Archive for the 'Global Warming' Category

J.C. Winnie/After Gutenberg - replacing transportation fuel with renewables

Published
by
Jon
on June 12, 2008
in Electric Vehicles, Energy, Global Warming and GreenTechnology
. 0 Comments

The ever-methodical J.C. Winnie at After Gutenberg has an outline of how the United States could replace fossil fuels with renewables for transportation needs - and this without a large change in vehicle weight, use patterns, or increases in mass transportation. Add those, and we’d have a plan that would be not only environmentally more palatable, but would substantially increase environmental efficiency. From After Gutenberg:

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most important anthropogenic GHG; and, such anthropogenic emissions unequivocally contribute to climate change. The rise of CO2 corresponds to the rise in global temperature and loss of arctic ice mass. Annual carbon emissions grew by about 80% between 1970 and 2004. Coal-fired electric power plants comprise the single biggest source of CO2 emissions in the world. By and large, such admonishments are being ignored by U.S. policy-makers.

While a planetary engineer in Germany, Roland Moesl, envisions saving life as we know it on Planet Earth, a green pundit in America, David Roberts, describes the Syllogism of Doom. Of course, in Germany between 2000 and 2003 their installed PV capacity quadrupled. And, this was while Germany was becoming the world leader in wind development. It is way past time, ‘Merika, to start doing things right.

A good start would be “the most comprehensive and credible report released on wind power by a federal agency in a decade” (and studiously ignored by mainstream media), which indicates how we could achieve 20% wind power by 2030. Yes, 2030 is too late to stop using coal, but as many have observed, no single strategy will suffice. Switching sooner to electric vehicles, strong support for solar and wind energy development, conservation and improved efficiencies can make an earlier contribution than the delayers have programmed us to expect. The growing risk with peak oil is that in their search for alternative fuel, Americans will ignore much more catastrophic change brought on by anthropogenic emissions. The coal and corn zombies must be repulsed.

That’s just an excerpt. Read the rest of this persuasive analysis at Project Gutenberg.

And we’ll pose a question - we’re beginning to notice county and local impediments to renewable installation - and an absence of state mandates to require utilities to buy surplus power back at reasonable rates. If end users installing renewables in grid-tied systems are discouraged from building capacity in excess of their own use, we’re going to have problems.

One alternative is the setting up of local power coooperatives. But we’re leery of solutions that require lots of lawyers and incorporations. As Malcolm Gladwell points out in The Tipping Point, sometimes the tipping point is making things easy.

Wired Gets It Wrong - Nuclear Power is Not Good For the Planet

Published
by
Larry
on May 27, 2008
in Cogen, Energy, Geothermal, Global Warming, Marine Kinetic, Negawatts, Nuclear Power, Solar and Wind Power
. 0 Comments
Hummers: Illogical, Un-Economical, and Bad for The Environment. But They Sure Are Big!

Spencer Reiss, writing in Wired Magazine says “Nuclear Power is The Most Climate Friendly Insdustrial Scale Form of Energy“. Forgetting for a moment that nuclear power requires fuel, waste management, national security infrastructure, massive government subsidies, including artificial limits to liability, nuclear releases tremendous amounts of heat into the environment, and new nuclear are estimated to cost about 2 to 4 times the price of new wind facilities, without cost overruns (and cost overruns are a given with nuclear power plants) and take 10 to 12 years.

The climate friendly industrial scale forms of energy are Solar, Offshore Wind, large scale Marine Kinetic - tapping the Gulf Stream, Deep Geothermal, CoGen, and the NegaWatts available via conservation. Just as a screw can propel a ship thru the water, a screw anchored to the ocean floor will spin because of currents, and can power turbines. Marine Current Turbines, Ltd., based in Bristol, England has just completed the world’s first megawatt scale tidal/marine current driven power plant in the Strangford Narrows in Northern Ireland. If with wind, the sky’s literally the limit, with MCT the sea’s the limit. Geothermal exploits temperature differentials for heating and cooling. Deep Geothermal would use the earth’s heat in abandoned mines and wells to generate steam for industrial process power. Recycled Energy Development, RED, of Westmont, Il does CoGen. RED captures industrial waste energy to produce electricity and thermal power, often without burning any additional fuel or emitting any additional pollution. For industrial partners, RED reduces energy costs substantially, increases reliability, and offers the opportunity for emissions credits. Akeena, Evergreen Solar, First Solar, Sunpower, World Water and Solar, and Vestas Wind are old news. Ausra develops and deploys utility-scale solar thermal technologies to serve global electricity needs in a dependable, market competitive, environmentally responsible manner.

Wired Magazine also published a companion piece by Matt Power that says “Pound for pound, making a Prius contributes more carbon to the atmosphere than making a Hummer” (click here). The fallacy here is that they forget to mention that a Hummer weighs about three times more than a Prius, so to have an honest statistic you need to compare 3 pounds of Hummer to each pound of Prius. They do note that the operating efficiency of the Prius outweighs any manufacturing inefficiency. And they point out that it is better for the planet to buy a used car than a new car.

