Comments sunflower has made

America confronts three interrelated crises: an economic crisis, a climate crisis and an energy security crisis. We believe there's a fourth: a competitiveness crisis. This crisis is particularly evident in America's worldwide standing in the next great global industry, green technology.

Energy in the United States costs more than $1 trillion a year -- for oil, coal, natural gas, nuclear and renewables. This is on top of a similar sum spent on the things that use this energy -- our homes, shops, factories and cars. That means about $2 trillion a year is at stake right here.

By John Doerr and Jeff Immelt

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/02/AR2009080201563.htmlOn Joe Romm's strategy to lose the clean energy race posted 4 months ago 30 Responses

Greenwash is more dangerous than denial and delay. It seduces us to think something effective is being done.

The price and availability of dirty energy was a strong motivator for alternatives, more so than the price and availability of clean energy. When oil was $147/bbl last year the market went nuts for new alternatives. Now at $60/bbl the market is flat. Cutting the cost of low-carbon energy in half does little to stimulate the market due to the resistance to change.

The US spends something like $700 billion per year on fossil fuels, and that does not include the cost of burners. Doubling that cost with carbon taxes would make the government the enemy. And what about India and China?

The one motivation we can all count on is making money. Demonstrating rich profits with clean energy would scale globally.

A simple three year payback against today's fossil energy prices, without subsidies, using technologies that make 100% profits for suppliers would scale very fast around the world, especially Asia. Our lives depend on this.

It is amazing what we can do when the government is involved developing new ideas, there are lots of historical examples.On Joe Romm's strategy to lose the clean energy race posted 4 months ago 30 Responses

Risk is the issue.  Investors are easily frightened.  Public investments proving new technologies will facilitate risk adverse private investments.

Delay and denial is a recipe to cook this planet.

Yesterday, July 28, the Department of Energy sent out over 3,000 official letters of discouragement advising developers of new clean energy ideas to not submit proposals for research and development concepts due to the lack of available government funds.

Title: Recovery Act - ARPA-E 
Reference Number: DE-FOA-0000065 

The press should investigate this discouragement of American ideas and inventions.

I subscribed the U.S. Department of Energy - Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy - and have been surprised by the can-do and have-done enthusiasm, vastly different from the old EERE.

http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/news/progress_alerts.cfm/pa_id=194

"When it comes to saving money and growing our economy, energy efficiency isn't just low hanging fruit; it's fruit laying on the ground," said Secretary Chu. "The most prosperous, competitive economies of the 21st century will be those that use energy efficiently. It's time for America to lead the way."

"We, the United States, the richest country in the world, have both the moral obligation, I think also the great interest, to invent the very technologies that will allow these people to realize their aspirations without eating up the planet."

Cheers!

Agree with Jon. I wanted to read yesterday's rags and all I get are tags.  What's up with that?

breaks require < p > < p > without the spaces on Firefox with Java and JavaScript disabled.On Welcome to the new Grist! posted 8 months ago 106 Responses

I like Bill Gross and his technologies. Nice pictures and pretty pictures. Good flavor. I am starved for numbers. Todd, please call Bill back and get numbers. What is the cost of installed heliostats per square meter? What is the tower cost? How many dollars per peak Watt? What is the capacity factor of peak? Numbers please.

Thanks Kate, this gave me so much hope and joy

I wish I could be there.

Virgin Air has a new introductory fare Seattle ~ WDC $59 each way, but could not handle the carbon footprint and no time for the train.

Good luck, stay warm.

Love,On Kids go crazy for the great taste of climate policy! posted 9 months ago 7 Responses

Chumming the waters with PPAs

Cost containment has not been vigorously pursued.

Maximum sun is mostly a carryover from the science of efficiency and performance.  Isolation is expensive and not compensated by increased solar insolation.

Land cost is probably a red herring for locating in a desert.  Typically, land cost is something like 10% the cost of heliostat deployment not including the tower, receiver, grid, and engine costs.

The advantage of big PPAs was mostly to demonstrate big customers to big investors.  

Big solar is a group of smaller plants in one location.  There is very little discussion on actual costs and values.  Size matters for attracting investors (do they still exist?).On Biggest California utility contracts for world's biggest solar power deal posted 9 months, 2 weeks ago 23 Responses

"Under a Green Sky", Peter Ward Ph.D.

  On Will U.K.'s prime minister act to address the biggest threat to Britain's youth? posted 9 months, 2 weeks ago 36 Responses

Brothers in revolution

If UK and US can not leave coal in the ground then those governments will become irrelevant.  (Jim does not go far enough.)  

We Yanks can advocate UK revolution and they can advocate US revolution -- all legal, all good, all necessary if the president and PM can not come to terms for a civilized future.  

The enemy is domestic, a clear and present danger.

Mr. President and PM, rsvp.
 On Will U.K.'s prime minister act to address the biggest threat to Britain's youth? posted 9 months, 2 weeks ago 36 Responses

Is this a solar/natural gas hybrid power plant?

Gas backup and solar plus gas turbine?On Biggest California utility contracts for world's biggest solar power deal posted 9 months, 3 weeks ago 12 Responses

Lunacy

Why not just blow up the moon?  Make a ring around the Earth like Saturn.  It would be permanent, reduce high tides in a rising sea level, and deplete nuclear waste.

I will miss the moon.On Geoengineering is risky but likely inevitable, so we better start thinking it through posted 9 months, 3 weeks ago 10 Responses

Jon, Ausra was Solar Heat and Power,

 a steam supplier and coal power preheat in Australia.  They showed us the cause and effect of overselling the promise of new solar technology.  As the story currently unfolds, Vinod, VC, et al., claim that the founders had excessive exuberance.  What would you say if you were offered $45 million to say what Vinod wanted to hear?  Yup, we can make solar power cheaper than coal 24/7.  

A fixed line focused receiver could never do that.  And yet many here thought Ausra could do magic and save us.  

Thin film magic, now worth $ billions...

We need to get our thinking right.
On Energy density is not an immutable requirement posted 9 months, 3 weeks ago 44 Responses

Central Solar due diligence is due.

The image of central solar is used to expand transmission markets, not the reverse.  BrightSource, Ausra, troughs, will be used, if at all, for preheat into gas and coal power plants.  There might be 20% more sun isolated in deserts.  The cooling and transmission losses eat into this advantage.  And the costs of transmission and isolated power plant construction beg to be considered.

Solar is being used for public acceptance of these subsidized power schemes (and are also used to market solar Ponzi schemes).  It is a nightmare in a global warming panic.  

Will the Mojave lines be installed or are stimulus  funds more likely to be spent for Midwest wind projects? On Energy density is not an immutable requirement posted 9 months, 4 weeks ago 44 Responses

My gut churns on purple oceans and green skies

And a probable 90% mass extinction from Hydrogen sulfide.

Please read 'Under a Green Sky' by paleontologist Peter Ward Ph.D. On 'We're looking at a scenario where there's no more agriculture in California,' Part 2 posted 9 months, 4 weeks ago 4 Responses

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors

SSRI blocks creativity, and crazy ideas.

Dopamine addicts need powerful profits (Super Bowl, beer, GE grid stimulation) ~ the key for mass movements mitigating global warming.On Scientists find source of gregarious behavior (in grasshoppers) posted 10 months ago 1 Response

Got that T shirt

My house has a smart grid.  Each outlet is served by two sides, and each side can be switched off by the whole house control system when we leave.  There are also dedicated outlets that stay on for security, computers, and refrigerator.  And I also have automatic power management which switches off discretionary loads as needed, like hot water and space heaters.  The whole house total load is limited to 30 amps.  We have no choice but be efficient. The system is transparent and comfortable. On OIRA chief on making the invisible visible posted 10 months ago 3 Responses

For old timers, long-term effects are here and now

On Obama issues a flurry of environment-related orders posted 10 months, 1 week ago 5 Responses

Green footprints

While at Stanford planning solar district heating we discussed efficiency, entropy, and environmental toxins.  (They planned to decommission their cogenerator because of the CO2 from natural gas, a very progressive policy.)  

Two elements surfaced, green concrete and mirror chemicals.  They were concerned that we planned to use glass/silver/palladium/paint.  Palladium sounded toxic if not radioactive.  Actually it is promoted as 'green' mirror because it replaces copper and palladium is totally non-reactive.  And the mirror lifetime doubles to 50 years.  

Progressive early adopters of clean energy are very sensitive to environmental footprints.

BTW, I was using two different isolated evaluations...  existing renewable technologies can displace 25% of existing fossil fuel use at no additional cost.  Separately, efficiency can displace 50% of existing fossil fuel use with even better returns on investment.  And I have high hopes for new technologies of all types.  

(We are nonprofit 501(c)(3), not selling anything, just looking for solutions to global warming, and getting old.) On Even renewable energy should be used and produced efficiently posted 10 months, 2 weeks ago 15 Responses

In Europe they use the word 'exergy'

On Even renewable energy should be used and produced efficiently posted 10 months, 2 weeks ago 15 Responses

Entropy and Ponzi Zombies

Entropy is as important as efficiency, something your Recycled Energy Development cogeneration successfully capitalizes on.  

Solar power for the displacement of natural gas also ignores the low hanging fruit of entropy.  Much less toxic is solar heat for the displacement of high entropic natural gas burned for low-grade heat, hot water, soup, and so on.

Renewable energy con artists contribute to lay public cognitive dissonance.  Political antagonists amplify this support for the least efficient and most expensive competition knowing full well that they lead the faithful over a cliff you have described here.  

Will we spit into this wind?  A return to science would be most helpful.On Even renewable energy should be used and produced efficiently posted 10 months, 2 weeks ago 15 Responses

Get Smart

Acidic stagnate oceans from CO2 are the number-one threat to our continuing existence.  Nothing is more important than the link between ocean health and past mass extinctions.

There is no greater threat to our national security.

And perhaps we can stop using sonar to spy on subs from a bygone era.On Obama taps oceans advocate Leon Panetta to head CIA posted 11 months ago 3 Responses

A green sky is not good

"Slower but steadily accumulating changes had been under way for thousands of years [AGW from agriculture], and the total effect of these earlier changes nearly  matched the explosive industrial era increases of the last century or two."

Under a Green Sky by Peter Ward Ph.D., a Seattle area paleontologist writing about mass extinctions from CO2 causing Hydrogen sulfide from stagnant oceans killing sea and land based life, and destroying ozone thereby causing the extinction of most plants, plankton, and animal species. On Biochar: magic bullet? posted 11 months, 1 week ago 14 Responses

Prius prudence

Same here, within 500 miles before the standard warranty expired, just missed that bullet.  The cost of replacing that little Prius control screen is $7,000. On Memo to Prius owners: Get the extended warranty posted 11 months, 2 weeks ago 12 Responses

Banking first steps

Low technical hurdles and low costs favor displacing natural gas with solar thermal collectors for lower grade interruptible heat (soup, beer, heating, cooling, and so on).  

Use the gas to be saved for displacing coal power now. On A concentrated solar BACT for new coal? posted 1 year ago 4 Responses

Greed is not green.

Kleiner owns some technologies, competes with others. IT VC, bless their hearts, have little experience with the heavy industrial inertia of energy.

Please seek objective management beyond vested interests... National Renewable Energy Laboratory, universities, non-profits, people with energy economics engineering.
On John Doerr recommends Bill Joy for chief technologist posted 1 year ago 5 Responses

A cast of hawks?

We have the same event here, no song birds and a cast of hawks.  Last week I saw them debating each other with some really strange growling sounds.  We also have a Cooper's Hawk surprising larger sea birds sitting on the Sound in thick fog.On Urban hawk attacks posted 1 year, 1 month ago 12 Responses

Sharp-shinned Hawk

They hunt as a cast of hawks, the perimeter members squeal driving prey birds to the one holding motionless for the kill.  Unlike other hawks they often feed on birds near homes, especially bird baths.  These hawks prefer small birds but will go after Pileated woodpeckers.  We have a cast on our conservancy that we have watched over they last couple decades.  They are highly territorial during the summer. You can hear them squeal for hours almost every day. Your cast will likely leave the area late November and come back next year.  Cover your run with well staked chicken wire.On Urban hawk attacks posted 1 year, 2 months ago 12 Responses

All the King's men...

The far right deniers of global warming are also doing whatever it takes to suppress solutions in the public and private sectors.  They are doing a lot of damage and must be stopped.  This is no time to be passive.  Solution saboteurs are the most dangerous people on earth. On Gallup polls indicate that Republicans are less likely to recognize global warming posted 1 year, 2 months ago 52 Responses

solar boiler

New solar concentrators actually cost less than new coal boilers, so solar steam is cheaper (adjusted for capacity factors) even if coal were delivered free.  Last summer, the simple payback against gas was a couple years, twice that in Seattle type climates.  Solar installations can supply steam directly to existing fossil fuel power plants.  Worry about storage after a few hundred billion dollars collecting peak sun.

Solar thermal O&M is 2% to 4% of capital cost.On So how much do renewables cost anyway? posted 1 year, 2 months ago 30 Responses

Resistance is futile

http://www.harbornet.com/sunflower/palin.jpg

 On Where energy/environment issues stand in the Republican Party posted 1 year, 2 months ago 8 Responses

Water in their soil - urban Eucalyptus forest

On Grist and Arizona State University team up on newsletter for students posted 1 year, 2 months ago 36 Responses

Twisted and true

SGP is correct.  However, market manipulation is not sustainable, so I would not worry too much about that image going forward.  

The reason they want maximum sun is because they are excessively expensive.  If the technologies mature and costs go down then the return on investment will be positive without subsidies, and without desert sun.  

If it works, and it will, then solar concentrators will be located near industries and cities for total energy systems of local heat and power.  The desert is the last place I would locate such systems.  The O&M, especially mirror cleaning, is too expensive, as is the energy loss, cooling, and transmission costs.  In situ solar and local ownership is my vision, a positive ROI in Seattle type climates.
 On Nature magazine gives short-shrift to baseload solar posted 1 year, 2 months ago 9 Responses

The light side of the force

Electricity for motors yes, for heat not so easy to see.  Solar power will cost $1/Watt(e) and solar heat $0.20/Watt(t).On Why electricity is the energy carrier of choice posted 1 year, 3 months ago 7 Responses

A bridge too far

Steam district heating from the waste heat of purchased natural gas cogeneration is now challenged by the most progressive energy planners.  Some have called it a bridge from coal to solar thermal.  Yet it also blocks the economic introduction of solar heat because the gas power sold to the grid pays for the leftover district heat steam. (More advanced district systems use very hot water rather than steam.)  

Solar can be in the image of supplementing fossil fuels or the system can be 100% not fossil fuels.  And solar power is not needed to pay for solar district heating.  Both can send heat many miles from the source with low loss and positive economics.  

I have attended the international conferences on seasonal heat storage, and on annual efficiencies of very large solar heat arrays.  I have also designed and now live in a most efficient passive solar home near Seattle, so I know the limitations of both systems.  Achieving 80% carbon free isolated new home heat without firewood is doable with cost savings.  The last 20% is expensive in Seattle type climate (ignoring hydroelectric power).  Achieving 100% community low-carbon heat for existing homes is doable with cost savings.  Sweden interconnected nearly all existing homes with a nation-wide hot water district heating system in a 25 year giant retrofit of their society.

And for further digression, solar cogeneration is possible but more complicated.  High-intensity photovoltaic power (HIPV - 500 to 1000 suns) is much more cost effective than solar thermal power. However, those HIPV cells like to be cool (60C) for high performance so there is less district waste heat potential unless additional solar hardware is deployed to boost temperatures to 105C.  Distributed local systems can still supply hot water showers and lots of power. Once several hundred billion dollars of HIPV saturate daytime grids then nighttime solar thermal power, with more opportunity for waste heat, becomes a big niche market for capital growth.

For an 80% carbon free world, both high performance new passive solar homes and solar seasonal-heat-storage district heating of existing homes can do the job with positive cost savings and excellent job growth. On The hybrid solar home, part 2 posted 1 year, 3 months ago 28 Responses

Black Death

So killing the planet is getting more expensive.

Burning coal is a crime.On Coal electricity prices: the new gas prices posted 1 year, 3 months ago 3 Responses

An acre of solar is worth 38,000 gallons oil/year

At 22% density.  Lots of room between collectors, like fruit trees.On Time to stop using the phrase 'renewable energy' posted 1 year, 4 months ago 65 Responses

I don't have a tree in this fight

Isolated land will not be cleared for housing, and sustainable forestry is viable.  Close in forests will be cleared for housing irrespective of tree and lumber values.

Firewood is a small wedge, useful for the rural blessed.On Time to stop using the phrase 'renewable energy' posted 1 year, 4 months ago 65 Responses

1000 points of disappointment

Why do your venture capital firms not seed clean energy startups?

 On Better questions for Gore posted 1 year, 4 months ago 9 Responses

OK, I grok the wisdom of - Clean Energy

Push back on the use of "clean" by dirty energy investors.On Time to stop using the phrase 'renewable energy' posted 1 year, 4 months ago 65 Responses

Lunar energy.

Tides are more lunar energy.

We put the heads in the lunar focus of huge concentrating dishes, a cold ashen gray light, and exposed a couple of lunatics, went completely mad and required a rescue team.

(No disrespect intended.)On Time to stop using the phrase 'renewable energy' posted 1 year, 4 months ago 65 Responses

Southern Spain can do it for Europe

The Mediterranean is becoming a desert. On Can the coal industry and an environmental blog find common ground? posted 1 year, 4 months ago 24 Responses

Casting seeds

Everybody talking expects somebody else will do the work.  Its like casting seeds without cultivation.

How will we know the difference between money sucking scams enabled by public goodwill and those ideas that can really save the world? On Questions for Gore's energy plan? posted 1 year, 4 months ago 11 Responses

Negawatts neglected

High capital cost near zero variable cost of conservation and efficiency would eclipse coal, nuclear, solar, wind.  Regulatory reform is starting to allow utilities to rate base negawatts On A brief primer on variable vs. fixed costs posted 1 year, 4 months ago 13 Responses

Gotta love Eva

She is hot.  Delightful misanthropic film.

The Romans during the empire were obese on the labor of other poor souls.On The link between obesity and the environment posted 1 year, 4 months ago 16 Responses

The green rush

One's personal solar roof is sexy, industrial solar somewhat grimy.  The objective beyond personal reproduction is community survival.  

The objective of cost effective solar energy is to rapidly scale the displacement of fossil fuels.  Industrial inertia to scale is mitigated by a gold rush of profits with minimum requirements of growth capital -- scale without tooling.

That gold rush will be chasing the lowest hanging fruit first, heavy energy users of oil and gas for low grade heat -- users surrounded by empty low-cost land under a sunny sky.  An example is a meat packing plant in Yuma Arizona cleaning equipment with hot water, or a brewery in Fort Collins Colorado surrounded by alfalfa.  This is very simple profitable solar, a $100 billion market in the US alone, and installs the profitable base for growth.

A niche market of solar thermal hotels, schools, farms, and homes will emerge and grow, followed by concentrator photovoltaics, concentrator thermal electric, and finally base-load solar power with region-wide district heating/cooling and seasonal heat storage.

