the oil companies is at stake.
These bills should ONLY be passed if the safety managers on these new offshore drilling rigs are NOT prevented by trying to save money cutting corners on safety.
If the chances are literally one in 10 million of one problematic spill that will be stopped with less than 5% of the oil released by the BP problem in the Gulf, why not allow it?
(This hurry up and drill program looks like a spill about once every ten years and just as big as the Gulf oftentimes will occur if these bills are passed!)
But, if those two provisions are not forceful enough or included, these bills won’t protect our economy from the doubling of gasoline and diesel nor will they make more than the damages they will likely cost.
So, in their present form, it is essential they not be passed!
With these two amendments though, they might make sense.
The one last point is that any state that remains unconvinced of the safety programs for this new drilling should be able to say no to it off the shores of that state.
So, the third amendment is to add that or leave it as is. If the safety procedures are good enough and work in practice other places, states will OK drilling for the new money they get. But they should have the right to say no if the data they see are unconvincing.
These bills in their current form do not make that confidence at all likely!
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
It IS about the economy but facts count too.....
Today's post: Wednesday, 4-27-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects. And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Today’s post:
It IS about the economy but facts count too.....
I once was extremely opposed to the Presidential candidacy of Democrat John Edwards since some of his economic policies if he became President would have truly horrible consequences if he actually did as he said he would.
His comments showed he simply didn’t understand economic facts. Following his policies would have been much like standing on the beach watching after warnings were posted for a large Tsunami later that day just because you thought you could control or ignore facts you didn’t like. As writer Robert Heinlein once put it, the actually possible events would have happened anyway. Ouch! No way was John Edwards qualified to be President of the United States.
Unfortunately, now, it’s many of the current Republicans that are willing to pretend away facts they don’t like.
There are two problems with that. It looks increasingly as if gasoline price will double from here by 2010. That’s about $8 or $9 a gallon or more!
If we try to pretend this isn’t so and pass laws to cause us to continue to use gasoline and diesel fuel for transport, our economy is in grave danger. Similarly, if we do NOT pass laws to increase mileage standards for vehicles using oil and move to alternatives other than oil for transport, the facts will begin to kill our economy.
In addition to peak oil, China plans to add nearly as many vehicles by 2020 as now exist in Europe.
Shai Agassi, the founder of Better Place, an electric-car company, said this and it was reported yesterday by TIME magazine.:
"Within less than this decade the No. 1 selling car in the world will be the electric car," he says. "It's the biggest financial opportunity the world has ever seen…..."
He added. "I'll put it this way: We have people from China here."
The TIME article said this: “The People's Republic has been busy creating a bourgeoisie, and the middle class does like to drive. Beijing's next five-year plan foresees at least 170 million new vehicles, or perhaps twice that, according to Agassi.
The lower estimate alone is as many cars as there are in Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Britain combined.
The 8 million barrels of oil that would be required every day to fuel them is about as much as the U.S. imports every day.
"Do you know what the price of oil will be in five years if they're not using electric cars?" Agassi asks.”
If that happens or even comes close to it, gasoline and diesel prices will go up. They may go up by more than double the current prices in fact.
A separate TIME article on China & its incentive to go to electric cars said this:
"China, like the U.S., also has worries about dependency on foreign oil -- half of its oil comes from abroad; and it's only likely to get worse. China's oil consumption is expected to rise from 7.6 million barrels a day in 2007 to 11.6 million barrels a day by 2020."
Second, we do need to protect our economy from relying on oil while its prices go up enough to stall out our economy.
But the scientists also have found clear and increasing evidence that to save our climate and possibly our ability to grow food and keep some of our coastal cities, we also need to dramatically switch away from much of our use of natural gas and close to all our use of coal. Or we need to find a cost effective way to turn the CO2 produced into Oxygen and Carbon compounds. Cutting back in several ways AND adding cost effective CO2 removal systems is likely best.
The current Republicans who think their wish this isn’t so will prevent the consequences are wrong. If they fail to act to help prevent the disasters we are headed for, their actions are not based on fact.
Unfortunately if they continue to do this in our Congress, the actually possible will happen anyway. And, the survivors will think of them in years to come as many people think of Hitler now. Their beliefs were not based on facts – so their actions had horrible consequences
Also, though many of the economic principles Republicans believe in are sound, as this becomes evident, Republicans will return to being a weak and minority party if they continue to act like ignorant fools. Facts do count. And, pretending or even believing otherwise is not a good idea! The facts always win the argument. As our past California Governor put it, they will return to “losing at the Box office.”