More on hope.  Concentrator pv can be done at 1000 suns with future cells at 50% efficiency so future solar power will cost much less.  The one thing I've noticed is that solar always becomes less expensive with time while fossil fuels become more expensive with time.  Join the green rush.On More than half of today's electricity, more than 16 percent of today's energy posted 1 year, 5 months ago 74 Responses

notes

Am all for rooftop pv, has political value and economic value.

Consider tracking from the ground if space is available.  

Fixed latitude +15 degrees
http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/old_data/nsrdb/redbook/atlas/ ...

Single N-S axis tracking latitude +15 degrees
http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/old_data/nsrdb/redbook/atlas/ ...

High-intensity pv implies 500+suns from point focus concentrators such as a dish or Fresnel lens
http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/old_data/nsrdb/redbook/atlas/ ...

Think of a 12 foot diameter C-band TV satellite dish in the yard on a pole, or on a load bearing wall, or many poles over parking lots, along roads, brown fields, and so on.

I rough numbers, a 13 m² dish would cost $700 materials, $600 labor, and require <200 cm² type III-V 40% efficient cells at something like $10/cm² ~ $2000.  $3300 for about 4,000 Watts(e) installed system at scale without margin plus inverter and cooling.  Type III-V cells are used on the Mars rovers.

Something more aggressive for return on investment is concentrator cooling (displacing electricity) with steam absorption chilling (saves $2000 on cells).On More than half of today's electricity, more than 16 percent of today's energy posted 1 year, 5 months ago 74 Responses

Thats the difference between politics and business

Business does not care about 24 hour power from solar concentrators.  Business just wants maximum returns on investments.  Business is in the matrix world of numbers.

The rest of us are in the world of life, a world of politics.  So naturally we want clean low-carbon 24 hour soar power.  Life depends on it.  And politically we can do it.

After business installs some $100 billion of solar concentrators for direct natural gas and electricity displacement, then business will go up against more difficult competitors, like base load coal power.  

Energy is a very heavy industry, lots of inertia to massive scale up.  I believe solar will grow very big with time and capital.

However, we have no way enough time for solar power to displace coal power.  Our survival depends on shutting down coal without qualifiers, without delay.On BLM contemplates two-year moratorium on solar power plant construction in the West posted 1 year, 5 months ago 68 Responses

Solar to steam is currently 85% efficient

  On BLM contemplates two-year moratorium on solar power plant construction in the West posted 1 year, 5 months ago 68 Responses

Energy tradition verses cost competitive evolution

As a next move your comment makes sense.  Several moves ahead on the board it is less clear.  

Would not wood be more competitive displacing petrol chemicals used directly in burners, like pellet stoves displacing natural gas.  Such gas can then be used for transportation.  Pellet stoves are becoming a roaring market success.

Would not solar Ausra used for industrial process heat displace more natural gas than capital invested in cellulosic fuels.

I would think in a devastated consumer economy that the margins of biofuels will become slim, demand destruction of oil a real possibility, and lower cost direct energy technologies more favored by marginalized consumers.

None-the-less, good luck with cellulose.
On Not all biofuels are the same; we can do biofuel well or poorly posted 1 year, 5 months ago 27 Responses

Yes, like Wal-Mart parking lots are better sites

On BLM contemplates two-year moratorium on solar power plant construction in the West posted 1 year, 5 months ago 68 Responses

smaller plants on marginal land

Yup, that's what my crew says.  Huge desert bound solar power plants are suboptimal, not the low hanging fruit, also not likely to be built in less than two years.  Solar power and cogeneration near users makes more sense.

The worry here is right-wing political push back against the emergence of threatening solar power, a push back against public support for renewable energy.  

The price of oil is making solar power more dangerous than global warming. On BLM contemplates two-year moratorium on solar power plant construction in the West posted 1 year, 5 months ago 68 Responses

To be or not to be on the cover of Wired.

On Technophile mag spouts climate-tech nonsense posted 1 year, 5 months ago 7 Responses

Our eyes, our ears, our hearts...

Give all that we have, all that we are to our children.  We can solve this problem.

Those who take comfort in denial, who live and let die, who enable genocide, are not our friends.  On The new testimony before Congress posted 1 year, 5 months ago 4 Responses

Thanks Bob, that was interesting.

I hope we can eventually get beyond the mantra of power and use solar concentrators for what they are best suited for, displacing fossil fuels.  Applications include industrial process heat, preheating existing power cycles, commercial and residential HVAC, desalination, and so on.  Later, much later, we can do base load solar power plants.  

The value of solar concentrators is the value of fuel displaced.  Do the simple stuff first.On Solar thermal can save us, but it needs public clamor posted 1 year, 5 months ago 35 Responses

Solar dish mirrors - MIT

Shameless self promotion from Cambridge last week --

http://features.csmonitor.com/innovation/2008/06/18/mit-t ...
http://web.mit.edu/mitei/education/spotlights/solar-dish. ...
http://www.harbornet.com/sunflower/pvdish.html

-- Doug.
On Solar thermal can save us, but it needs public clamor posted 1 year, 5 months ago 35 Responses

Read it with a calculator

Also interviewed BPA Admin. during the WPPSS fiasco and they agreed with what Lovins et al. wrote here.  BPA told me that retrofiting the NW aluminum industry with more efficient pot lines would save more power than produced from all five reactors.  The adjectives apply ... grossly uncompetitive.  AB Lovins told me, without emotion, that WPPSS would go bankrupt before anybody else considered the possibility.

Lovins speak does seem the energize the nuclear base against him, with much emotion.On What should I ask the efficiency guru about nuclear power? posted 1 year, 5 months ago 67 Responses

Who profits from nuclear?

I assume GE, Westinghouse, and General Atomic build reactor power plants.  Are there other nuclear companies inline to profit from extreme subsidies?

Are we still kicking a dead Brontosaurus?  Is there a concern that we may resuscitate this monster?On What should I ask the efficiency guru about nuclear power? posted 1 year, 5 months ago 67 Responses

Millions of people and trillions of dollars.

I'm about to fly into the center of a perfect storm -- high energy prices, global warming, and a Democratic sweep.  You are clear on the issues of certainty.  Honest leadership is clearly the issue.

A war chest, albeit risk capital, philanthropy, or public funds, is critical, urgent.  Caveats be damned.  

We are in the most dangerous struggle for survival in human history.  There is nothing uncertain about the consequences of failure.On The challenges of reconciling science and policy posted 1 year, 6 months ago 32 Responses

Carbon emissions will hurt American families

On Climate action advocates need a simple, compelling message on costs posted 1 year, 6 months ago 15 Responses

H2S mass extinction links

http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/1996/08.15/MassExtinct ...

http://www.wired.com/science/planetearth/news/2008/03/pet ...

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/10/061021115722 ...On Two scientists offer a grim preview of where humanity is headed posted 1 year, 6 months ago 13 Responses

Pray this happens. God help us.

On Rep. Ed Markey unveils ambitious new climate legislation posted 1 year, 6 months ago 4 Responses

The art of solar

In a perfect world - coal is illegal and solar is used to save gas and oil.  

The easy stuff will be solar displacing those valuable fuels used for low grade heat, like industrial process heat, or commercial heating and cooling.  Some hundreds of billion dollars later solar would find less profitable high-temperature applications, like making electricity, glass, concrete, and so on.  Billions later, high temperature storage will further expand solar markets.  

Why do the most expensive stuff first?

The value of solar is the cost of fuel displaced.  At scale, solar thermal should cost something like $100/m² (2007$) and deliver the energy of 1 bbl of oil per year in Colorado climates (half that in Seattle or Boston).  Against the current price of gas that is a simple payback of 2 years.  

The predicted return on investment depends on what you think the price of gas and oil will be over the lifetime of the installation, something like 30 years.

Do not be discouraged by pretty solar pictures with ugly numbers.  We can do much better.On Nevada Solar one is a better and smaller neighbor than a coal mine posted 1 year, 6 months ago 80 Responses

Cellulosic firewood

I spent all day collecting a cord of Madrona for winter fire heat.  Firewood conversion efficiency is better than 85%.  Burner capital cost $300/kW(t).  

My point here is that I had two offers of free Madrona at building sites (the best firewood).  One was 25 minutes away and I refused, too far with a loaded truck.  The other was 15 minutes driving time and just close enough to make sense.  

When I think of the distance of transporting cellulosic biomass, the weight, and the efficiency of conversion, I would instinctively decline.  Too much work, too much oil and coal, too little net delivered energy.On Wall Street Journal editorial mischaracterizes both my position and biofuels posted 1 year, 6 months ago 15 Responses

cute dumb caterpillars

Caterpillars, at least the tent ones in our apple trees, do not walk down hill.    I used cardboard boxes made into cones wrapped around the apple tree trunks like hoop skirts above the grass.

After spaying high pressure water to knock em off the trees they climbed up the tree trunks and became stuck under the cones, totally unwilling to walk down and around the hems of the cones.On Umbra on tent caterpillars posted 1 year, 6 months ago 14 Responses

$6000/kW is cold comfort

On McCain calls for 700+ new nuclear plants costing $4 trillion posted 1 year, 6 months ago 26 Responses

Secured employment for millions of people.

Our CSP team is grappling with the issues of rapid scale-up that you so eloquently write about in this post, forwarded to the team now competing with diverse business models.  My model is open source technology freely available to all producers and consumers.

In simple, one significant numbers, $1000 installation CSP cost will displace one ton of carbon per year for 30 years, (O&M 3%/year).  Simple payback is one to two years, EROEI less than 6 months.  24 hour storage will increase cost 25%. That, my friends, is much cheaper than burning carbon.

The plan -- thousands of people building millions of units, followed by millions of people building billions of units.  The capital is trillions. The cost is zero via profits.  

The method is to use existing commodities of concrete, steel, and glass from existing industries with existing tooling and existing skills.  Parallel production (horizontal integration) can scale very fast.
On Existing technology is faster and far more practical than hypothetical new inventions posted 1 year, 7 months ago 22 Responses

And a million people helping the poor eat

Yes, I do the heavy lifting with friends, donated $1MM this morning (with a four way match for $4MM).  Open source CSP technology at below $1/Watt, should be a story Boston Globe June.  Desalination, water pumping, food processing, crop drying, refrigeration, ...

Power for Yanqui cars not my cup of tea.
On An interview with Vinod Khosla posted 1 year, 7 months ago 54 Responses

Sunshine above the gloom

Some hydrate and permafrost thaw is in the pipeline.

Not the end, not yet.On Atmospheric carbon dioxide, methane rise sharply in 2007 posted 1 year, 7 months ago 16 Responses

Cooling Google's whitebox power

...you can use a SAN for all of the rack's storage needs, completely removing the hot and power-hungry disk drives from the rack. This cuts way down on power, and it isolates all of the disks so that they can be powered and cooled separately...

IBM also offers an optional liquid cooling solution that fits behind each rack, which cuts down on the amount of air conditioning required in the server room...

Right now, the biggest whitebox server customer and maker is Google, and IBM could be angling for the search giant's business with this new line.

Makes more sense than solar power.
On New server farm projected to use 103 MW of power posted 1 year, 7 months ago 20 Responses

VK needs more pencils

And more horses at the track.  Good Luck Vinod!On An interview with Vinod Khosla posted 1 year, 7 months ago 54 Responses

Mining CH4 hydrates is a climate risk due to leaks

On Methane hydrates: What's the worst -- and best -- that could happen? posted 1 year, 7 months ago 7 Responses

Mirror on the sun

It is hard to grok that solar energy is cost effective with so much market spin... solar concentrator numbers:

5.5 kWh/m²/day Colorado direct sunlight * 365 days/year  * 0.85 system efficiency (wet steam) = 1700 kWh/m²/year = 5.8 MMBTU/m²/year = one barrel of oil per square meter mirror per year (not counting barrel energy of oil production and oil burner efficiency).

A solar concentrator costs about $100/m² (mirror $25/m²).  (low Fe glass, Ag, Pd, paint)On Concentrated solar thermal power: a core climate solution posted 1 year, 7 months ago 16 Responses

Gas used to make soup also makes power

On Concentrated solar power is already doing great; no breakthroughs needed posted 1 year, 7 months ago 49 Responses

Solar not in the image of nuclear.

A square meter of solar concentrator is worth the same as burning a barrel of oil per year in sunny climates, and half that in cloudy climates.  The concentrator cost is $100-150/m^2 and lasts for 30 years.  The application is to displace fossil fuels for everything, including making power.  That is a very thick wedge.On Examining the IPCC's 'portfolio of technologies' posted 1 year, 7 months ago 19 Responses

A Shift in the Debate Over Global Warming NYT

One of them is Joseph Romm, a blogger on climate and a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a nonprofit group pushing for federal legislation to restrict greenhouse gases.

"Of course we need aggressive investments in R. and D. -- I for one have been arguing that for two decades," Mr. Romm wrote in a post to his blog, climateprogress.org. "But if we don't start aggressively deploying the technologies we have now for the next quarter century, then all the new technologies in the world won't avert catastrophe."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/weekinreview/06revkin.h ...On The implicit assumption in Pielke Jr.'s Nature commentary posted 1 year, 7 months ago 38 Responses

They love and feed the children they abuse.

It still does not make any sense to build a plant that can not survive the future.  

Why spoil green goodwill with Cliffside coal?  

Why not natural gas?   Are coal margins worth the risk?   It doesn't make sense.On Duke Energy CEO responds to climate scientist Jim Hansen posted 1 year, 8 months ago 13 Responses

Death Star vulnerabilities

Mirror cost envelopes show positive economics beyond deserts, in cloudy areas, and with storage.  

Applications include power, industrial process heat, district heating and cooling, desalination, and energy self-reliance.  

Benefits are global warming mitigation, clean air, distributed jobs, capital preservation, profits, and cultural hope for the future.On James Hansen writes to Duke Energy on coal posted 1 year, 8 months ago 11 Responses

Oh my god, look at we, or is it me?

I like the logo and the Kermit green.

I have problems with the top-down message.  Albeit hero worship is good for talk.  But the rich and famous have clean hands.  They lack the frontline experiences and the hard work of implementing solutions.  The US is importing solutions from Europe, Australia, Asia, but not supporting homegrown solutions that would supply energy less expensively and with benefits of massive local employment.  US cultural and financial capital is missing, or worse.  I could do so much with a handful of seeds.  Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers told me they do not have seeds.  So we continue to work with volunteers needing medical insurance while burdened with student loans.

Those implementing solutions remain frustrated and marginalized, more so now with the visibility of $300MM just beyond our reach.On Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection unveils ambitious $300 million ad campaign posted 1 year, 8 months ago 18 Responses

To be fair and accurate

The heat trapped by CO2 is 100,000 times the heat of fossil fuel combustion that released that CO2.  Solar adversely impacts the albedo of Earth with dark collectors.  The choice of climate footprints will be decided by economics and profits.

If MIT is correct then solar is cheaper than coal and more accessible than hot rocks.

I hope hot rocks steam as described by MIT becomes a proven global energy source less expensive than coal.  Federal research and development is urgently needed.On Cost of solar cells may be driven down dramatically posted 1 year, 8 months ago 36 Responses

Budget cut from Bush and scant IP potential

Fossil fools have zero tolerance for low-carbon competition.

Hot rock does look good for both source and storage.On Cost of solar cells may be driven down dramatically posted 1 year, 8 months ago 36 Responses

Hot wells deep in desert sand.

This model needs a sophisticated computer program.  Maybe your thermal Ph.Ds have one. Sand insulation is 0.2 BTU/hr/ft F, weighs 95 lbs/ft3,  specific heat 0.2 BTU/lb F.  Delta temperature 200F.  100 ft. wells (6 inch diameter) in dry sand every 3 feet at up to 700 F pressurized water with low flow.  Output 500 F steam.  Possible cost is $1000/well, or less, and at delta 200F the sand value (900 ft3) is about 3.4 MMBTU or 1000 kWh(t).  At 16 hours storage that value 62kW(t) at $16/kW (less than a penny per watt).  The thermal resistance will determine optimum well spacing, likely less than 3 feet for an 8 hour charge period for a radial average delta of 200 F.

Water in pipe at 600F, 42.4 lb/ft^3  1.51 BTU/lb F.  100MW(e) ~ 300MW(t) 16 hr = 1,280,000 ft^3  200,000 wells without hot sand contribution.
On Cost of solar cells may be driven down dramatically posted 1 year, 8 months ago 36 Responses

bigTom - peer review at MIT

On Cost of solar cells may be driven down dramatically posted 1 year, 8 months ago 36 Responses

Coal diplomacy with a smile

I am sure his CFO and engineers would spoil that nice story.  Nobody in heavy industry believes CCS and pv are remotely cost effective.  The liabilities of public opinion concerning coal were avoided while pleasant Mr. Rogers told us what we wanted to hear.  

The near future of coal will most likely be cost prohibitive for both power production and exports due to inevitable draconian carbon legislation.

Market pull for low-carbon resilient energy is a vast opportunity for Duke.  I would invest in something that actually makes sense.On Duke Energy CEO defends the need for free permit allocations posted 1 year, 8 months ago 4 Responses

shift the entire world to renewables needed

Got Prozac?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/19/business/19coal.htmlOn The money we've spent on the five-year Iraq War could have shifted the world to renewables posted 1 year, 8 months ago 13 Responses

Not a good image, be kind

A friend attempted suicide last week from economic stress.  On A few thoughts for environmentalists posted 1 year, 8 months ago 95 Responses

Be resilient against shock.

A hundred billion dollar market in domestic low-carbon energy could employ a million people and supplant the Homeland Security, Iraq war, home loan, and high technology bubbles.  Would the Haliburton White House move in that green self-reliant direction?

We must guard against Bush programs that will be rammed through during a period of intense economic shock, programs that we would never accept under normal conditions.  The opportunity for the rich to become obscenely wealthy via privatization of our government and public services may occur during our darkest hour.  Resist.
On A few thoughts for environmentalists posted 1 year, 8 months ago 95 Responses

CSP was "zeroed-out" by Bush 2001

There are so many forms of solar energy that it is difficult to be brief and precise, remembering [reading history] that horses will not be replaced by cars.

I live in a passive solar house in Seattle climate which collects 20,000 watts for the price of glass, my favorite form of solar energy.  There are also flat-plate hot water solar collectors, attached greenhouses, Trombe walls, clotheslines, indirect solar heat like firewood, solar powered district heating, solar industrial process heat, high-intensity photovoltaic cells now at 42% efficiency, solar thermal power with 24 hour steam storage, and stuff I barely understand.

I know solar glass mirrors best.  One square meter collects each year the equivalent of burning one barrel of oil in Colorado climate, about half that in cloudy areas.  Natural gas is half the cost of oil, usually more.  BrightSource claims $150/m^2 for heliostats and tower, IdeaLabs $100/m^2 for dishes, Industrial Solar $170/m^2 troughs, and Sunflower (me) $99/m^2 for dishes.  Materials are commodities from existing industries:  mirror (glass, silver, palladium, paint), steel, aluminum, concrete, micro controllers, and small motors (a couple watts clock drive).  The primary market application is natural gas displacement.

I've had dignitaries from China, India, Middle East, South America, SE Asia all discussing rapid unbelievably large scale up of solar energy systems.  They want low capital tooling and high labor designs that can scale quickly with the force of humanity - lots of indigenous casual jobs.

The effort is all about simplicity.  How simple can it get?On Projected CO2 emissions dwarf previous expectations posted 1 year, 8 months ago 15 Responses

China carbon copy

China is negotiating a gas pipeline from Iran, the world's largest gas reserve, not sure what that means for China's coal consumption.

The US has a much larger reserve of coal than China.  China has a very large solar resource.

Perhaps the US should develop new efficiency and energy technologies, prove profitability, then export such innovation to China.  China is on track to become the world's largest solar hardware exporter, and perhaps the World's largest solar polluter.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008 ...On Projected CO2 emissions dwarf previous expectations posted 1 year, 8 months ago 15 Responses

Are solar subsidies propaganda?

Solar subsidies demonstrate that solar energy is cost prohibitive, and leave nearly everyone with the assumptions that we must use solar energy, but that solar energy is not cost effective.  

A vast array of diverse solar technologies are cost effective without subsidies.  On Are solar incentives a subsidy for the rich? posted 1 year, 8 months ago 11 Responses

The dark side of the sun

With the prices of oil and coal soaring, policymakers around the world are looking at massive solar farms to heat water and generate electricity. For the past four years, however, the world has been suffering from a shortage of polysilicon -- the key component of sunlight-capturing wafers -- driving up prices of solar energy technology and creating a barrier to its adoption.

With the price of polysilicon soaring from $20 per kilogram to $300 per kilogram in the past five years, Chinese companies are eager to fill the gap.

Another reason to use PV concentrators.On Solar thermal plants make a comeback posted 1 year, 8 months ago 24 Responses

Shock Therapy

Sam, we have privatized the US government and sold it to Middle East capital sources.  They have the money.

Right Randy, same people are also ideologically opposed to renewable energy, and have relatives that walked with dinosaurs.  My arms are open.  They need a hug.On What drives climate change denial? posted 1 year, 8 months ago 34 Responses

eSolar eTowers

http://www.esolar.com/

Cool drawings from Bill Gross at IdeaLabs.On Solar thermal plants make a comeback posted 1 year, 8 months ago 24 Responses

NYT making hay while the sun shines

I like Mat Wald's writing and the NYT.  They could do better than report that solar is expensive.  Solar thermal power is not an objectionable waste of money, not like war and corruption is.  

Why solar power?  To save natural gas?  Well then say so.  Examine solar that saves natural gas directly for all applications like heating, cooling, industrial process heat, power, and so on.  There are wide assortments of solar technologies that are cost effective for the displacement of natural gas.  When done right, solar is cost effective compared to oil, gas, coal, and electricity.  Do not buy the argument that solar must be subsidized, in the desert, and is still not competitive.   Damn lies.  Not true.  

For the engineers out there:  Ausra is a 30-sun concentrator with horrendous cosine loses and very low thermal to electric efficiencies. Vinod will polish Ausra and sell it. On Solar thermal plants make a comeback posted 1 year, 9 months ago 24 Responses

FBI National Security Letter at Grist?

The National Security Letter provision of the Patriot Act radically expanded the FBI's authority to demand personal records like Web site visits and e-mail addresses without prior court approval. The provision also allows the FBI to forbid or "gag" anyone who receives an NSL from telling anyone about the record demand.

Not, or not yes.On 'Eco-terrorism' suspected in Seattle-area arson posted 1 year, 9 months ago 80 Responses

ELF designated #1 US domestic terrorist group

Expressing support for ELF is attempting to give material support and you can be prosecuted and jailed for a very long time under new PATRIOT terror material-support statutes.

"When I was undercover, there were plenty of people who may have been sympathetic to a group but were very clear they didn't want to break the law or get involved in violence. And we didn't go after them." Blurring that distinction by opening the door for prosecutions of people who do little more than express sympathies for a group, argues German, "that's where the material-support provisions go off the rails.

My little pony plays in the warm sunshine

Due diligence is not so easily seduced.

There is silicon in solar cells and silicon in computer chips.  There is concrete in solar homes and concrete in nuclear reactors.  

While the most expensive solar technology is subsidized, and promoted in the press, the most cost effective solar technologies are not, and R&D at the labs is being zeroed-out, out of sight.  

Be open to the possibility that solar competition with carbon is being sabotaged by the same industries that deny global warming, that lie when they say they want a cap on carbon.  Lies, damn lies.

Oh never mind.  All solar is good, political, tribal, and green.  On Borenstein analysis of solar PV misses the point of California's solar program posted 1 year, 9 months ago 10 Responses

Blue sky laws and a billion bucks for sunshine

Likely $4/Watt, less than 25% capacity factor, and perhaps up to 15% efficient.  That is why subsidies and third party investors are required to zap this monster to life.On Two huge power plants offer different paths forward posted 1 year, 9 months ago 8 Responses

Or a window ?

Despite increasing popular support for solar photovoltaic panels in the United States, their costs far outweigh the benefits, according to a new analysis by Severin Borenstein, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business and director of the UC Energy Institute.

Solar not cheap swift boating from the dark side

Sunlight is cheap.  PV is not cheap.

A passive solar home with insulated thermal mass is cheap and effective -- does not need geothermal exchange nor electric heat pumps.  Low-carbon district heating is also cheaper than geothermal heat pump retrofits.On How to kill coal in 10 years posted 1 year, 9 months ago 53 Responses

Economic thermal dynamic triage please

Compare cellulosic ethanol energy and cost to making stove biomass pellets displacing natural gas used for transportation and power.  Subsidized ethanol enables system entropy.On Billionaire Branson regrets mindless biofuel support posted 1 year, 9 months ago 22 Responses

Excellent. Killing coal with gas displacement.

District heating with seasonal heat storage, solar concentrator industrial process heat, air-to-air heat exchangers, window shutters, clotheslines, attached greenhouses, Trombe walls, ground coupling with concrete slabs, hot water solar collectors, firewood, thermal mass, white roofs, shade trees, preheat all domestic water (reduces the additional mix of hot water), refrigerators coupled to outdoor winter cold, power management, CFL, recycled materials, insulation, air leaks, efficient windows, efficient appliances, and #1 - low-cost capital.On How to kill coal in 10 years posted 1 year, 9 months ago 53 Responses

Southern Sun

I am currently soaking up 20 kW through the south wall of my solar home on this brilliant sunny day near Seattle.  Not one penny spent on silicon pv cells, nor exported to Silicon Valley.  Smart solar is a lot cheaper than natural gas.
On The numbers add up for solar power, whether you're in Seattle or Albuquerque posted 1 year, 9 months ago 11 Responses

Solar wind wood - yes. Subsidies - no

On A solar grand plan posted 1 year, 9 months ago 29 Responses

Public green v. private greed

I would rather see graduates writing peer review science than see them forced to take jobs for big business doing green spin and Ponzi schemes.  I am weary of magic ponies.

Low-cost low-carbon energy and efficiency is eclipsed by very some very expensive subsidized toys.  We need to stop all energy subsidies and hire some adult supervision. On A solar grand plan posted 1 year, 9 months ago 29 Responses

The Shock Doctrine

Just another tax break at the expense of social programs.  One more step towards the destruction of the Earth for the religion of money.

The richest people on Earth do not need more money.   We do not need more people buying more crap made from burning more fossil fuels.

Give me Earth or give me death.On Opinion writer suggests efficiency stimulus would be more effective posted 1 year, 9 months ago 8 Responses

OK good thanks Rynn

Looks like an opportunity to preheat electric hot water with electric cooling, refrigeration, clothes drying, air exchange, and so on.  The cost of carbon should begin to wag the dog at $100/ton.On Have you been naughty with your light bulbs? You need some good old command and control. posted 1 year, 9 months ago 33 Responses

I love low power

I just heard a green engineer give a talk at MIT and he said that lights are the largest consumer of electricity in a typical home.  I asked if that includes air conditioners, he said yes.  Further, lights make cooling work harder.  Inasmuch as I hate coal power plants to the exclusion of all other things, I love low power lights.On Have you been naughty with your light bulbs? You need some good old command and control. posted 1 year, 9 months ago 33 Responses

Highly recommend reading Code Red

If a dyslectic like me reads 90 pages, it must be good.  (and easy reading.)On The case for a sustainability emergency posted 1 year, 9 months ago 18 Responses

I agree with turd blossom

There is a quality difference between promoting pv and actually fostering a low-carbon economy.    

There are well educated leaders of soft energy in Colorado.  Please seek their advice on the economics of thermal dynamics.On Green energy projects bloom in California posted 1 year, 10 months ago 9 Responses

Hit a charged capacitor with a hammer, it explodes

On Lockheed Martin signs exclusive contract with Eestor for energy storage units posted 1 year, 10 months ago 9 Responses

Canis Sassoon

I was up in the wee hours last week at MIT discussing business models of clean energy.  The issue? To sell or to give away new clean energy technologies.  We settled on selling in US markets and giving in international markets.  Investors and philanthropists are both happy.  Everybody wins.

Sell local, give global, be happyOn Here's your chance to be the Pollan of climate change posted 1 year, 10 months ago 94 Responses

Excellent article on the swarm against coal

http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/5 ...
"the notion of coal as the solution to America's energy problems is a technological fantasy on par with the dream of a manned mission to Mars."On Could alternative energy companies drive the next big market bubble? posted 1 year, 10 months ago 23 Responses

Sky high

Solar thermal energy is real, the brains in our country are putting the details together - fast.  We are leaping beyond the rest of the world with this technology.    

The main manufacturing component is glass, an unbelievable amount of glass.  Just as residential and commercial consumption of glass implodes - solar thermal glass (low-iron glass mirror) explodes.  It take my breath away.  This glass will be exported around the world.  It promises to become the fastest growing largest energy industry on Earth, and cheaper than coal.  The acceleration is just incredible.

Cheap dollars make our imported oil expensive and domestic solar glass cheap.  The installation of glass is local labor, lots of jobs.

It is absolutely wonderful.  Exciting times.On Green manufacturing could save the economy posted 1 year, 10 months ago 15 Responses

Cost?

BrightSource claims $150/m^2On Google invests in solar thermal company eSolar posted 1 year, 10 months ago 17 Responses

Mitt happens

On Pro-warming Romney has sham slam on McCain posted 1 year, 10 months ago 3 Responses

Watt?

Grist is located in Seattle.  Our grid is almost totally carbon-free old hydro power.  Further, your Ausra solar power is promoted as cheaper than coal.  Are you planning to use Ausra to reduce carbon emissions via solar cooking and distillation of ethanol?  It seems you are missing a brilliant opportunity to connect the dots, solar heat powered ethanol and solar electric powered transportation. On Prius: Green or greenwash? posted 1 year, 10 months ago 36 Responses

Just do it

Shut down coal power, industrial process heat, and exports.  Coking raw steel would be the only exception.  

The alternatives will spring forward organically to fill the void of coal. On Gore's impromptu humor at a recent small climate summit posted 1 year, 10 months ago 14 Responses

Blink

Solar energy technology is enjoying its day in the sun with the advent of innovations from flexible photovoltaic (PV) materials to thermal power plants that concentrate the sun's heat to drive turbines. But even the best system converts only about 30 percent of received solar energy into electricity--making solar more expensive than burning coal or oil. That will change if Lonnie Johnson's invention works. The Atlanta-based independent inventor of the Super Soaker squirt gun (a true technological milestone) says he can achieve a conversion efficiency rate that tops 60 percent with a new solid-state heat engine. It represents a breakthrough new way to turn heat into power. On A roadmap to getting 70 percent of U.S. electricity from solar by 2050 posted 1 year, 10 months ago 42 Responses

Homework

I don't normally read blogs but the blog in this article is long, informative, and less conservative than the original post, lots of clarifications by the authors.  Required reading.On A roadmap to getting 70 percent of U.S. electricity from solar by 2050 posted 1 year, 10 months ago 42 Responses

Burning money.

What I need, what we all need, are good people working hard to solve hard problems.  Money tends to attract hungry people who will say "yes" to anything from funding sources.

There was a lot of government money for biofuels in the prelude to the Iran war.  I felt that was eye wash for public support of war and a distraction.  Investments followed government ethanol subsidies and now those investments are endangered.   Ethanol in cars does not make economic thermal dynamic sense, just good political spin.

Biomass can be burned directly in homes that use oil and gas, and in power plants.  But that can cause an unmitigated environmental disasters like that caused on Molokai Hawaii, rapid deforestation from rural people hauling and selling plants to their biomass power plant.On Keeping power broker's hands out of the cookie jar posted 1 year, 11 months ago 57 Responses

http://www.harbornet.com/sunflower/pvethanol.gif

http://www.harbornet.com/sunflower/pvethanol.gifOn Venture-capital star ain't no clean-tech expert posted 1 year, 11 months ago 54 Responses

Money does not make people smart.

Often just the opposite.On Venture-capital star ain't no clean-tech expert posted 1 year, 11 months ago 54 Responses

Electric (e) and thermal (t).

New coal burners are about $1500/kW(e) or $500/kW(t).  The turbines are less than $500/kW(e).  Capacity factor ~ 80%.

Solar burners are about $450/kW(e) or $150/kW(t).  Same turbines or high-intensity pv less than $300/kW(e).  Capacity factor ~25 %.  [$100/m2 @ 80% annual thermal efficiency.]

Adjusted for capacity factors, coal $625/kW(t) and solar $600/kW(t).  [Assumes coal and sunlight are free.]

I do agree with the solar bubble comment from Analyst.  We are up to our eyeballs in solar scams.On New developments in solar power make 'clean coal' look even dumber posted 1 year, 11 months ago 35 Responses

RE<C

What Sean said.  Capacity factors factor in, 25% is a good site.  And cosine losses (the angle of the sun relative the the plate) are a big deal, something we do not see in pictures, just in numbers (Ausra).  The third issue is lifetime and maintenance (nanofilms, organics, etc.).  Solar energy is cheaper than coal but one must be very careful with engineering.  It is not as easy as it looks.On New developments in solar power make 'clean coal' look even dumber posted 1 year, 11 months ago 35 Responses

engineering

Much of the domestic hot water in Arizona is made from electricity.  APS (Arizona Public Service) claims there is no market for solar hot water.

Hot deep ground storage can make 24 hour power with conventional big turbines, at a cost less then $0.01/kWh(e).
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/9/21/124735/407#com ...

Those who think solar Stirling or any other untested solar thermal power should be deployed on a massive scale should read this testimony at the CEC.
(I've known Dr. Butler well since 1978, a leader in the industry)

Barry Butler CEC

First order of business should be to shut down dead carbon combustion.  Solar energy is a large resource.  Solar electricity is a subset of solar energy and most economical when used for cogeneration of heat/cooling and power.On Storage helps the sun keep shining even on cloudy days posted 1 year, 11 months ago 16 Responses

information liability

I was called to the red carpets of the major oil companies in Houston so they could ask some questions about solar energy and so they could make a firm statement about solar energy.  They, Exxon, Mobile, Texaco, et al., said that they were warned off solar energy by the Federal government, and were quite surprised by the hostility, the reasons for their questions.  They went on that they are good old boys and do not wish to hurt solar advances, even tried to enter the industry, bought copper futures (copper was used in solar hot water collectors), and so on.  They said that they have become a pipeline industry and others actually own the oil.  All the solar developments in the world are just a drop in the bucket to them, nothing to get excited about.

The government's anti-solar policies came from the influence of nuclear industry lobbying.  That industry blamed public opinion for their market failures, and public support for a solar economy was (is?) an information liability.

Now, that said, I have been told (from high-level military sources) that the oil companies have large ownership positions in nuclear industries.  The military does not like the oil companies.

The White House resistance to renewable energy is just nuts, makes no sense at all.On Dems can't overcome filibuster threats to get decent legislation -- so what should they do? posted 1 year, 11 months ago 31 Responses

Are you experienced?

We live in a green building.  The energy efficiency is an attractive feature, but was not the primary reason.  It was comfort, unbelievable comfort, a new experience.

Decades ago I spent a night at Amory and Hunter's house.  It was the middle of the Winter, above Aspen, in the Rockies.  I had one thin blanket on a bench next to a single pane French glass door with snow swirling outside.  I thought I would freeze but was totally comfortable.  

The damper on a wood stove squeaked all night from the howling winds, and when I told Amory about it the next morning he said that they put in the wood stove during home construction years earlier, but never used it.

You have to feel it to believe it.   I just had to have a house like that and finally built one ten years ago.  Our home never changes temperature.  It doesn't matter whether the weather is below zero or 100 outside.  It is just amazing.   As more people experience the comfort of efficient thermal mass buildings, with passive solar, the demand will grow, organically, by experience.

Cassandra adds that people with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) will go into remission with the steady warmth of this type of building.
On A public policy silver bullet that's available to fight global warming today posted 1 year, 11 months ago 6 Responses

Fair dinkum mates.

Oz is more like a state, not united states

I spent some months camped with the natives in the Aboriginal Embassy, in the rose gardens of Canberra, talked with PM Whitlam and some senators.  I often heard from the Ozzies that they were the 52nd state.  I always wondered who was 51?  Anyway, the size of Australia is more like California.  We have a lot of size related inertia here in the US.

I hope that they will stop exporting coal and build solar power desalination technology, and perhaps export that Oz ingenuity.
On No country in the world is more like the U.S., so where's our national climate-change leader? posted 1 year, 11 months ago 4 Responses

I can not even read a balance sheet

I recall that Stern used a near zero discount rate.  If Nordhaus used a conventional investment discount rate then values beyond 30 years are near zero.On Jim Manzi replies to Ryan Avent posted 1 year, 11 months ago 29 Responses

Stealing spears from Hannibal

I have coffee-break time to rant.

It does not cost more money to use less energy, nor should anyone spend more on renewable energy than the costs of continued purchases of fossil fuels for the next 25 years.  The net present value of energy efficiency is much cheaper. I'm talking about pure internal costs here.

Further, from real world data, it does not cost more to carpool, to use a clothesline, to eat local, or to grow food at home.  An energy efficient building has lower life-cycle costs than a conventional building.  A solar power plant is cheaper than a coal power plant.  Reducing 50% energy purchases with existing technology will save money, aka, cost nothing.  It is not all cost and no benefit excepting the value of carbon mitigation.

Finally, this rhetoric about new technology comes from the same halls of power that actually suppresses new technology with severe budget cuts, with many examples of "zeroing out" the most competitive technologies that threaten existing big business investments.

I, for one, will not go quietly into the night. I will continue to stand and fight with nothing left to lose.  Carbon taxes (and auctioned carbon credits) are just arrows in the quiver.  We also have sharp spears.

The evil fossil twins: "climate change abatement costs too much" AND "it is too late so party on".

Too much coffee.On Jim Manzi replies to Ryan Avent posted 1 year, 11 months ago 29 Responses

Crystal clear - send it.

I would add in self-reliance via examining how electricity is used, where the coal comes from, and the reliability of those sources.  There will come the day when coal exporters recognize the value is not worth the cost and legislate the end of coal exports.

I am a developer of renewable low-carbon energy technologies and I have often declared here on Grist that the industrial inertia of vertically integrated renewable energy is too slow to displace coal this decade. Shutting down plans for new coal power plants should not have qualifiers.  

England, Germany, and hopefully the US could export low-carbon energy technology information around the world for rapid horizontal indigenous integration.  (Photovoltaic cells and ethanols are not low-carbon energy sources.)On A letter from James Hansen pleads for action on coal-fired power plants posted 1 year, 11 months ago 13 Responses

If nobody sees the light then does it exist?