On a more positive note,:
Thermal solar power from the Southwest United States and Mexico, when developed, can come close to producing all the electricity we now use or more. BrightSource Energy, a thermal solar company, has filed for a $250 million dollar ipo. This will enable them to help begin the process of harvesting this potential source of renewable energy on a moderately large scale.
Miasole, a less known Silicon Valley thin film solar photovoltaic company, has just done a deal with Intel which already looks likely to enable them to use similar technology and methods to lower the cost of making these thin film solar panels and radically increase the volume they make. That means that larger photovoltaic solar plants in cool but sunny places and small photovoltaic solar systems all over the world will be more cost effective soon. That means we will build a lot more of them. This will also help.
So, even if the politicians fail to act enough or fast enough, some businesses are working out deals that may protect us anyway.
We just need ten times as much in a quarter of the time it’s taking to avoid real economic problems.
So, every kind of energy efficiency improvement we can put into use, will help us to overcome this. We’ll need a huge amount of them as things stand now!
Today's post: Wednesday, 4-27-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects. And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Today’s post:
It IS about the economy but facts count too.....
I once was extremely opposed to the Presidential candidacy of Democrat John Edwards since some of his economic policies if he became President would have truly horrible consequences if he actually did as he said he would.
His comments showed he simply didn’t understand economic facts. Following his policies would have been much like standing on the beach watching after warnings were posted for a large Tsunami later that day just because you thought you could control or ignore facts you didn’t like. As writer Robert Heinlein once put it, the actually possible events would have happened anyway. Ouch! No way was John Edwards qualified to be President of the United States.
Unfortunately, now, it’s many of the current Republicans that are willing to pretend away facts they don’t like.
There are two problems with that. It looks increasingly as if gasoline price will double from here by 2010. That’s about $8 or $9 a gallon or more!
If we try to pretend this isn’t so and pass laws to cause us to continue to use gasoline and diesel fuel for transport, our economy is in grave danger. Similarly, if we do NOT pass laws to increase mileage standards for vehicles using oil and move to alternatives other than oil for transport, the facts will begin to kill our economy.
In addition to peak oil, China plans to add nearly as many vehicles by 2020 as now exist in Europe.
Shai Agassi, the founder of Better Place, an electric-car company, said this and it was reported yesterday by TIME magazine.:
"Within less than this decade the No. 1 selling car in the world will be the electric car," he says. "It's the biggest financial opportunity the world has ever seen…..."
He added. "I'll put it this way: We have people from China here."
The TIME article said this: “The People's Republic has been busy creating a bourgeoisie, and the middle class does like to drive. Beijing's next five-year plan foresees at least 170 million new vehicles, or perhaps twice that, according to Agassi.
The lower estimate alone is as many cars as there are in Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Britain combined.
The 8 million barrels of oil that would be required every day to fuel them is about as much as the U.S. imports every day.
"Do you know what the price of oil will be in five years if they're not using electric cars?" Agassi asks.”
If that happens or even comes close to it, gasoline and diesel prices will go up. They may go up by more than double the current prices in fact.
A separate TIME article on China & its incentive to go to electric cars said this:
"China, like the U.S., also has worries about dependency on foreign oil -- half of its oil comes from abroad; and it's only likely to get worse. China's oil consumption is expected to rise from 7.6 million barrels a day in 2007 to 11.6 million barrels a day by 2020."
Second, we do need to protect our economy from relying on oil while its prices go up enough to stall out our economy.
But the scientists also have found clear and increasing evidence that to save our climate and possibly our ability to grow food and keep some of our coastal cities, we also need to dramatically switch away from much of our use of natural gas and close to all our use of coal. Or we need to find a cost effective way to turn the CO2 produced into Oxygen and Carbon compounds. Cutting back in several ways AND adding cost effective CO2 removal systems is likely best.
The current Republicans who think their wish this isn’t so will prevent the consequences are wrong. If they fail to act to help prevent the disasters we are headed for, their actions are not based on fact.
Unfortunately if they continue to do this in our Congress, the actually possible will happen anyway. And, the survivors will think of them in years to come as many people think of Hitler now. Their beliefs were not based on facts – so their actions had horrible consequences
Also, though many of the economic principles Republicans believe in are sound, as this becomes evident, Republicans will return to being a weak and minority party if they continue to act like ignorant fools. Facts do count. And, pretending or even believing otherwise is not a good idea! The facts always win the argument. As our past California Governor put it, they will return to “losing at the Box office.”