I once calculated illegal grow lights exceed one gigawatt.  And what about all those street lights?

Our solar home is so efficient that when the Winter sun does not shine we just turn on a few lights.  Most of our waste heat comes from the refrigerator.On How much power do Americans guzzle for lighting? posted 1 year, 11 months ago 18 Responses

Coal Central consuming consumers.

Did anybody notice the irony that our climate weirding flooded Centralia, the site of Washington's only big coal power plant?  There may be a negative feedback loop, an economic reversal from the disasters caused by global warming that will reduce the future demand for coal power. On Why clean coal is so darn appealing posted 1 year, 12 months ago 37 Responses

Where's my baby, RE<C?

The solar resource is much much larger than coal, oil, and gas reserves combined.  Where is solar industrial process heat, solar chilling, solar cogeneration, deep geothermal power and heat, firewood, biomass district heating?  PV cheaper than CSP?  Nuclear cheaper than both?  Color me blue.On McKinsey & Co. on how to reduce greenhouse gases posted 2 years ago 7 Responses

Search research

People with money do not talk to people without money.  It is like we are on two different planets.  On Google funds R&D to make clean energy cheaper than coal posted 2 years ago 6 Responses

I can -- No votes for coal candidates.

On Reflections on Grist's presidential forum on climate change posted 2 years ago 62 Responses

Saudi Arabia is the sunniest country on Earth

They could use solar desalination to make Arabia a green oasis paradise with a river running under it, and export such technology to the poor around the world.On Research vs. cap-and-trade posted 2 years ago 11 Responses

Audio ok on MS IE - Firefox choked - text?

On Anticipation posted 2 years ago 8 Responses

More importantly: How important? Why?

On Leave suggestions in comments posted 2 years ago 35 Responses

Clean inertia

A clean energy technology solution less expensive than coal would require many decades of rapid growth to actually displace coal.  We do not have the luxury of time.  Shut down coal now.  No qualifiers.On NYT's Andy Revkin and E. O. Wilson get suckered by Newt Gingrich's phony techno-optimism posted 2 years ago 24 Responses

Waste not capital nor time

We are importing viable technologies from around the world -- Sweden (district heating), Israel (LUZII heliostats), Spain (line focus), Australia (Ausra with thermal storage), Denmark (total energy and wind turbines), China, India, Japan, Brazil...  USA is MIA due to lack of investments.On NYT's Andy Revkin pens another stinker on the so-called 'center' of the climate debate posted 2 years ago 42 Responses

Revkin and the human swarm

Revkin shares space with From Ants to People, an Instinct to Swarm.  NYT is seeking the swarm center, not a swarm leader.

As I kayak Puget Sound I watch swarms of loons and ducks watching me with fear.  To conserve energy and organization they watch and watch until fear overcomes the elders and they take flight or dive in unison.  The loons making those loon sounds are not the quiet watchful leaders.  We can not look to NYT for leadership.  I see swarm leaders in Grist.On NYT's Andy Revkin pens another stinker on the so-called 'center' of the climate debate posted 2 years ago 42 Responses

Then what what?

CH4 is not as durable as as CO2.  GHG has a time element.  CO2 sucks big time.

I advocate CH4 power to replace coal power.  The issue is not solar thermal power storage.  The issue is replacing fossil fuels with solar energy.  CH4 is used to heat buildings, industry, and power.  The most cost effective (including storage) is low grade solar heat replacing CH4.  The most cost prohibitive is solar power replacing CH4 power.On Beware the allure of liquefied natural gas posted 2 years ago 15 Responses

Life is a fantasy, make it a good one.

On Why we're not conserving like it's 1980 posted 2 years ago 13 Responses

Twisted cute lightbulbs - Chip of the today -

On 7 easy steps to reduce your carbon emissions posted 2 years ago 13 Responses

Its time to declare coal a terrorist organization

No trades and no investments or go to jail.  Seize assets derived from coal.On U.S. investors make a killing off of Chinese coal posted 2 years, 1 month ago 1 Response

Its a burning failure

Coal is almost free.  Burning coal is expensive.  Collecting sunlight is less expensive than burning free coal.
On Don't believe the power company hype about coal's low price posted 2 years, 1 month ago 18 Responses

In your veto

He has a lot of riders in his carbon tax bill, like a war tax on gasoline, and urban sprawl tax.  The carbon tax is a big deal and needs its own pillar in the sun.  Dump the riders.  Do the right thing in the face of a veto.  On Big Green savages Dingell's carbon tax posted 2 years, 1 month ago 26 Responses

neckobay - I agree

The April rebellion of the military blocked the intention to nuke Iran and the military continues to resist go-arounds with smuggled nuclear weapons.

Perhaps Al Gore can do more for global warming awareness blazing his own trail. However, stopping the corporate war crime of attacking Iran for oil is something that requires cool reason and immediate political action.  Gore could use the bully pulpit of a campaign to highlight that attacking Iran would be a war crime.

We need a stable international political climate for global warming solutions.On Al Gore and the IPCC jointly win peace prize posted 2 years, 1 month ago 56 Responses

Or sail cargo ships?

During the OPEC oil embargo there was some interesting technology for motor sailers.On Why bother criticizing S&N? posted 2 years, 1 month ago 21 Responses

And there's the rub

Relying on the government to solve for global warming is too risky.  Send the funds to universities - to the generation that is actually in this fight for survival.On Stabilizing the climate requires technology, public investment, and global economic development posted 2 years, 1 month ago 24 Responses

Con fight at the OK Coral

As one who might benefit from the public investments promoted by N&S I must agree with the comments above.  Existing technologies can displace all existing coal power plants and waiting for new technology is not a reason for delay of new regulations.

I cringe when environmentalists are attacked, and I wonder if this is to generate heat to sell books.  Or is it more sinister?   I am not an environmental activist though my neighbors may disagree.  I camp with environmentalists because they are more concerned about our collective futures than others who are often more focused on self-interests.  Anti-environmentalist solutions to global warming does not make any sense to me, a fundamental contradiction.

Independent of all other actions and prejudices, it is time to do whatever it takes to regulate coal to extinction.  New technologies will fill the void organically.  My only complaint is that occasionally environmentalists embrace emerging energy technologies that won't pencil out.  N&S do exactly the same thing.On Stabilizing the climate requires technology, public investment, and global economic development posted 2 years, 1 month ago 24 Responses

Draft Gore

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/algore2008/On Climate campaigners could have a shot at winning the Nobel Peace Prize posted 2 years, 1 month ago 2 Responses

Patrick - The American elephant sleeps

On How do you solve a problem like Maria China? posted 2 years, 1 month ago 13 Responses

And renewable energy alone will not shut down coal

On In which I come to the defense of Shellenberger and Nordhaus -- sort of, anyway posted 2 years, 1 month ago 4 Responses

Solar system displaces its weight in coal per year

On Techno-obsession posted 2 years, 1 month ago 18 Responses

Rockets use 39% efficient type III-V cells

They do not use terrestrial thermal and cogeneration solar.  I do not get my efficacy information from Grist and NRDC.  It comes from decades of looking at the sun.On The death of 'The Death of Environmentalism' posted 2 years, 2 months ago 16 Responses

Very good! Discount rate?

I need to know the cost of capital.  This is a huge opportunity for cost reduction, affects planning and system design.  If I can get home mortgage rates then solar can fly far and wide.On Clinton's 21st century climate philanthropy posted 2 years, 2 months ago 3 Responses

S&N did not pass my litmus test

They talk about being positive but then talk negatives, seeking problems with the status-quo instead of seeking solutions from all around.

Environmentalists are caregivers and are often innocent when they try to help antagonists.  I am more jaded than that, with more scars.  I see not friends, rather hidden agendas and self interests.  I see alignment with President Hillary's agenda, her $50 billion public investment program (now reduced to $30 billion?).  I hear staid bureaucratic lingo from these word smiths.  Is S&N Hillary?  As a developer of new technologies, the ideas expressed by S&N are useless to me, and if this is Hillary then the program is seriously flawed.  The absence of  inquiry, of reflective listening, is suspect and not smart.

New markets will respond when there is stimulus and smart due diligence, which often rely on smart independent scientists working at our national labs.   We do not need to push on strings.  We need well funded peer review and university RD&D.On A reply to Shellenberger & Nordhaus posted 2 years, 2 months ago 20 Responses

OK on the update

Unlike entertainment markets, market pull for new energy technology responds to scarcity of old energy supply causing insecurity, and not so much on energy prices, including Dingel's carbon price.  

New technology will not stop coal soon enough.

The old ways will continue from the inertia of the old routines.   Our best chance is to get ahead of the curve, be bold, and shut down coal with regulation.  Then we can look to new technologies for displacing natural gas.  But, for the moment, shut down coal.  Any risk of failure to shut down coal is unacceptable.  Carbon taxes, caps and auctions, regulations, new alternate energy technologies, off-sets, and other not scalable ideas are negatives if they distract us from our primary mission.

Further, and this is important, subsidizing new energy technology manufacturing is not sustainable here or overseas.  Energy is too big, and consumes too much capital for market manipulation to succeed beyond the gee-whiz stage.  

We need well funded peer review to move forward, otherwise we are going to be up to our eyeballs in Ponzi schemes.On Ted Nordhaus responds to NRDC's Dave Hawkins posted 2 years, 2 months ago 14 Responses

Just saying it so does not make it so

Current solar technology costs (not priced) about $150 per ton carbon displacement ($300/ton in cloudy climates).  Sunlight is cheaper than oil.  Solar collectors are cheaper than new coal burners.  This post perpetuates the propaganda that it will be more expensive to stop burning fossil fuels.  That is the great lie of our age.   Think efficiency, solar industrial process heat, district heating with seasonal heat storage, HIPV, clotheslines, passive solar architecture...

Comparisons with roof-top pv, the most expensive and least efficient type of solar energy is disingenuous.

Energy R&D is not expensive.  It is just simple engineering.  We do need public forums for an exchange of ideas and publications with peer review.  Restoring Carter era budgets would be a good first step.

Keep it simple.  We are all neglected customers.On Shellenberger & Nordhaus respond to critics posted 2 years, 2 months ago 23 Responses

Buy our way out of hell with carbon tax revenue

The US produces a billion tons of coal per year, worth $25 billion, 25% the cost of war.  We have the money to buy all the coal and leave it in the ground, my first choice for carbon tax revenues..On Dingell wants feedback on his carbon tax bill posted 2 years, 2 months ago 3 Responses

How many coal plants for pot grow lights?

On The eco-depredations of the tobacco industry posted 2 years, 2 months ago 4 Responses

I am also not a politician

Baseload winter solar power has sexy political connotations but it is not relevant for big markets, does not wag my tail.  There might be a niche market after the first $ trillion has been deployed for 24 hour solar power.  District heating/cooling with seasonal heat storage makes more economic/political sense.

I am not convinced seasonal solar power storage is useful.  If the solar system is double sized for power and storage input then it is big enough for winter power output without storage.  Middle ground?  Three months of supplemental heat storage might cost $1/Watt(t).  If solar HIPV costs $1/Watt(e) then it might be more profitable to oversize the solar power plant for summer conditions.  It all depends on technology cost/benefit and market demand/supply.  I suspect winter loads are less due to summer electric air conditioners. On Solar thermal company says its generation/storage combo can power the nation posted 2 years, 2 months ago 22 Responses

I did not peer this luau

So I dropped it.  In round numbers from my failing memory -- One pound of sand is 0.2 Btu/F.  One cubic foot is 100 pounds.  3413 Btu=1 kWh(t).  At a temperature change of 250 F. 1 ft3 sand = 1.465 kWh(t).  100 x 500 x 500 feet = 35 GWh(t) = 4 MW(t) years.  If used for 16 hour power at night then the power is 2 GW(t).  If $1000 heat wells are every 10 ft2 surface then the cost is $25 million, $0.01 per  Watt(t).  Sounds wild.On Solar thermal company says its generation/storage combo can power the nation posted 2 years, 2 months ago 22 Responses

GRL, my head is in the sand

and in the fog from a 20 mile Sound kayak adventure.

If this mornings calcs are correct then sand 100 feet deep by 500 x 500 feet square at a delta temperature 250 degrees F. (750 - 500 F.) equals 4 gigawatt-years thermal.  On Solar thermal company says its generation/storage combo can power the nation posted 2 years, 2 months ago 22 Responses

Concentrator ERORI less than one year

solar insolation charts
http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/old_data/nsrdb/redbook/atlas/ ...On Solar thermal company says its generation/storage combo can power the nation posted 2 years, 2 months ago 22 Responses

Twirling in the sun

Khosla, in addition to his other green investments, is placing a big bet on solar-thermal technology - what he considers the best weapon in the "war on coal power generation."

"Solar thermal has been ignored completely in favour of sexier photovoltaics," he says. "When I started looking at solar thermal early last year, I couldn't find anybody who was paying attention, which sort of surprised me. It's a great technology, and about one-fourth the cost of PV with the kind of reliability that utilities actually like."

Ausra CEO Peter Le Lièvre.
Ausra, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based solar-thermal startup, came out of stealth mode Monday with an announcement that it raised "more than" $40 million from venture-capital firms Khosla Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers.

"It's probably the most exciting time in my career," Dr. David Mills, 60, told Tyler Hamilton. "Better late than never." After years of trying to attract serious interest in his technology in Australia, Mills says he was getting ready to throw in the towel and retire. Then, last fall, he got an offer to go meet Vinod Khosla, followed by the folks at Kleiner Perkins, in October. "We clicked really well," recalls Mills. By February, Ausra got its first funding and by March the company relocated its headquarters to California and started hiring like crazy...
http://www.scribemedia.org/2007/09/11/ausra-gets-awesome/ ...

Davis Mills is the innovator and appears honest.  But once you get in bed with CEO VCs then the spin begins, say anything to sell stock value.  It is like the border-line ponzi scheme of the dot.com bubble.

This line-focus technology is very good as far as it goes.  The positives are durability, low profile, smaller mirrors, low tooling, and fast scale up.  The negatives are low concentration ratio, cosine losses (sun to mirror angles), large receivers, heat loss.  Dual-axis point-focus (heliostat and dish) economics could spin circles around line-focus technologies.  

Had Bush not "zeroed out concentrators" then NREL would supply peer review.  Solar thermal and solar concentrator dreams are shared by all.  Reverse economic engineering is easy.  Missing, as usual, are hard cost and performance numbers.On Solar thermal company says its generation/storage combo can power the nation posted 2 years, 2 months ago 22 Responses

$1/W HIPV with 2% O&M = $0.08/kWh

On Who will lead on advancing smart-grid technologies? posted 2 years, 2 months ago 10 Responses

Policy by consensus is not policy by science

I totally disagree with Tidwell's prescriptions.

The oil will burn whether or not we have plug-in hybrids.  That oil and gas carbon will be in the air for centuries.  The rate of consuming that limited resource will not make a wit of difference avoiding tipping points to run away global warming.  

Government subsidies for solar, wind, and ethanol have been a disaster, and have eclipsed actions that work much better, like clotheslines, carpools, mass transit, passive solar architecture,...

Our leaders, Hansen et al, have focused on coal, a resource large enough to kill the world.  Existing coal plants must be shut down ASAP.   That is much more than talking about new coal plants, carbon taxes, renewable energy...  No conditions.  Shut down existing coal - NOW.

Normally I ignore background noise, I have time to kill.On Tidwell responds to scientists responding to Tidwell posted 2 years, 2 months ago 28 Responses

All push and no pull.

People with money should be supporting people with technology.

And people with money are saying this to people with technology.

Empty words.  What a colossal waste of precious time.On Urban growth rates in Qatar and China leave Friedman skeptical about climate change mitigation posted 2 years, 2 months ago 11 Responses

Sean - you lost me

I was comparing sunlight with oil, and HIPV with thermal power conversion efficiencies, not mixing the two.  I hope I did not cross that line.  The capacity factor for solar power is about 25%.

I am agnostic.  I only care about global warming mitigation with not-subsidized economics.  The easy solar thermal stuff is profitable, but not mature enough for conventional finance.  Your cogen markets are mature enough for the bank.On A panel discussion on how much plug-ins rule posted 2 years, 2 months ago 32 Responses

90% of summer sunlight can used for winter heat

District heating with seasonal heat storage.On A panel discussion on how much plug-ins rule posted 2 years, 2 months ago 32 Responses

Back to the future

I did not know Solar Age survived the 1980s.  CSP is still promoted and many of the old engineers still trumpet heat engines, including LUZII (BrightSource) and heat engine developers.  The new kids want CPV, otherwise known as high-intensity photovoltaic cells or HIPV.

All of the forward thinking is blue sky projections of cost (not price) when new technology is mass produced, $2/Watt(e) at 30 MW and $1/Watt(e) at the GW scale.  These projections are based on prototypes, materials, tooling, labor, and so on in the US.  Concentrator materials have been demonstrated at less than $0.3/W(e) ($100/m2) and cells at less than $0.3/W(e) ($10/cm2).  Depending on who you talk to at the labs, projections range from $0.5/W(e) to $2/W(e) DC.  Thermal system have better ROI and start at $0.15/W(t).  Startups are still in the pilot R&D phase. On A panel discussion on how much plug-ins rule posted 2 years, 2 months ago 32 Responses

On the dwell

Sean, you are correct.  I was using simple payback with free money (would be less than 10% with utility discounts), and without O&M (would be about 2% of capital cost).  Simple payback is less than 2 years at $82/bbl.

Addenda on units:

In Colorado climate, the annual delivered solar energy is 5.5 kWh/m2/day * 365 days/year * 0.8 dish efficiency = 1606 kWh/m2/year = 1 bbl./m2/year equivalent oil (oil burned at 100% efficiency).

One m2 = 10.73 square feet.

Total 25-year ROI at the current wellhead price of oil - $82/bbl. -  is 1367%  ... $150/m2 solar energy amortized over 25 years (not including cost of money and O&M) ... the same as buying 25 barrels of oil for $150 and selling them for the next 25 years for a total of $2050 (assumes the price of oil does not increase for the next 25 years).  Solar energy is a lot cheaper than oil.

For the economists out there, the net present worth needs to include assumptions on discounted future oil price escalations, inflation driven by energy price escalations, cost of invested capital, and O&M.

Because solar energy costs less than oil today, at some point, solar energy should put a cap on future energy prices, and eventually make future energy cost less than it does today.  

The cost and price of carbon emissions makes solar energy priceless and zero cost.On A panel discussion on how much plug-ins rule posted 2 years, 2 months ago 32 Responses

Mirrors in the mist

BrightSource makes heliostats.  I make solar dishes.  The cost is about $150 per square meter net aperture area ($150/m2).  In the future, we can do even better.

The direct (dual-axis tracking) solar resource in Colorado is 5.5 kWh/m2/day average and in Washington 4.5 kWh/m2/day average.
http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/old_data/nsrdb/redbook/atlas/ ...

Heliostats and dishes make steam at 80% efficiency and that can displace oil and gas used for making heat and/or power.  In Colorado that annual delivered energy is 5.5 kWh/m2/day * 365 days/year * 0.8 = 1606/m2/year.  One barrel of oil is about 1610 kWh so one square meter solar mirror equals one barrel of oil (1 bbl. = 42 gallons) per year in Colorado and 1 m2 solar = 0.82 bbl./year in Washington.

At 10% return on investment (ROI) $150/m2 solar mirror is $15/m2/year or $15/bbl. oil in Colorado  ($18/bbl. oil in Washington).

Spectrolab and Emcore make high-intensity type III-V pv that is more than 40% efficient.  In the future, they can do even better.

Overall system cost could be less than $1/Watt electric which pretty much obliterates any need for sacrifice (the progressive American way).

BTW CSP is an old acronym for 1970s era solar heat engine technology.On A panel discussion on how much plug-ins rule posted 2 years, 2 months ago 32 Responses

Solar energy is cheaper than oil

On A panel discussion on how much plug-ins rule posted 2 years, 2 months ago 32 Responses

Google - PNAC oil

On Iraq flushes Blackwater: Time for a real debate on troop levels? posted 2 years, 2 months ago 4 Responses

Carbon Imports & Exports

Do we tax coal exports or just outlaw that?  Do we carbon tax oil imports?On Conservative economists agree: Taxes rule! posted 2 years, 2 months ago 5 Responses

The Reagan Admin took the hearts out of the labs

and stomped on them.

How many people in the audience, how many attendees?On Discover Brilliant: Renewables and buildings posted 2 years, 2 months ago 3 Responses

Washing green

I know of an industry that removed a solar thermal installation financed by the DoE because they do not market directly to the public and did not want public attention.  Public vendors will pay triple for green and industrial vendors will not take it for free.On Greenwashing is getting more subtle posted 2 years, 2 months ago 6 Responses

You have all the fun.

I could not afford the door.

So many people.  Interview anybody asking questions.On Me, at Discover Brilliant posted 2 years, 2 months ago 10 Responses

Bush told Gore he would regulate CO2 emissions

Will Edwards fool me twice?  Are they fellow environmentalists?  Be skeptical, be very skeptical.On Why Edwards' 'ban' on coal plants does little good against climate change posted 2 years, 2 months ago 42 Responses

Bully Pulpit

A true leader will educate the public about the depth of this emergency rather than follow the lowest common denominators of political knowledge.

Humanity needs strong leaders with voices, not weak politicians with ears.On Advice for political leaders on how to deal with climate change posted 2 years, 2 months ago 3 Responses

Fuel switching is not shivering in the dark.

Coal is finished.  Even the wealthy do not want coal.  I do not believe a dedicated coal constituency exists, just disconnected politicians sucking up coal money.On Why Edwards' 'ban' on coal plants does little good against climate change posted 2 years, 2 months ago 42 Responses

Don't like that word 'unless'

Edwards qualified his statement effectively negating it.  Cassandra is unhappy.On Why Edwards' 'ban' on coal plants does little good against climate change posted 2 years, 2 months ago 42 Responses

How much will a therm of IGCC+CCS cost?

On Carbon sequestration is a costly alternative to renewables, not a transition to them posted 2 years, 2 months ago 21 Responses

Stupicide

Well, we don't have to worry about global warming.  We're all going to bored to death by old Republican jokes.On Fred Thompson's confused stance on climate change posted 2 years, 2 months ago 12 Responses

Not so grim

1000 gallons/acre poplar ethanol...current solar income can't possibly compete...

Active solar is worth 38,000 gallons/acre equivalent oil (half that in cloudy climates) and that energy can be used in electric cars.On A closer look at producing ethanol from poplar trees posted 2 years, 2 months ago 39 Responses

Energy is not electricity

Renewable energy is energy.  We use energy to make electricity.  Storing energy is not a problem.  $5 trillion is enough to get us free of  fossil fuels.  We can, we should, and I believe we will.On It's time to stop accepting the claim that we 'can't' switch to renewable energy posted 2 years, 2 months ago 21 Responses

More detail than no buddy needs

Mirrors are 96% reflective.  Due to heliostat cosine losses  (they do not point directly at the sun) the reflected annual light is further reduced to 80%.  That reflected sunlight can go through building windows, or to towers with 95% black paint, or onto type III-V pv cells from Spectrolab or Emcore for 40% power (plus heat).

Imploding credit bubbles, preemptive wars, and public policy can slow down coal with demand destruction.

Nuclear, wind, geothermal, and solar will not shut down coal soon enough.   Just shut it down.On Coal insider reveals the truth about carbon sequestration posted 2 years, 2 months ago 45 Responses

Coal Rush Reverses, Power Firms Follow

Recently, proponents of coal-fired power plants acquired a new foe: Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid. In late July, Reid (D-Nev.) sent a letter to the chief executives of four power companies in which he vowed to "use every means at my disposal" to stop their plans to build three coal-fired plants in Nevada. Last month, after a speech in Reno, Reid said he was opposed to new coal-fired plants anywhere.

"There's not a coal-fired plant in America that's clean. They're all dirty," Reid told reporters after speaking at a conference on renewable energy. He said that the United States should turn to wind, solar and geothermal power in an effort to slow climate change. "Unless we do something quickly about global warming, we're in trouble," he said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007 ...

Standby mt while I look for your solar numbers... On Coal insider reveals the truth about carbon sequestration posted 2 years, 2 months ago 45 Responses

Propaganda is like a swamp, it never dries out.

Dirty coal costs more than sunlight.  It is a slam dunk.  The cost of burning coal is more than the cost of collecting sunlight, even when coal is free.  A solar collector can cost $0.10/Watt (thermal).  A new coal burner costs at least $0.48/Watt(t).  The energies from these competing systems can be used for heat, power, or both.  Solar heat can be seasonally saved for winter base and peak loads.  Same for cooling loads.  Natural gas saved from solar heat can be used for baseload power generation.  But wait there's more.  Solar power conversion costs less than big coal steam turbines.  Now, add in the costs for clean coal, sequestration, gasification, mining, coal trains, and public health then the game is over.  Coal's only hope is public disinformation and political corruption.On Coal insider reveals the truth about carbon sequestration posted 2 years, 2 months ago 45 Responses

esolar drawings news sans news, thanks Jon

Critical cost information needed --

Heliostat installed cost below $200/m2 will blow the pants off coal. Same below $100/m2 in cloudy Seattle type climates.  It can be done.On Solar thermal power deserves more attention, due to its lower cost and relative ease of storage posted 2 years, 3 months ago 35 Responses

Mini heliostats

Yes, I've seen them as small as ping pong balls.  The current sweet spot is about 12 feet square.  Heliostats over parking lots reflecting to towers over factories is a good image.  They can also feed into district heating/cooling and power plants to reduce fuel consumption.On Solar thermal power deserves more attention, due to its lower cost and relative ease of storage posted 2 years, 3 months ago 35 Responses

john a allen --

cogenerating heat and power

http://www.harbornet.com/sunflower/litxs.jpgOn Solar thermal power deserves more attention, due to its lower cost and relative ease of storage posted 2 years, 3 months ago 35 Responses

Polish the Stirling

Stirling is not moving forward, has a generic problem - no lubrication.  This causes engine wear.  If it was lubricated and was a VW engine running at 50 mph it would crap out at 300,000 miles, 6,000 hours, 3 solar years, can not amortize.  Engine-generator cost would exceed $1/Watt, more like $2/Watt installed with concentrator.

Wrong question.  If you could make natural gas from sunlight at 80% efficiency then use that gas to make power 24/7 at 50% efficiency -- why would you use solar thermal power only when the sun shines?
On Solar thermal power deserves more attention, due to its lower cost and relative ease of storage posted 2 years, 3 months ago 35 Responses

Steam and mirrors

Land cost is 5% to 10% of system cost.  I have been cogenerating heat and power all morning.

Solar mirrors are good in most climates, including Seattle.On Solar thermal power deserves more attention, due to its lower cost and relative ease of storage posted 2 years, 3 months ago 35 Responses

Good luck on reverse. Slowing down?

I am watching the technicals and they won't wash politically.  The technologies could be there, even cost effective, even for sequestration.  But scale up from the top-down is too time intensive.  

Shut down coal (politics) and diverse energy industries (technologies) will scale, from down-up, fast, starting with natural gas.

Watch out for endless top-down discussion about what to do about coal, while actually doing nothing, for years and years, until its too late.On Some unwitting climate change advice from the National Review posted 2 years, 3 months ago 4 Responses

All cars are ugly - status icons of consumption

On Honda fights to regain green car company mantle posted 2 years, 3 months ago 33 Responses

Fossil employees are not your enemy

I once held a solar fund raising meeting and a coal executive asked some important questions.   For generations his family made a living mining coal.  He asked, "If coal is displaced what will my children do for a living in coal country?"  My suggestion was to bring them out of the mines and into the sunshine deploying advanced solar technology.  He beamed a smile from ear to ear.

Fossil employees do not necessarily support their industry, it is just a job.   Their preferences include better jobs, less dirty jobs, a stable future.  They do not want to hurt the futures of other people's children, of farmers, or the natural environment.  They certainly do not want mass extinction.

A few big shots may play hardball against progressive industrial change but I do not consider this to be the big risk for effectuating change.  I worry more about our social climate becoming destabilized such that the here-and-now eclipse climate discussions.  The press is currently open to us as other issues are not reported.  So we are left with soft news stories about Paris Hilton and green ideas.   Use this time.

The future news might be war with Iran, an economic collapse, huge storms, something called terrorism, stolen elections, or something else unexpected.  Creating organized change during chaos could be much more difficult.

When I lobbied WDC I found that I was granted forgettable high level meetings.  The stuff that sticks in WDC is the press from the hometowns of congress people.  Stay home and give your best stories to the local press.  Make them positive, concrete, and sticky.On Why is green so low on the political agenda? posted 2 years, 3 months ago 30 Responses

Did not slip

Lay out capital ($150/m2) (1 bbl./m2/year) and return 10% per year makes a solar thermal investment equal $15/bbl/year.  Lovins and BrightSource both concur.  Divide $454 billion (Iraq war) by $15/bbl (solar thermal) and by 365 days/year and I get 83 million bbl per day.  Astonishing.  And all that money is returned for more fun.

Am I going nuts?  The numbers are so easy.  Now, for the Lunar eclipse...On How much wind and solar could we have gotten for the cost of the Iraq War? posted 2 years, 3 months ago 5 Responses

Sweden is progressive w/o fear (nobody is perfect)

On Fear of death leads to authoritarianism, not sustainability posted 2 years, 3 months ago 33 Responses

Fear of Authority?

Vision can generate the authority to enforce change.  Shutting down coal will require authority.  This is not fear, it is logic.  

Leadership does not require mindless fear, nor prophets.  It does require trust in people willing to confront emerging risks, without fear.On Fear of death leads to authoritarianism, not sustainability posted 2 years, 3 months ago 33 Responses

3 m2 pv @ 12% in Colorado = 50 kWh/month Dec.

On DIY renewable energy projects posted 2 years, 3 months ago 12 Responses

We don't need coal. No qualifiers. No coal.

On MTR activists don't expect progress until the Bush administration is gone posted 2 years, 3 months ago 4 Responses

Random questions

I've taken to asking questions from total random strangers.  Yesterday an old guy was picking up liquor bottles at the Island boat launch.  He was angry at the unseen litterers.  So we talked and he did not care about future sea rise flooding the waterfront because he was too old to see the worst from global warming.  Another lady responded to global warming by talking about the slaughter of Silverback gorillas and how nobody cares.  Global warming was just one of many green issues and more distant.  We definitely need to stimulate a public dialog and focus the mind on the big problem, on the urgency.

Working for personal consumption of crap is two-thirds of the economy and of the carbon.  All things 'green' are a distraction from the carbon crisis, or at best, just irrelevant.  Marketing green is an oxymoron. On Apparently no one is immune to greenwashing posted 2 years, 3 months ago 32 Responses

No coal exports, no coal power, no liquid coal

Just say no to coal.On How much should we aim to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions? posted 2 years, 3 months ago 10 Responses

$2/ton C = $0.005 per gallon gasoline

On Bjorn Lomborg's new book misunderstands risk and investment posted 2 years, 3 months ago 11 Responses

Holy daddy war bucks, Batman

$17 Billion?  For how many commuters?  If a million then that's $17,000 each, enough to make electricity free for everybody that buys an electric car or a hybrid plug-in.  Now, that would be an aggressive commuter incentive, free hydro electricity for transportation.On Seattle enviros face a Hobson's choice in November posted 2 years, 3 months ago 17 Responses

Frozen in rigid obsession?

We Yanks are isolated from global news.  So, is anything happening overseas, or is it just talk?  

Nothing happening here.  And while we talk, the environment is being ripped to shreds by profit motives enabled by a corrupt government.  Hope here is thread bare.  Good news over there?On Other enviro issues are getting less attention posted 2 years, 3 months ago 29 Responses

True Lies

There is zero support in the coal empire.  This story enables denial of widespread abuse and neglect of brilliant people with excellent ideas.On Except not really posted 2 years, 3 months ago 4 Responses

I have one

Actually two for both lines, shuts down all 110 V outlets except for dedicated lines to security systems.On How lazy people can conserve energy posted 2 years, 3 months ago 4 Responses

'energy security' was and will be the market drive

On A match made in heaven? posted 2 years, 3 months ago 6 Responses

Not hot

Something is not correct about this, look at numbers...

$425MM capital cost for 150 MW, 83% gas, is not remotely cost effective.  Solar at $15/bbl by 2020 obscures that cost is available today.  Southern Spain climate could compete with Algeria climate.

My alarm bells rang when I read that Saudi Arabia suppresses solar energy, "Until now, all the oil-producing countries under the lead of Saudi Arabia did everything to torpedo renewable energies,".  Absolutely not true.  Not there, true here under Bush. On Algeria ... posted 2 years, 3 months ago 4 Responses

Maximum confusion.

I used to enjoy stirring things up, but now everything is so mixed up its not fun anymore.

Nonetheless, just to stir the pot -- USSR covertly funded ($30,000) to promote solar energy 1983.  That primed the pump and red blooded Americans ponied up another $400,000.  Seed government direction and capital can be leveraged into enthusiasm for growth.  It is not a bad idea.  It does not need to be visible.

I was recently told by my Russian friend that nothing is as it seems. On One economist says no posted 2 years, 3 months ago 58 Responses

I would hold hands with anybody for $100/ton C.

On They didn't like being called 'costumed twits' posted 2 years, 3 months ago 1 Response

Solar meme scheme

Where do you want to invest?  Do you want to invest in people who can game the system, and double your stock value every year.  Most would say yes, money is credibility.  Or do you want technology that is difficult, risky, time intensive, and managed by people who would scare the hell out of investors?  Most would say no.

The truth about the efficacy of solar energy is not as important as get-rich-quick schemes.  That needs to change.On Not any more posted 2 years, 3 months ago 6 Responses

I wonder yonder

Does Hillary really understand global warming and the mechanics of mass extinction, what that will do to children, to civilization?On An interview with Hillary Clinton about her presidential platform on energy and the environment posted 2 years, 3 months ago 32 Responses

And to the point.

There is a well established zero-carbon (aka renewable) energy and efficiency propaganda out there in MSM.  The lies are so well entrenched over the decades that official sources become parrot heads.  The point would be to start telling the truth.

The Unseen Lies: Journalism As Propaganda

What I know, which is narrow, is that solar energy is cheaper than coal, five times cheaper than oil.On Finally posted 2 years, 3 months ago 6 Responses

Vision beyond the curve

I find it quite frustrating that political verbiage is limited to what the public already knows and wants, rather than unseen new possibilities and horizons beyond the curve.  Governor Richardson is a mirror of possibilities.  Where is the vision and light going to come from?  I can not see any coming from the current candidates, just mirrors.   We need visionaries.On An interview with Bill Richardson about his presidential platform on energy and the environment posted 2 years, 3 months ago 7 Responses

14.6 billion [million] acres -- 472 gallons/acre?

On A: The cropland area of several states posted 2 years, 4 months ago 13 Responses

How now

I leave the Island less than once a month, excepting the kayak.

I've got 2 chords by the door to split for all winter's heat.  That's just 3 or 4 trees, the easily accessible ones that fell last November's storm.  One acre would be sustainable heat - forever.  The concrete passive solar house is 3500 square feet, has double duty as lab and shop.  It looks like any home, just with embedded energy efficiency.   I expanded on what Amory Lovins did in his home.

It's not what I did, but how.  That was the experiment, the lowest possible cost.  Spending money has overhead, more money - commuting for income, income tax, loan interest, tax and medical for hired workers, expedient new materials, more overhead for overhead...  Self reliance and voluntary simplicity can save much time and money yielding uncompromising independence and good health.

Urban settings could use pellet stoves without leadership or district heating with leadership.On It's coming soon posted 2 years, 4 months ago 15 Responses

The Zero of Solar

Concentrator pv leap frogs into the black, excellent return on investment.  Remember this: Bush zeroed out solar concentrators, 2001.

Solar concentrators produce zero watts in clouds, but if they could (plus blue sky indirect) then the system performance would increase 15%.

Annual direct normal insolation:
http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/old_data/nsrdb/redbook/atlas/ ...On It's coming soon posted 2 years, 4 months ago 15 Responses

My all electric passive solar home cost $40,000

Clothesline - $20.  Firewood - $3.   Working at home - priceless. On It's coming soon posted 2 years, 4 months ago 15 Responses

People to the Power

PUD Boards answer to members, not shareholders, and members can mandate no more coal.  

Lucky me, my PUD only gets 1% from coal.On They should be gradually eliminated posted 2 years, 4 months ago 15 Responses

Appetite for Humiliation

There is no support for many existing good technologies, including those with expired patents.  

From my experiences there is nothing smart about money.  And really smart people usually do not want to start a manufacturing business.  Their joy is research and discovery - problem solving.  Most new ideas fail at the capitalization barrier, sometimes because of who plays golf with whom.  

The only stimuli I have experienced is when the "enemy cuts off energy" causing shortages and persistent high prices.  And when President Carter supplied both leadership and substantial federal support for developing new energy technologies.  In that environment, it was not who you knew but rather what you knew.  

A carbon price will not solve current political inadequacies and politics will not solve the low price of carbon.  

If existing viable technology is not adopted, then why would emerging technology be any different?  We need the professionals, not more beauty contests humiliating 99 out 100 ideas.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/07/26/2783/On Here are some posted 2 years, 4 months ago 32 Responses

Solar recharge electric car without spending more.

On Information is power posted 2 years, 4 months ago 24 Responses

Whose money?

I doubt it is cash, most likely debt.  The Sauds will not use their private foxy money.

Their greatest fears are Iran and being "shot for oil".  They won't cross Bush even if they do not want the "smart" bombs.On The Middle East posted 2 years, 4 months ago 12 Responses

Internal demand reduction

I live in an experimental demand reduced all electric home.  Lots of low cost devices.

We have a power sensor that shuts down discretionary loads, like electric hot water and electric heat when a hair dryer or electric stove increase demand.  The house is configured to never draw more than 30 amps.

The cold water coming into the house is preheated in the floor, making cold water warmer, and preheating hot water.  The SunFrost refrigerator is built into the wall and surrounded by thick Styrofoam (expanded polystyrene).  We have an air to air heat exchanger so that the stale warm air vented from the house (and shower) is used to heat the incoming fresh air.  We have shutters on windows to block night heat loss and day heat gain.  We also have thermal mass to level the home temperature by holding the cool from night and the warmth from day.  And we have 20 kW solar passive gain and NO CLOTHES DRYER.    It is just nuts to use coal fired electricity to dry clothes.