On a more positive note,:
Thermal solar power from the Southwest United States and Mexico, when developed, can come close to producing all the electricity we now use or more. BrightSource Energy, a thermal solar company, has filed for a $250 million dollar ipo. This will enable them to help begin the process of harvesting this potential source of renewable energy on a moderately large scale.
Miasole, a less known Silicon Valley thin film solar photovoltaic company, has just done a deal with Intel which already looks likely to enable them to use similar technology and methods to lower the cost of making these thin film solar panels and radically increase the volume they make. That means that larger photovoltaic solar plants in cool but sunny places and small photovoltaic solar systems all over the world will be more cost effective soon. That means we will build a lot more of them. This will also help.
So, even if the politicians fail to act enough or fast enough, some businesses are working out deals that may protect us anyway.
We just need ten times as much in a quarter of the time it’s taking to avoid real economic problems.
So, every kind of energy efficiency improvement we can put into use, will help us to overcome this. We’ll need a huge amount of them as things stand now!
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Earth Day is this Friday, 4-22-2011....
Today's post: Wednesday, 4-20-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects. And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Today’s post:
Earth Day is this Friday, 4-22-2011....
Earth Day is intended to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's natural environment. Earth Day was founded in the United States and was first celebrated on April 22, 1970. In 2009, the United Nations designated April 22 International Mother Earth Day. (I found this information on Wikipedia.)
We live on earth. The sights we see, the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat all depend on the earth and on its weather and climate being safe for these things we need or enjoy.
Why have a day each year to set aside to remember this and appreciate what the earth does for us?
Why not remember it every day and be glad to have these things from Earth every day?
Because if they are not managed well, getting energy and raw materials for our economy and making things and then getting rid of used or worn out or obsolete things can damage every part of what make the earth valuable.
It’s easier and cheaper and takes less management skill to do these things in ways that harm the earth and those things that make our Earth so valuable for us.
If you do things on a very small scale a bit away from where you live, this is less critical. And, if you do things that are not very harmful that’s also the case.
Our economic efforts began when both of these things tended to be true.
When our economic efforts begin to be on a truly huge scale and generate toxins and poisons if not very carefully managed, management of them must be greatly more skilled and attended to in order to protect the earth and our use and enjoyment of it.
When energy acquisition and use and mining and manufacturing begin to make our air be harmful to breathe or putrid to look upon or cause disruptive climate change and severe weather events that cost more than it would cost to prevent these things, the managements involved have failed in their responsibilities.
Since it’s possible to make money and products without this management failure and to make money solving these problems, that is truly tragic.
Since this kind of management failure is still too often the case, it is good to take a day once each year to remember what is at stake.
That’s why we have Earth Day.
Today's post: Wednesday, 4-20-2010
We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects. And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.
At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.
And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.
Today’s post:
Earth Day is this Friday, 4-22-2011....
Earth Day is intended to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's natural environment. Earth Day was founded in the United States and was first celebrated on April 22, 1970. In 2009, the United Nations designated April 22 International Mother Earth Day. (I found this information on Wikipedia.)
We live on earth. The sights we see, the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat all depend on the earth and on its weather and climate being safe for these things we need or enjoy.
Why have a day each year to set aside to remember this and appreciate what the earth does for us?
Why not remember it every day and be glad to have these things from Earth every day?
Because if they are not managed well, getting energy and raw materials for our economy and making things and then getting rid of used or worn out or obsolete things can damage every part of what make the earth valuable.
It’s easier and cheaper and takes less management skill to do these things in ways that harm the earth and those things that make our Earth so valuable for us.
If you do things on a very small scale a bit away from where you live, this is less critical. And, if you do things that are not very harmful that’s also the case.
Our economic efforts began when both of these things tended to be true.
When our economic efforts begin to be on a truly huge scale and generate toxins and poisons if not very carefully managed, management of them must be greatly more skilled and attended to in order to protect the earth and our use and enjoyment of it.
When energy acquisition and use and mining and manufacturing begin to make our air be harmful to breathe or putrid to look upon or cause disruptive climate change and severe weather events that cost more than it would cost to prevent these things, the managements involved have failed in their responsibilities.
Since it’s possible to make money and products without this management failure and to make money solving these problems, that is truly tragic.
Since this kind of management failure is still too often the case, it is good to take a day once each year to remember what is at stake.
That’s why we have Earth Day.
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