All that benefits my power consumption and load requirements.  From a power utility perspective, timers and a smart grid would benefit power supply load requirements.On Information is power posted 2 years, 4 months ago 24 Responses

Visionaries, survivors, and lost souls.

Another way to look at collapse is to see collapse as already happened.  The question is: What are those younger than 40 going to do about it?

An evolutionary event is beyond collapse.  Who will evolve?On A review posted 2 years, 4 months ago 70 Responses

Just a mirror on a stick.

Concentrator systems can be any size system, from a 1 kW(e) dish to a 10+ MW(e) heliostat field.  Size matters on choice of geometry.

There is push, pull, and science.  The science wants record breaking efficiencies and performances.  The pull wants electrical power (due to government/industry interference).  The push wants return on investment.  

It is a virgin market so the push, like a kid in a candy store, can choose the most valued customers.  From cost, risk, and fast payback perspectives, the best customers are low grade heat consumers, especially electric and natural gas hot water and/or wet steam users.  

The concentrator field is sized to the thermal load to be quickly amortized by the thermal load (rapid scale up wants 3 years).  High-intensity 40% efficient multijunction pv cells are laminated on the cold end of the receivers to cogenerate some power.  The thermal load is the milk, the power is the creme off the top.

A very low cost field of dish or heliostat concentrators + high power would start at $200,000 per acre.
On Solar has arrived posted 2 years, 4 months ago 16 Responses

Entrenched powers of the status quo

I would be remiss to ignore this.  Just as the entrenched powers did not just ignored global warming warnings, rather actively interfered with that message, they also are not just ignoring so called new technologies.  To the uninitiated, unseen old technologies would appear new.  Big energy, Dick, and other vested interests are actively interfering with emerging technologies, especially on the political and public knowledge levels.  And, as I've been told, they play hardball.On For reducing the climate crisis posted 2 years, 4 months ago 39 Responses

Not the same energy

Collecting ambient heat is like collecting solar heat, it is another energy source.  A solar heat collector will cost less and amplify the heat of parasitic electricity consumption much more than a heat pump.  The laws of entropy still apply when all energy inputs are accounted for.On Solar has arrived posted 2 years, 4 months ago 16 Responses

Depends on climate and efficiency

Sunny climates about 900 barrels of oil equivalent per acre per year, half that in cloudy climates.  Concentrators are spaced apart, like fruit trees.

The PG&E market is a drop in the bucket, and they are not choosing technology, just offering to buy a supply of solar megawatts, unfortunately not solar negawatts.  

Heliostats can be located over parking lots, over sidewalks, both sides of roads, on top of buildings, on brown fields, ... creating urban shade while supplying community heating, cooling, and electricity.On Solar has arrived posted 2 years, 4 months ago 16 Responses

The word is power (the troubling meme)

It takes careful engineering to make renewable energy cost competitive (3 year payback).  Making solar power is both the least efficient and most expensive use of solar energy, especially when that solar energy has a nexus with liquid fuels.

Existing passive architecture and active solar heat collectors could scale quickly.  But the big public stump is that solar energy is rooftop pv, which makes difficulty for James Hansen to use the words 'solar energy' when talking about coal.  Wind is experiencing some difficult scale-up problems i.e. no supply of wind turbines for existing customers.

gotta go.On How coal CO2 is different from oil CO2 posted 2 years, 4 months ago 8 Responses

Personal low-carbon experiments

I am not comfortable with self promotion.

I have been experimenting on my family.  Many of the experiments worked out positively, with a few nonfatal mistakes, such as unwanted visibility from unconventional architecture and natural indigenous environs.  

Following a least cost path towards self reliance worked very well.  Much of what I could talk about would not be believed, so I won't try.

Transferring knowledge is the most significant barrier for community sustainability.  Being green is an obscure religion.  Making money is the big church.  Using the press only stirred up lukewarm support and very hot resistance from big vested interests.  I have found talking to the press to be too dangerous.

The best of my simple discoveries, thanks to AB Lovins, are the components of the energy self reliant home.

The best of my complex discoveries are the components of the solar mirror.  The link to that is self promoting and grounded in others making money (forgive my digression, but this does respond to the big church transferable positive vision thing)... (rewritten thanks to Peter Madden)...
http://www.harbornet.com/sunflower/plan.html
On How to talk about the future without depressing everyone posted 2 years, 4 months ago 54 Responses

Frozen sweet cherry tomato paste

Pick (or buy fresh) when sweet, then microwave for a long time to make paste with skins, then freeze for the winter.  Excellent on yellow potatoes.
On Organic cherry tomatoes are amazingly good posted 2 years, 4 months ago 10 Responses

Cherry tomatoes grow with vigor in Seattle climate

And are well adapted to urban gardens.On Organic cherry tomatoes are amazingly good posted 2 years, 4 months ago 10 Responses

Thanks Peter, I rewrote our plan to save the world

On How to talk about the future without depressing everyone posted 2 years, 4 months ago 54 Responses

PNAC planned to seize Saudi oil fields before 9/11

On Pretty much what you thought it was posted 2 years, 4 months ago 7 Responses

I need some air

NYT and now Washington Post are ragging on the efficacy of solar energy due to cost and storage.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/16/business/16solar.htm

For the record -- Industrial process heat is typically steam generated from natural gas. If solar steam is used then natural gas is saved for other applications not available for solar energy, such as generating electrical power at night. This method of using solar energy responds to the concerns that solar power can not be supplied 24 hours per day unless new storage technology is developed.
http://www.harbornet.com/sunflower/plan.htmlOn Using molten salt to store solar energy posted 2 years, 4 months ago 4 Responses

The troops are restless

We seem to be sweltering in a bog sniping at each other over offsets, Hydrogen, ethanol, biodiesel, favorite technologies, efficiency, conservation, mortal sins, metaphors, politics,,, while our distant generals are united in the cause to bring coal to a standstill, then kill it.   Some r&r with music would be nice.On A new Pardoner's Tale? posted 2 years, 4 months ago 30 Responses

Property taxes reduced 90% w/ conservation trusts

On Trees should play a bigger role posted 2 years, 4 months ago 27 Responses

550 kWh(e) per square meter per year - solar

One gallon of H2 per day with 33 m2 solar collectors.

H2O ~ H2 O ~ H20 round robin electrolysis ~ 50% efficient.On A guest essay from Geoffrey Holland posted 2 years, 4 months ago 55 Responses

Biodiversivist --

"Global warming is a related rates problem."

According to Jim Hansen, emissions is an absolute quantity, not a rates problem.  Because CO2 remains in the air for many centuries it does not matter if we delay emissions, the totals will still cause tipping points into disaster.  Offsets that offer temporary reductions and not permanent reductions will not help, not a wedge solution.

GreenMom -- Yes! Put wind turbines in coal country.
On Many offset critics appear to be shadowboxing posted 2 years, 4 months ago 76 Responses

Can not see the trees for the forest

I am a caretaker for an old growth forest.  The canopy is dying from global warming (bark beetles no longer freeze), and the hot ground is drying.  I am most alarmed and angry for this trespass and destruction.  

I saw what happened in New Zealand when they clear cut their forests.  They can not get the indigenous trees to grow back in spite of valiant seedling efforts.  So they plant rows of invasive trees like corn. On Many offset critics appear to be shadowboxing posted 2 years, 4 months ago 76 Responses

Knowing next to nothing about offsets

I am pretty good at logic as a computer programmer.  The logic of offsetting GHG holds only if less carbon dioxide or other long lasting GHGs are permanently not added to the environment, or permanently removed.  Methane is not a long lasting GHG and will become CO2 without burning so burning CH4 is a false offset unless there is some discounting adding present net value for the relative short lifetime of CH4.

If an offset keeps fossil fuels permanently in the ground then true.  Oil and gas will be mined and burned by others so those fossil fuel offsets are false.  Trees die so also false.  If coal is avoided by an offset and not all coal will be mined by others then that offset is true.  Do I have this correct?  Are there other logically true offsets?

I like the spin-off values of false offsets, like participatory politics, trees, and conserving gas and oil as bridges into the future.  So, many false offsets are good by me, but they sound like social engineering with transparency risks.On Many offset critics appear to be shadowboxing posted 2 years, 4 months ago 76 Responses

90 solar dishes per acre

Let Amory know that I can supply 900 barrels of oil equivalent solar steam per year per acre to distill his cellulosic ethanol.On Send me your questions before tomorrow posted 2 years, 4 months ago 35 Responses

The concrete Al Gore

Ask, "What do you know about global warming?".

I've met people of all ages that don't get global warming.  One 17 year-old HS grad thought global warming had something to do with air cleaners in cans and knew nothing about CO2.  What was his school teaching?  Anyway, he had stars in his eyes for Al Gore.  Go figure.  Stars are more concrete than concepts.On Where were younger people at Live Earth house parties? posted 2 years, 4 months ago 19 Responses

No carbon emissions means no offsets?

I can not join the offset party because I have no carbon emissions.  But if I did, I would not pay some distant person to offset gas consumption for power or heat, that would be pointless in terms of carbon.

I would ram it home to offset the distant use of coal, perhaps with a free low-carbon solar collector.

Target coal customers, not trees.On Offsets should be the last thing you need to turn to posted 2 years, 4 months ago 31 Responses

The heat is on electricity

Using electricity for heat and cooling is not good thermal dynamics, excepting for the isolated, and for filling gaps from local heat interruptions.  Baseload heating and cooling should be via architecture, solar thermal heat, district heating and cooling, cogeneration, waste heat from appliances, air to air heat exchangers, plus filling gaps from local waste biomass (wood and pellet stoves).On Monbiot: We can provide all or most of our electricity from renewable sources posted 2 years, 4 months ago 8 Responses

Coal fire will kill

Gas and oil fires are self extinguishing.

The logic of reducing gas and oil consumption is to save those resources for the future.  In the end, all the gas and oil will eventually be burned and that gas carbon and oil carbon will be in the atmosphere for many centuries.  Gas and oil offsets will not do anything, by themselves, to reduce gas and oil carbon emissions.  The market is too slippery, somebody else will collect and burn the unused gas and oil, especially as values increase past peak supplies.

Coal is another matter.  Civilization will be destroyed before all the coal is mined.  The hope is that we will experience the enlightenment of leaving coal in the ground.  

While gas and oil carbon offsets may be illogical, coal offsets may be logical for our collective survival.  We could carefully use our remaining gas and oil to build a coal-free future. On Offsets should be the last thing you need to turn to posted 2 years, 4 months ago 31 Responses

One significant digit

I used high-intensity pv numbers.  $100/m2 tracking mirrors (heliostats or dishes) which, in average climates, supplies the oil energy equivalent of 0.5bbl/m2/year.  (Colorado sun is 1 bbl/m2/year.)  This oil energy equivalent could be used to generate electrical power or engine power.  

Add $100/m2 aperture for 40% efficient pv from Spectrolab (10cm2 at $10/cm2 and 1000 sun intensity).  

$200/m2 is $0.60/Watt(e), about 10 times cheaper than rooftop pv.  The scale and capital required is enormous, even though it is cost effective.  Time will be required for growth to occur.  And we haven't even started yet.  Bush "zeroed-out solar concentrators".On Emphasis on the 'rare' posted 2 years, 5 months ago 23 Responses

Scale up potential

I agree, mostly, with Dr. X.  Taxing coal is a half measure, perhaps too passive.  I would rather make coal illegal.  Offsets are like "let them eat cake" and throwing gold coins while our coach runs over their children.

Further, I wonder if trees can be scaled to make a meaningful difference.  There are limits and carbon emissions far exceed anything we can do to sequesture carbon.  The time delay of scale up is everything.  A similar problem exists with new renewable technology.  Solar and wind can be half the consumer cost of coal but require many decades to scale enough to make a difference.  

It would help to eliminate all subsidies, and eliminate government funding of favorite sons and daughters.  Basic research - yes.  Choosing technologies for massive deployment - no.  

Natural gas can scale quickly enough to make coal illegal without shutting down "the American way of life".  Once coal is dead we can focus on gas which is much easier to curtail site by site.

The oil fires are self extinguishing.On Emphasis on the 'rare' posted 2 years, 5 months ago 23 Responses

Cellulosic ethanol cogeneration

I have been in discussions about using waste heat from power for ethanol.  The problem with moving ethanol cooking and distillation to the power plant is that it smells bad, and requires transporting tons of biomass long distances.  The problem with moving power generators to the locations of cellulosic ethanol plants is the cost of extending power lines long distances.

I have also been asked to develop solar concentrators for ethanol, turning sunshine into liquid fuel.

It looks like ethanol is going to happen and we are going to put lipstick on a pig.On Predicts rabbit out of hat in three years, too posted 2 years, 5 months ago 32 Responses

National security

The interstate highway, Internet, and mission to the moon were all based on national security motivations, as was Carter's solar and conservation programs.  Eliminating carbon from global energy supply is the most sever national security issue we have ever faced.  It is entirely appropriate for the government to spend vast sums of money developing and testing new energy technologies which can be transferred to indigenous industries around the world.  This mission is vital to our survival.On Voters like it, but how to do it well? posted 2 years, 5 months ago 19 Responses

On deck

I have read about carbon mitigation that would reduce plankton growth, something I hope Planktos would vigorously resist.   That alternate scheme would  dump SO2 into the upper atmosphere to block sunlight.  The tree people thought for decades that they had carbon sequestration in the bag, until proven wrong.  If Planktos is also wrong it would be no fault of their hearts and imagination, and not likely to cause the damage of corn ethanol runoff creating dead zones in the oceans.  (I do worry about hypoxia from excessive concentration of iron.)  The nuclear people feel particularly persecuted by environmentalists, and they love their children too.  I have also felt the heat of environmentalists for proposing solar concentrators in the desert.

People fear deception during crisis.  Yet, mistakes are mostly just a waste of time and money, and not the common problem we face.  Bottom line is there won't be anybody around to point fingers if we collectively fail to to stop carbon emissions.

I wish I knew more about the potential of iron, plankton, and whether and how much captured plankton carbon is actually permanently sequestered.On In an op-ed, Russ George claims his company has been unfairly maligned posted 2 years, 5 months ago 29 Responses

Politicians are not engineers

Last week I had a long conversation with our local public utility about RPS.  Turns out we get 85% hydro, 10% nuclear, about 4% from mix biomass sources, and less than 1% coal.  They could not make sense of 15% RPS.

Why not have the power utilities involved in displacing gas used for other applications, then use that gas to displace coal power?  The low hanging fruit is lying on the ground.On Their reasons aren't all that unreasonable posted 2 years, 5 months ago 2 Responses

Rep. John Dingell

As one who landed on Rep. John Dingell like a ton of bricks for his comments on New Zealand bleating sheep causing global warming, I am now warming up to John Dingell.  He is becoming bright source of hope, like the first rays of the morning sun after a dark winter night.   He appears fearless and honest, exactly what we need from leadership. On He's pro-carbon tax, anti-CAFE -- which matters more? posted 2 years, 5 months ago 20 Responses

A failure of imagination.

Reducing carbon emissions 80% does not require more money.  Reject that meme.

Carbon emission reductions that work will cost less money.  The requirement is more thinking, not more money.On To act not to act posted 2 years, 5 months ago 20 Responses

Solar natural gas displacing coal

Using solar heat to save natural gas for subsequent gas power generation is the same thing as using solar cells for making power, but with the added advantages of using existing low-cost industry plus enabling baseload power sourced from solar energy without needing power storage (batteries, pumped hydro, compressed air).On Random observation of the day posted 2 years, 5 months ago 19 Responses

Wet steam in my dreams

We are subsidizing entropy.

We use high-value fuels for low-grade applications, like food processing.

We subsidize solar power to save fuel at power plants.

If we used utility capital to finance solar process heat to save fuel, like at food processing plants, we would save gigatons of money.

What a mess.On Don't call it a subsidy posted 2 years, 5 months ago 19 Responses

Addendum

One square meter of solar dish or of heliostat is worth about one barrel of oil [per year].On Picking apart an argument against carbon taxes posted 2 years, 5 months ago 22 Responses

California Mohave Desert

System economics may be more favorable in Bakersfield, Kern County.  Solar enhanced oil recovery, distillation, and refining could use the value of waste heat from solar power generation.

Saving fuel consumed for industrial process heat has the same value as fuel consumed for power generation.  

It is a solar seller's market.  I would deploy solar hardware for IPH, then explore the possibilities of generating some power off the top of the cycle.  The economics are very progressive, possibly less than $1/Watt(e) for the addition of solar power generating equipment on solar IPH.On Picking apart an argument against carbon taxes posted 2 years, 5 months ago 22 Responses

High-temp engines use expensive materials,

cost more to maintain, have shorter lifetimes, and have larger parasitic losses... making higher efficiencies less economic.On In the summer heat posted 2 years, 5 months ago 16 Responses

Flip side of cogeneration

This discussion was about cogenerating power with industrial waste heat.  

A larger and less costly form of cogeneration is making industrial process heat from the rejected heat of power generation.  

The best ROI is using waste industrial heat for low-grade building heat and hot water.  Sweden recovers low-grade industrial waste heat and distributes the heat city-wide via district heating.  They also store summer waste heat for winter distribution.  

District cooling is another application of waste heat using absorption chilling technology.

Compared to bread and money, our social understanding of energy is not well developed.On Mixing up paths and goals posted 2 years, 5 months ago 14 Responses

Carbon taxes do not favor favorite toys

That is the best reason for carbon taxes.

Invested capital currently favors subsidized technologies like ethanol, pv, wind.

And then there's coal, oil, gas and nuclear subsidies.

The better return on investment comes from end-use energy efficiency and conservation, best supported via carbon taxes shifted from other taxes, not a new tax.On Johnny jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge ... must ... jump ... posted 2 years, 5 months ago 110 Responses

ff - troughs 1970s .. heliostats 2010s .. $2/W(e)

Heliostats have rapid scale up potential.  BrightSource LUZ II expects heliostats at $150/m².On Picking apart an argument against carbon taxes posted 2 years, 5 months ago 22 Responses

Red pill or green pill?

Wind and solar have been made to appear expensive by their competitors.  

It is a poison pill.  Don't eat the red pill.On Mixing up paths and goals posted 2 years, 5 months ago 14 Responses

80% car fuel carbon reduction

Carpool from the suburbs.  It would be nice to have carpool passenger terminals.

Recharge plug-in and electric cars with solar/wind power, and/or NW hydro.

The car does not have to die, just make it stop smoking so much fuel.
On Johnny jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge ... must ... jump ... posted 2 years, 5 months ago 110 Responses

shutting down coal

Building new expensive energy sources (pv, nuclear, geothermal, wind) will not shut down cheap coal.  If a surplus of power generation then expensive sources will cease expansion, cheap coal will be the last to go.

The best tools in the box include making carbon much more expensive and/or creating substantial energy surplus with efficiency and conservation.

The Holy Grail is energy less expensive than cheap coal.On Turns out we don't know how much there is posted 2 years, 5 months ago 40 Responses

Clean coal only looks good from a distance

We can only double the efficiency of power production by using more hydro, solar, wind, and geothermal.  Wouldn't that be nice?  We can only cut 80% carbon emissions by not burning coal.  

Sequesture of carbon emissions is not a proven technology, and would be both expensive and dangerous.  Solar thermal cogeneration is inexpensive, safe, and scalable everywhere.  It works in my backyard (Seattle) producing heat and power.  Carbon-free energy is simple and easy to do.

Do not protect the future of coal interests.  Protect the future of civilization, the future of humanity.

If Congress does not take global warming seriously then the people will not like Congress.  We need hope -- now.

Tax carbon.On The chair of the Select Committee on Global Warming weighs in posted 2 years, 5 months ago 40 Responses

Ethanol is made with coal

Solar is the enemy of coal.

Solar is the friend of humanity.On With the right rules in place, it could work posted 2 years, 5 months ago 115 Responses

Sweden is cool

When I talk with green grads I tell them to go to Sweden, learn, then come back to import and employ Swedish engineering and hardware.On An entire nation of sexy beasts posted 2 years, 5 months ago 15 Responses

The skill of reading is as important as writing

What is the last name of Jesus?

It is nor Christ.  That is a title, like Sheik or King.  Mahatma means महात्मा mahātmā: महा mahā (great) + आत्मं or आत्मन ātman [soul]On What a nice idea posted 2 years, 5 months ago 45 Responses

I have to work but...

I'd rather avoid work.  Solar thermal energy payback depends on  technology and application.  The best application is cogeneration, too complicated to go there on EROEI.  

The energy invested is for steel, glass, aluminum, and concrete (and lots of copper for flat plate hot water systems).  Most of those materials are made with heat.  Aluminum foundries require electricity.

Concentrators have the best thermal energy returns, total energy payback in less than one year.  I think 6 months is achievable.  Lifetimes are 20 to 30 years and many of those decommissioned materials can be recycled into new solar collectors...  the future energy values would need to be discounted into net present worth.

The economic metric of concentrators is $100 to $200 per m² and worth the equivalent of one barrel of oil per year in sunny climates.

High-intensity 40% efficient pv cells at 1000 suns concentration (10 cm²) would add $100 for power conversion (340 Watts at $0.29/Watt for pv cells).  Cheap and getting cheaper.  Most of the cell cost is for exotic materials rather than for energy.On Always keep the bait dangling just out of reach posted 2 years, 5 months ago 17 Responses

I had to put my toys aside and get real.

High-cost  high-tech capital-intensive subsidized money-making toys are a dead end for our sweet Earth as we know her.  

Biomass will oxidize into CO2 whether we burn crop waste or not.  Displacing dead carbon emissions is job number one.

Be effective and find the most cost effective methods to displace fossil carbon combustion.

The sequesture of charcoal (or using ethanol, pv, coal sequestration,,,) won't hold a match to not burning dead carbon and is akin to grasping at straws while drowning in a panic.  Remain calm and think this thing through.

Yes odo, tax carbon!On With the right rules in place, it could work posted 2 years, 5 months ago 115 Responses

Acres

Potato farmer makes a good argument.

Solar thermal can deliver the energy equivalent of 900 barrels of oil per acre per year (180,000 pounds  of 37800 gallons crude) On With the right rules in place, it could work posted 2 years, 5 months ago 115 Responses

Interesting point on biosphere carbon storage

I know human carnivores consume much more farm land, water, fertilizer, and probably pickup trucks.  That no doubt has a carbon impact.  But I wonder if walking livestock (and humans) contain less carbon than the missing trees.  There are so many rumps and so many stumps.

I have read somewhere a long time ago that plant and soil respiration greatly exceeds fossil emissions.  The biosphere cycle was historically stable and balanced until recent increases caused by warming climates.  That, frozen methane, and massive tree death are tipping points.

Is there more live carbon in the air?   Probably.   I don't know.  I also don't know what happened to C13.  I am not a chemist.
On What a nice idea posted 2 years, 5 months ago 45 Responses

In the mud

I was deeply moved by this post from James Dailey.

And I was lost on his metaphor of the used car salesman.  I read it trice and finally just skipped over it.

Having been in that part of the world I know that reality as quite muddy (or dusty).  I can understand the difficulty spanning the gap between there and here in just a few paragraphs.

Of late I have been too focused on the disaster USA coal will cause the world.  I have mentally skipped over the parallel disaster of the chaos cause by fossil fuels among the billions of people struggling to live and move in very poor environments.  

Clearly James has thrown the gauntlet at our feet.  We must supply future energy to all while withholding the carbon from all.  The status quo must not continue.  All in all, a very sticky story.On What a nice idea posted 2 years, 5 months ago 45 Responses

Self-fulfilling prophets of doom

Where is that disheveled old man on the street corner with the long beard and stringy gray hair holding the sign that says, "THE WORLD IS COMING TO AN END"?

He is still there.  His sign now says, "THE WORLD IS NOT COMING TO AN END".  What a nut!  The poor guy does not read blogs. On Who knew? posted 2 years, 5 months ago 70 Responses

Coal power

Now, no coal would definitely be a problem because of its use for electricity, and of course we have a lot of discussion here about alternative electricity generation, but no oil?

Coal is the problem, not oil.  Alternative electricity is not going to cause "no coal".  Just look at how we use electricity.  Use half as much power and coal shrinks like a decaying dead dinosaur.On Who knew? posted 2 years, 5 months ago 70 Responses

The core of the message is the goal to stop coal.

When oil is consumed we walk.

When coal is consumed we die.

If we sustain this drunk party with endless kegs of oil and gas then our lives, and the Earth as we know it, will be destroyed by coal.

The party is over.  Go home.  Take a shower.  Get some sleep.   Then get to the work.  

Our challenge is to create and build a warm, safe, and a happy future.On Who knew? posted 2 years, 5 months ago 70 Responses

I've spent $1.1MM in solar rd&d

to beat the price of burning coal in China.

I can not touch the price of efficiency.

Competing with the price of civilian nuclear is easy.On The days when they would take whatever you served up are gone posted 2 years, 5 months ago 14 Responses

Disconnect the meme

Renewable energy is much more than electricity.On How can renewable energy 'power up'? posted 2 years, 5 months ago 45 Responses

Under the standing trees

Should cap & trade be used to pay people to not cut down trees day by day?  

For 30 years I tried to be carbon-neutral by permanently protecting an old-growth forest.  Every year the trees became taller and thicker.  Now global warming is killing those trees and my forest is expelling huge amounts of carbon.  If I could use those decaying trees to displace fossil fuel heating then the savings would be in the bank.  But that is not happening.  

The Puget Sound region is loaded with down firewood from last winter's November storm.  There is no incentive to use this resource.  Cap and trade does not reward firewood use, and if it did it would only be worth $5 per cord.  Cap & trade enables greenwashing.

It seems likely that the Amazon will become a savanna and the tundra a forest.

I like forests and biodiversity.  Our best options to save forests are linked to suspensions of dead carbon emissions.  The goal is to make coal obsolete with low-cost energy efficiency and low-carbon energy technology.On Dirt cheap carbon posted 2 years, 5 months ago 30 Responses

That fire was 8 years ago

On Lovins v. Richter posted 2 years, 5 months ago 45 Responses

"Nevada Solar One"

"Nevada Solar One" is 1970s era technology (troughs).  Solar industry leaders (like nuclear leaders) have abandoned old ideas for new systems that are more cost efficient and scalable.  In solar that means cogeneration power towers with heliostats.On Lovins v. Richter posted 2 years, 5 months ago 45 Responses

Market incentives require substance

Cap and trade at $10 per ton does nothing for investors and consumers (excepting the game players).  A carbon tax starting at 10 cents per pound is firm, predictable, and designed to reward efficiency and conservation by all consumers.  Ten cents is $0.50 per gallon of gas.  That tax money will not end up in the pockets of Far East biofuels scammers.  Rather, the market will develop low-carbon technology which will be copied by developers around the world.  Big business, oil exporters, and oil men from Texas do not want new low-carbon technology developed.On Carbon tax v. cap and trade -- the hottest arguments since McCartney v. Lennon posted 2 years, 5 months ago 8 Responses

Lies, food, and peak oil production.

It is acceptable to lie to the enemy in times of war.  We are not at war with the Kingdom because of 9.11

Islam is fatalistic.  Allah already wrote the term of man (individual's life span) and the term of states.  Nothing anybody does can change that fate.  Believers would not be believers if they thought they could change the future.  Lies belies belief in Allah.  

One must listen very close to heads of Islamic states.  It is not a lie to say anything using the word "risks", and nothing absolute about "considering".  Same goes with "If" and "we may".

This story is implying a nonexistent cause and effect about biofuels by telling a series of oil truths.  It seems aimed directly at G8.

I noticed a heart-felt concern for the poor, and that is deeply embedded in the Qu'ran.  Biofuels starving the poor could be a motivator for this attempt at intimidation.  

A more cynical explanation would be that big business wants strong biofuels subsidies and needs the G8 reacting to oil supply fears for political support.On Agrifuels creating insecurity of demand for their oil posted 2 years, 5 months ago 11 Responses

Simply sunny

There is much more to solar energy than electricity.  My home soaks up winter sun for heat.  In big city sized systems, 90% of summer solar heat can be stored for winter distribution with very low-cost seasonal heat storage.  Solar industrial process heat rd&d was zeroed-out by Bush.  Solar heat can make ice and cool houses without making electricity.  The deniers of solar energy are the same type of people who deny AGW.  Push back.On Why we gotta knock solar? posted 2 years, 5 months ago 35 Responses

Know our enemy

I have met economic 'hit men' and 'jackals' in the US.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/060607H.shtml

They are most sensitive about the press.  Get press coverage.  The press can be fun.
On Reality checking the polls posted 2 years, 5 months ago 43 Responses

Solar rocks

Yup Sam, I've melted rocks with sunlight at 1000 suns, then focused onto a high-intensity pv and increased power output by 1000 times.  These pv cells are now 41% efficient and a magnifier can reduce pv cost by 1000 fold.  A pv manufacturer with 1 MW capacity actually makes 1 GW with 'aggregators'.  Powerful stuff.On Why we gotta knock solar? posted 2 years, 5 months ago 35 Responses

Unattainium @ 5 cents/lb SNLA 1977

OK I've simplified this too much and such is too complicated for a blog evaluation.  I was working only one significant digit and assuming commodities cost, inflation, old dollars, etc.  And systems are more important than components.  I will retire with this...

I traveled the world and provincial N. Americans have no concept of the poverty of the developing world.  I've studied the economics of solar energy for 30 years.  My passive solar home is 100% dead carbon free (after construction) and has a 500 year life expectancy.

My mission is to find the least-cost forms of solar energy that can scale globally to trillions of dollars.  Flat plate pv is on the opposite side of that.  PV is handy, easy, convenient, political, inefficient, and expensive.  PV gives hope.  PV will not displace coal in India and China.

Solar energy can supply humanity's energy.  Economics is the path finder.  Materials intensity is most important.  Land intensity is not a barrier. On Why we gotta knock solar? posted 2 years, 5 months ago 35 Responses

Power and Money

Those other counties are like States.

The conservatives in the US have been corrupted by the delusion of absolute power.On Conservatives like Bush's climate plan because greens don't posted 2 years, 6 months ago 5 Responses

Big solar

Tracking is important for improved economics independent of solar technology type.  So those m² will be in the form of distributed collectors in the fields separated like fruit trees in orchards.  

And of course it would not be in one location, And not just deserts.   There will be single collectors at homes with yards.  There will be fields of hundreds of thousands supplying power, heat, and cooling to whole cities.
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/biz2/0705/gallery.sol ...On Why we gotta knock solar? posted 2 years, 6 months ago 35 Responses

Infectious and invisible

I wonder about silent magical thinking.  Will ignition spontaneously occur at some critical mass?   On Reality checking the polls posted 2 years, 6 months ago 43 Responses

And the moon is green cheese

Global warming on Mars is not our fault.  Those rovers are solar powered.

Science is religion and religion is science.

Who needs education?  Not Thompson.
On Fred Thompson delivers rational, informed, passionate speech about the need for immediate action to posted 2 years, 6 months ago 6 Responses

We were experienced by the 60s

Now use that experience to deal with greatest threat ever to humanity or all that love, creativity, spirituality, and history will die.

I wish we had the means to destroy coal power plants.

"Coal is the enemy of the human race" is a metaphor.

We must see the enemies for who they are; corrupt misanthropic criminals.  We must stop the protectors of coal, like Bush and Griffins, using all of our resources spontaneously as target opportunities present themselves.   If you see these enemies do the right thing.   Do all that you can do.   I know I will.On Reality checking the polls posted 2 years, 6 months ago 43 Responses

Visionaries, survivors, and lost souls

Holocaust metaphors and profanities do ring bells.  I am still in search for the metaphor before the Golden Age expires.

If business controls the government then business controls NASA.  Business has a choice.  Either they can make a profit from the price of carbon, or they can profit from no price on carbon.  Are we experiencing the seeds of a business civil war in Griffins, or is it just Griffins?On Hard to believe he's part of the Bush administration! posted 2 years, 6 months ago 24 Responses

Plug-in bad news for Toyota

We went to a Prius dealer today and asked about a plug-in Prius.  The salesmen blanched.

We were told that they know nothing, will cost too much, won't last very long, and only a few people in LA want one.  The message we took away was that potential customers will not buy the current Prius because they want to wait for the rumored plug-in.  

All our friends and relatives are holding out for the plug-in.  

GM does not have the same information liability and will hurt current Toyota sales with the promise of a future plug-in.  Clever.On Looks like the plug-in might actually happen posted 2 years, 6 months ago 55 Responses

Planting seeds for a green future

Grist is effective because it is thinly posted, emotional, readable, and easily used by media and political research.

We rich, mostly white middle class, can afford to feather our green nests.  People I talk to from China and India want money.  Cash is a religion in China and survival in India.

Our currently stable social climate could change overnight (Iran, economy, the unexpected...) suddenly making AGW mitigation a low public priority.

Self interest is a stable motivator especially during times of chaos.  My contributions here are to advocate significant money saved and made, the opportunities of self interest, which also have the by-product of curtailing global coal.  The goal is to zero-out coal with economics.  A coal tax replacing payroll taxes would be a big help.  So would seed capital from economic and political endowments.  

The public will follow credible first steps towards a safe and sustainable future.  Jobs and self reliance are most important to most of the people.On Continuing the debate posted 2 years, 6 months ago 78 Responses

Carpool with existing car for 80% reduction

On Continuing the debate posted 2 years, 6 months ago 78 Responses

Emergy

    Emergy can be defined as the total solar equivalent available energy of one form that was used up directly and indirectly in the work of making a product or service (H.T.Odum 1996, H.T. & E.C.Odum 2000).

    Emergy expresses the cost of a process or a product in solar energy equivalents. The basic idea is that solar energy is our ultimate energy source and by expressing the value of products in emergy units, it becomes possible to compare apples and pears. (S.E.Jorgensen 2001, p. 61)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EmergyOn Continuing the debate posted 2 years, 6 months ago 78 Responses

Water boarding

Do not engineer society.  Engineer energy.  80% by 2050 is my mantra.  It is doable with energy costing less than fossil fuels.  We can do this.

It's like knowing about global warming for decades.  It's like screaming under water.

Coal electricity is not cheap.  Solar energy is not expensive.  We are not in a box.On Continuing the debate posted 2 years, 6 months ago 78 Responses

Rapid scale up of solar is my focus

Expensive boutique solar toys for the wealthy middle class, manufactured with vertical integration, will not scale up fast enough to do anything but make some people rich.

If and when solar energy is ten times cheaper for the whole community, manufactured with horizontal integration from existing commodities, then solar energy can easily scale as fast as unskilled labor needs jobs.

Can you imagine solar costing ten times less?

Spending less will set us free.

As for APS, they do not like solar hot water either, and said "There's no market for solar hot water".  Its been awhile since I surveyed Phoenix (and Tempe), but I remember the sprawling suburb of Chandler had mostly electric residential hot water in thousands of big new homes under the blazing Arizona sun.On Regulatory infrastructure will be crucial posted 2 years, 6 months ago 12 Responses

Christian, Jewish and Muslim global warming

 Religious leaders urge action on warming

1 hour, 5 minutes ago

Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders are urging President George W. Bush and Congress to take action against global warming, declaring that the changing climate is a "moral and spiritual issue."

In an open letter to be published on Tuesday, more than 20 religious groups urged U.S. leaders to limit greenhouse gas emissions and invest in renewable energy sources.

"Global warming is real, it is human-induced and we have the responsibility to act," says the letter, which will run in Roll Call and the Politico, two Capitol Hill newspapers.

"We are mobilizing a religious force that will persuade our legislators to take immediate action to curb greenhouse gases," it says.

The letter is signed by top officials of the National Council of Churches, the Islamic Society of North America and the political arm of the Reform branch of Judaism.

Top officials from several mainline Christian denominations, including the Episcopal Church, United Methodist Church, Presbyterian Church, African Methodist Episcopal Church and Alliance of Baptists also signed the letter, along with leaders of regional organizations and individual churches.

Rev. Joel Hunter, a board member of the National Association of Evangelicals, also signed the letter, though that group has not officially taken a stance on global warming due to opposition from some of its more conservative members.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070521/us_nm/climate_religio ...On Green the Pope way posted 2 years, 6 months ago 29 Responses

Potash

I turn in ash from the stove for potash, also add nitrogen from chicken sh*t and potassium from fish bone.  But what does charcoal do for plants?On We haven't quite figured it out yet posted 2 years, 6 months ago 35 Responses

Who is the leader Bill Richardson follows?

Could it be Al Gore?  James Hansen?

If I were to write a political speech it would say that we will make this country 90% energy self-sufficient entirely from renewable energy with cost-effective low-carbon technology.  That we will export new low-carbon technology around the world for global energy self-reliance.  That this is not ideology.  It is not about being President.  It is about the survival of civilization.

That we can do this.  Join the party.  Stop using carbon energy.
On Reviews are good posted 2 years, 6 months ago 1 Response

Car ponds

Carpools can slow down oil depletion.

Not as sexy as green pond solar cars but far more effective, fast ROI, and employs existing technology without subsidies.  Side benefits include lower fleet maintenance and lower gasoline costs.On Crap, another means of continuing business as usual failing to survive scrutiny posted 2 years, 6 months ago 11 Responses

A clothesline is the best solar collector

On Don't fight it posted 2 years, 6 months ago 44 Responses

My favorite graph

Ethanol v. pv
http://www.harbornet.com/sunflower/pvethanol.gifOn Don't fight it posted 2 years, 6 months ago 44 Responses

We`are blessed soul mates

On Green the Pope way posted 2 years, 6 months ago 29 Responses

Light reading

Having lived for years with only candle and oil light I can appreciate their need for solar light.  I tried mirrors and extra candles for reading but could not make it work for me, and that was when I did not need reading glasses.On The Amish dig it posted 2 years, 6 months ago 7 Responses

Push you solar, pull me carbon

Solar mitigating carbon is not the same as making money with solar power.  Solar power investors of marginal 1970s technologies require maximum sunlight for maximum profits.  Nothing wrong with that.  The three main subsystems are mirrors, thermal engines or high-intensity pv, and system cooling.

Central solar systems that supply steam heat to displace natural gas, oil, and coal heat for industry do not require deserts to amortize, and could be profitable even in Seattle type climates.  Steam heat can also be used for chilling.  With such systems, the top of the cycle can be used to cogenerate power (with the ambient cooling subsystem eliminated).  Such solar power is cost effective (USA China, India) because the system is financed by the value of the industrial process heat used for food processing, refining, desalination, district heating and cooling.

You would not run a dairy just for creme, or a smelter just for stainless steel.  The same logic applies to running a solar plant just for electricity.On It could be fantastic, but nobody's built any posted 2 years, 6 months ago 5 Responses

Replace taxes with carbon tax

On That's what his support for CTL shows posted 2 years, 6 months ago 74 Responses

I hear echoes of Grist in MSM, Kudos Chip!

On PBS interviews them some Grist posted 2 years, 6 months ago 5 Responses

Coal Kool-aid

North Americans can easily reduce coal electric consumption by 50% at costs less than consumer costs for coal power.  

Not using energy is less than zero cost.  Shutting down coal is imperative.

Americans do not need more energy.On Yeah, that's running out too posted 2 years, 6 months ago 9 Responses

For what's it not worth

I have a shiny new technology that can supply humanity with all her energy without carbon (a solar dish).  I even have a patent.  But I have not promoted it here, nor anywhere, because it would be a disservice to humanity, and less than truthful.

My big discovery is not spending money on anything  to the greatest extent possible. The overhead of money is enormous - taxes, interest, waste, carbon, time, ethics, and poor health.

Physical work is good for the sole.  Money is bad for the sole.

My one wish is for everyone to stop spending so much money.

Not spending money could become a silver bullet for North America's carbon footprint, and certainly a change for American consciousness.On Garret Keizer burns in anger about 'green capitalism' posted 2 years, 6 months ago 47 Responses

Boycott war

A long time ago I made the personal moral commitment to not do business with firms located in countries engaged in war.  During the Falken Islands War I would not discuss business or anything with Britain.

Now I am in internal exile.  I will not do business in the USA because of the Iraq War.  The byproduct is that I have reduced my carbon footprint by 90%.

Canis -- I fear global warming ending human history more than I fear death.  Mitigating global warming is much more important than war, than death.  

PeaceOn Between Iraq and a hard place posted 2 years, 6 months ago 23 Responses

Marsh tanks

The Chinese used their septic tanks for gas cooking in their homes. On A bill to subsidize making biogas from cow manure posted 2 years, 6 months ago 26 Responses

The Good Troll

Yes Canis, I've considered you a troll, a good troll like the Good Witch from the North in Oz, one who makes personal praise on comments.  I do not know what I find so attractive in learned friends of the classics, language, philosophy.  I can never get enough.

I too like the creativity of J and Z.

I hope for no changes in Gristmill formats and openness.On Churchill, not Chamberlain posted 2 years, 6 months ago 58 Responses

Carbon tax and public RD&D - Good!

On It ain't pretty posted 2 years, 7 months ago 24 Responses

Brilliant

I am focused on this technology and believe central tower receivers with heliostats are the cheapest form of solar steam and power.  The technology deployed in Spain is old technology due to information inertia and consensus (like the IPCC.   Making the power via high-intensity pv instead of thermal turbines and using smaller mirrors with shorter towers, plus some clever mechanical redesign using the new low-cost abilities of micro controllers then the cost will indeed be three times cheaper, and cheaper than coal sans externalities around the world.On Man, that's the worst headline ever posted 2 years, 7 months ago 14 Responses

$0.30/lb. carbon = $1.50/gallon gasoline

On Why we should ban compressed chemical dusters posted 2 years, 7 months ago 31 Responses

sunlight

You will need, in average climate, 20 m² of thermal solar collectors for power and heat.  Five times that for North Americans.On Your share of the world posted 2 years, 7 months ago 16 Responses

Material stuff

That was beautiful, Canis.

Mitigation summary (part III of ARF, IPCC)

It said that changes in design standards and materials chosen for construction could trim about 30 percent of projected emissions of heat-trapping gases from buildings by 2020, with more than half of the cuts coming in developing countries. The improvements in buildings could come with a net savings to the economy from lower energy costs, it said.

Thermal mass is important for comfort and heat from passive solar architecture, but more important is the thermal mass cooling potential reducing power plant markets.  

Concrete is mostly sand and gravel and is only good for compression.  Steel (rebar) is required for tension, especially in earthquakes.  Material cost is very low and casual labor is high.  O&M near zero.On Indirect greenhouse-gas savings posted 2 years, 7 months ago 41 Responses

HFC-134a in polystyrene

And I thought concrete was bad.  Polystyrene used to insulate the exterior of concrete is made with HFC-134a.On Why we should ban compressed chemical dusters posted 2 years, 7 months ago 31 Responses

Nova interruptions

Solar power is a subset of solar energy.  The former needs storage for electric cars and the latter is easily stored.  

From a social grid policy perspective, solar power does not need to be stored until the daytime solar power exceeds the region-wide demand for power.  That is after many billions of dollars worth of deployment.  Storing solar power is one of the arguments used to marginalize public support.  Nova was full of reasons to not embrace solar power for reasons of cost, storage, efficacy, blackouts with suggestions of chaos and terror.  The war of solutions has begun.On The seductive lure of toys that promise solutions without change posted 2 years, 7 months ago 39 Responses

Information watch dogs bark and bite

Promoting new technology is not news worthy.  That is the domain of such developers seeking capital.  Tech policy critiques, like ethanol, are valuable for journalists.

Old proven technologies, such as district heating, clotheslines, carpools, firewood, trains, window shutters,... are so not sexy that nobody talks about them.

Behavior changes are not sustainable without economic signals.  Ditto for energy toys.

That said, there is hope.  One in a hundred new technology ideas could become a game changer.  Big established old businesses will do all that they can to suppress such threats.  Promoting false tech solutions is one of the tools in their bag.  Others are more nasty, more corrupt.On The seductive lure of toys that promise solutions without change posted 2 years, 7 months ago 39 Responses

Karl Rove's car

I really doubt Karl Rove drives a Prius.
CassandraOn Karl Rove meets Sheryl Crow posted 2 years, 7 months ago 6 Responses

This just made our day!

Thanks.On Karl Rove meets Sheryl Crow posted 2 years, 7 months ago 6 Responses

Weight ratios

There is not much engineering history in ferrocement architecture, so comparisons are not easy.

Conventional 3000 psi concrete uses 1/2 inch rebar mesh (#4 grade 60) on 10 inch centers inside 8 inch thick walls.  The engineering relates to extreme earthquakes on heavy walls.  I chose this method for a conventional looking house.

Ferrocement is typically 5/8 inch thick with 4 or more layers of chicken wire  The mix is rich, I think 33% cement by dry weight (66% sand).  The metal content is also high as a ratio of weight but not in terms of area.  The walls and roof are so thin that very little cement and metal is used compared to conventional poured walls.  The mesh and rich mix make the walls and roof waterproof.On Using earth to save the earth posted 2 years, 7 months ago 13 Responses

0.03% concrete emissions bearing loads

Materials reduction starts with architecture.   Engineers are conservative.   The construction industry will use available materials.

Cement emissions are 1.5% of total emissions.  I hope for new tech.   Should we consider cement above our 90% emissions reduction due to value of low-energy long-life shelters?
On Indirect greenhouse-gas savings posted 2 years, 7 months ago 41 Responses

Cement manufactured with solar energy 1979

On Indirect greenhouse-gas savings posted 2 years, 7 months ago 41 Responses

Global warming is much bigger than eco-heroes

Environmental forums offer clean platforms for organizing this fight against the most horrible monster that humanity has ever faced.  

I am glad the Terminator is on our side.On Time to start welcoming rather than bashing eco-newcomers posted 2 years, 7 months ago 19 Responses

Peak soil and natural gas

http://www.energybulletin.net/28610.htmlOn Hybrid power plant posted 2 years, 7 months ago 18 Responses

Repowering not the best buy for solar.

That's what they once called it, displacing fuel at existing power plants with solar concentrators.  I agree, a lot of info is missing, like 50 MW peak solar (or base load?), and cost numbers.

During the OPEC oil embargo, natural gas was not to be used for power production, and solar repowering was studied.  The big risk here is that this natural gas power plant may shut down before the solar concentrators amortize, leaving an orphan in the desert.

The best buy for solar concentrators is natural gas displacement used for industrial process heat requirements.  For a twisted example, an ethanol plant in California will use $10,000,000 per year in natural gas to make 230^o F. wet steam for cooking and distillation.  Natural gas is not sustainable.

Natural gas home heating is also not sustainable.  Something to think about.On Hybrid power plant posted 2 years, 7 months ago 18 Responses

oops

http://www.harbornet.com/sunflower/pvethanol.gifOn Somehow, I don't feel that bad for you posted 2 years, 7 months ago 39 Responses

children = survival

I asked parents of large families in India and Indonesia, "Why do you have so many children?".  I got the same answer every time across thousands of miles.  "We have children so that some of them survive on the farm to support us when we get old."  Having many children is premeditated and not due to the desire for sex nor entertainment.  If parents had confidence in social services, which do not exist yet, then they would choose to have fewer children.

On population limits, solar energy (without subsidies) can grow endlessly with human populations.  Energy and CO2 are not limiting factors.

My live-in therapist says situational depression is normal and makes me kayak 20 miles for stimulation.   Cassandra says vigorous afternoon exercise raises your core body temperature and relieves sleep disorder.On Somehow, I don't feel that bad for you posted 2 years, 7 months ago 39 Responses

The flood game

The graphics of flooding by Al Gore and others bother me in terms of relevancy.  If we get to the point of flooding then we have gone too far past the tipping points and global warming will be beyond human control.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/06/347/
On In Second Life posted 2 years, 7 months ago 2 Responses

Bread and circus

I have used Gristmill to explore the logic and language of global warming mitigation.  I have learned much and the work was productive.

The sticky notes that I have acquired include the notion that global warming could destroy civilization, making coal the enemy of the human race.

Civilization needs energy to reverse entropy while, at the same time, peak fossil energy supply will increase entropy.  A perfect storm is brewing.  I agree that more tension is likely.

My recent epiphany is that humans are expert mimics.  Human routines resist change for risk avoidance, an instinct for survival.  

The exits, as I see them, are to remove the toxic meat of old routines and supply creative new clean things to mimic.  The removal of old routines and the supply new routines is critical for the future survival of nine billion mimics.

Have a Good FridayOn A big picture statement the world's big problems posted 2 years, 8 months ago 6 Responses

The US has enough coal to destroy civilization

Coal reserves in the US will cause the US to be the last to adapt to peak fossil energy supplies.  Expect post fossil energy developments elsewhere first, not here.

Peak coal is a long way into the future for the US.  Like talk about peak oil, I expect little more than empty talk about peak coal, no real policy changes, and insignificant alternative energy investments until coal shortages (or carbon taxes) cause permanent price increases.  

It is encouraging that China's coal economy is not sustainable.
On A new report could change the entire energy picture posted 2 years, 8 months ago 37 Responses

Yes, good numbers

Or, numbers are good.  

I am not opposed to pv, I just wish journalists would broaden their visions to include far more powerful forms of solar energy.  

Retrofits of passive solar are very doable, such as attached greenhouses with Trombe walls.

My favorite is community solar district heating.On All signs are positive posted 2 years, 8 months ago 22 Responses

There is good solar and there is...

well, I don't want to rain on the solar parade.  This story should read 'solar electricity' or 'pv solar'.  Solar energy is more broad than just expensive pv.  These pv subsidies and energy results are somewhat similar to corn ethanol subsidies.  The public loves this stuff but it does not pencil out.

11-15 years - Time it takes for a typical home solar energy system to pay for itself with the cost savings from lower energy bills (depending on size, location, availability of government rebates and tax credits).

Your graph is not energy.

It is the classic S curve of new technology.  Fossil fuel commodities makes noisy graphs on costs, way beyond the smooth S curves of new technologies.On Wheee! posted 2 years, 8 months ago 10 Responses

Green clean cash machines

That was very interesting, algae is worth $20,000 per acre per year.  These green machines have the economics of solar collectors.  I wonder about capital and O&M costs.On Not -- yet, anyway posted 2 years, 8 months ago 37 Responses

Biofuels are the smoking guns

of energy propaganda and government corruption.

How do we reconcile that homes are heated with oil and gas while the government subsidizes food fed to cars?  Nobody suggests that we heat homes with ethanol and biodiesel.  Firewood and pellet stoves are so much more efficient and lower cost.  The economics of displacing home oil and gas with efficiency and waste biomass would totally eclipse the savings of biofuels for transportation.

Either we are experiencing institutional failures bordering on anarchy or these biofuels subsidies are for purposes other than simply to reduce oil and gas imports.  

I feel like they are talking down to me with false information like I'm just an ignorant child in school.  I get the sense that the government, and their oil company handlers, do not want to reduce consumer demand for oil.  Biofuels only serve to distract us from genuine low-cost alternatives to burning oil and gas, and give us a false sense of empowerment that we do not need to import oil from the Middle East for our urban assault vehicles.On We need to rethink all food based biofuels posted 2 years, 8 months ago 34 Responses

Waving green flags.

We hear so much about the problems and about the heroes doing heroic things.  We hear about goals and legislation.  But we hear so little about believable solutions that will actually save our civilization.  

How are we going to heat whole cities, power our industries, light our homes, drive our cars, and so on without CO2 pollution?

Even if all coal power plants, new and old, used carbon sequestration we would only affect 30% of the problem.  How are we to reduce global fossil fuels combustion by 80%?  Where is the leadership on this problem?On John Kerry and Teresa Heinz Kerry chat about their new environmental book posted 2 years, 8 months ago 20 Responses

$0.30/lb. carbon = $1.50/gallon gasoline

On Without subsidies, they're just not profitable posted 2 years, 8 months ago 4 Responses

Wiscidea --

That sounds horrible, wow, I'm sure glad I have 'Load Images' and 'Enable Java' turned OFF.  Mozilla Firefox browser gives me protection from ads.

Too many people have locked themselves into their cabins.  We need everybody on deck.  We can do it.  I see it in the numbers.On Get your copy today! posted 2 years, 8 months ago 24 Responses

To live or die by economics

A typical US modern coal power plant costs about $2.00/W(e) {electricity}.  The power generator system costs about $0.25/W(e).   The coal boiler system costs $1.75/W(e).  

One-third of the heat is converted to power so the coal boiler costs $0.58/W(t) {thermal energy}.  The capacity factor {percentage of maximum boiler plate actually used per year} is about 80% for coal power.

A high temperature solar system costs $100/m², 680 W(t)/m², $0.15/W(t), capacity factor is about 26% for sunny areas.

Triple solar deployment to equal coal's capacity factor and the numbers become $0.45/W(t) solar collector v. $0.58/W(t) coal boiler.

All that remains is the comparison of  the cost of sunshine verses the cost of buying and burning coal (plus externalities such as the destruction of civilization).

Bottom line is that high quality solar energy is cheaper than coal in the US, China, India,...

Are we spitting into the wind?  Yes.  There is the factor of old lazy routines.  Coal must be irreparably broken before the analysis of alternatives will carry any currency with institutional investors.On Still posted 2 years, 8 months ago 8 Responses

Consider the source

Methane is not stable and degrades into CO2.  That carbon came from the atmosphere via grass and corn.On For today anyway! posted 2 years, 8 months ago 6 Responses

What does "new technology" mean?

Many voters do not know that discovery and invention are not necessary for replacing 80% of fossil fuels.

There is new science available to product developers.  The science exists, much of it at NREL.  The path is engineering, production, and deployment.  Requires capital beyond the circles of dotcoms and Bush friends.  

Our paths will appear to be much easier than imagined once we get started.

New discovery and invention will also happen.  On Major technological advances are necessary posted 2 years, 8 months ago 7 Responses

Eyes closed tight, fists pounding on table...

A failure of vision.

Coal, as the report notes, is essential. It provides about 40 percent of global electricity. It's cheap (about a third of the cost of oil) and abundant. It poses no security threats.

The world can use 40% less electricity via efficiency and conservation.  Need more?  Solar is about a third the cost of oil and abundant, globally.  Solar poses no security threats.  

The threat of global destruction from fossil CO2 is definitely a most serious security threat.

Expansion of solar can be much faster (and much cheaper) than expansion of coal, globally. On Major technological advances are necessary posted 2 years, 8 months ago 7 Responses

Down Browser

Use Firefox browser with images and java disabled and the ads just go away.

750,000 pairs of eyeballs is really big for such a small hungry crew.

Grist gets the exclusive when I have ground-breaking news.   Happy vernal equinox!On Get your copy today! posted 2 years, 8 months ago 24 Responses

Obama should listen to Edwards on CO2

On Dispatch from San Francisco posted 2 years, 8 months ago 13 Responses

Rapture

No oil here but, maybe we won't need any in the future...

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0316-01.htmOn Are you? posted 2 years, 8 months ago 16 Responses

If the shoes fit, wear them

I went to Seattle in today's 70^o heatwave and felt like a fish out of the water.  I rarely leave the forest and almost never go into huge cities like Seattle.  So many people so vulnerable.  It was scary.

A scientist can also be a Catholic.  Advocacy is not a character flaw.  Scientists, journalists, teachers, farmers, CEOs, ... can also be advocates.  If scientists do not show emotion when discussing discoveries that will likely destroy the Earth then ordinary people may doubt well the credibility of such messages.  James Hanson of NASA showed alarm and horror over what was learned about global warming.  It was a kick in the gut.

Grist may be a valuable vehicle for mixing values and sciences.  The Internet is an effective communications tool, perhaps the best debating and organizing platform for the largest number of people.

As Dave says, we must use all the tools of facts, values, and persuasion.  On Facts alone will never cut it posted 2 years, 8 months ago 45 Responses

Business opportunities under the magic sun

Retrofitting Prius Hybrids with car-roof pv panels.
(Free solar clothes dryer included with every purchase)

Ophidian oil replaced with solar oil.On Kids these days posted 2 years, 8 months ago 7 Responses

The tide has not changed, not yet.

On Yeah, you heard me posted 2 years, 8 months ago 12 Responses

I don't have cable either, just read the news.

I'll try a slow Explorer download while I work in the garden.On Yeah, you heard me posted 2 years, 8 months ago 12 Responses

A priceless moral question.

I will not wait until 2009, nor use a lack of leadership as an excuse.  Nor do I blame journalists, scientists, obstructionists, corporate structure, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, hubris, lust, gluttony.

I blame avoidance on a failure of American ethics.  Other indicators of immorality -- preemptive war, torture, plans to vitrify Iran, lost civil rights, injustice, corruption,...

We can not solve global warming issues in the vacuum of morality. On Is it a communications failure? posted 2 years, 8 months ago 5 Responses

Yes, it does not make any sense.

They could get much better return on investment on cheap desert land (plus trackers).On Anybody heard about this too-good-to-be-true solar company? posted 2 years, 8 months ago 29 Responses

Conservatives fear a Gore candidacy?

On Coming tomorrow posted 2 years, 8 months ago 19 Responses

Dingell is 80 years old.

On But conservation isn't sexy and doesn't make headlines posted 2 years, 8 months ago 7 Responses

Burning biomass waste for steam is +cost efficient

On Texas renewable energy schemes posted 2 years, 8 months ago 32 Responses

Why pv?

On Anybody heard about this too-good-to-be-true solar company? posted 2 years, 8 months ago 29 Responses