Bioengineered E. Coli - Smells like Bananas

Published
by
Larry
on May 9, 2008
in Climate Change and Global Warming
. 0 Comments

Bioengineers at MIT have modified e. coli bacteria in two ways: rather than smell like human fecal matter, their E. coli cultures smell like mint when they’re growing, and banana when they are mature.

If they can do that, can should be able to devise metabolic pathways that breaks down plastics into carbon dioxide, which then can be metabolized, which will render plastic biodegradable.  However, to mitigate the global warming effects of the carbon dioxide, they also need to figure out ways to sequester the carbon.

Al Gore, Nobel Laureate

Published
by
Larry
on January 6, 2008
in Al Gore, Climate Change, Connecting the Dots, Energy, Environmental Issues and Global Warming
. 0 Comments

Excerpts from Gore’s Speech © THE NOBEL FOUNDATION 2007:

The distinguished scientists with whom it is the greatest honor of my life to share this award have laid before us a choice between two different futures – a choice that to my ears echoes the words of an ancient prophet: “Life or death, blessings or curses. Therefore, choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.”

We, the human species, are confronting a planetary emergency – a threat to the survival of our civilization that is gathering ominous and destructive potential even as we gather here. But there is hopeful news as well: we have the ability to solve this crisis and avoid the worst – though not all – of its consequences, if we act boldly, decisively and quickly.

However, despite a growing number of honorable exceptions, too many of the world’s leaders are still best described in the words Winston Churchill applied to those who ignored Adolf Hitler’s threat: “They go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all powerful to be impotent.”

So today, we dumped another 70 million tons of global-warming pollution into the thin shell of atmosphere surrounding our planet, as if it were an open sewer. And tomorrow, we will dump a slightly larger amount, with the cumulative concentrations now trapping more and more heat from the sun.

Full text: Click Here:

Al Gore on Nuclear Power and Global Warming, 1992.

Published
by
Larry
on December 12, 2007
in Global Warming and Nuclear Power
. 0 Comments
Al Gore

Al Gore, photographed for Time, earlier this year.

In Earth In The Balance, 1992, Plume Publishing, New York, Gore wrote:

“Almost every discussion of substitutes for fossil fuels includes an argument over the role of nuclear power in our energy future. In fact, some opponents of positive action to save the environment try to cut short discussions of global warming with a dismissive reference to the political difficulties involved in building new nuclear reactors and expressions of exaggerated frustration with envrionmentalists, who, they imply are the principal obstacles to adopting nuclear power as the obvious subsitute for coal and oil.

“Of course, uncertainties about future projections of energy demand and economic problems like cost overruns were the major causes of the cancellation of reactors by utilities, well before accidents like those at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl heightened public apprehension. Growing concern about our capacity to accept responsibility for the safety of storing nuclear waste products with extremely long lifetimes also adds to the resistance many feel to a dramatic increase in the use of nuclear power.

“In my own view, the present generation of nuclear technology, light water-pressureized reactors, seems now rather obviously at a technological dead end. The research and development of alternative approaches should focus on discovering, first, how to build a passively safe design (whose safety does not depend on the constant attention of bleary-eyed technicians) that eliminates the many risks of current reactors, and second, whether there is a scientifically and politically acceptable means for disposing of - in fact, isolating - nuclear waste.

“In any event, the proportion of world energy use that could practically be derived from nuclear is fairly small and is likely to remain so.”

Jersey Tomatoes - In November?

Published
by
Larry
on November 5, 2007
in Global Warming
. 0 Comments

Me and My Tomatoes

Here I am with my tomatoes, Monmouth County, NJ, Nov. 4, 2007.

Japan getting serious about Kyoto

Published
by
Jon
on October 2, 2007
in Global Warming, Green household and Kyoto
. 0 Comments

NPR’s David Kestenbaum has been doing a series on Morning Edition about Japanese effort to keep up with the Kyoto Protocols

This morning’s piece is about internal temperatures; men in certain government ministries have actually stopped wearing ties to work.

Here’s yesterday’s piece; we’ll post a link to today’s piece- about office temperatures, and clothing, today when NPR posts its links.  Kestenbaum points out in today’s piece that this inititative adds up to only one-tenth of one percent of Japan’s Kyoto targets. On the other hand, 999 other efforts would make 100%. And efforts that make you physically aware, all day - may have persuasive value greater than that of less-visible schemes.

Mike Mercurio’s Energy Choices

Published
by
Larry
on July 19, 2007
in Clean Energy, Global Warming, Green household, New Jersey, Solar and Wind Power
. 1 Comment

Chez Mercurio

Meet Mike Mercurio, a friend of mine in Long Beach Island, NJ. The image shows his PV Solar installation and small wind turbine. The turbine sits 34 feet above the ground. The 6-foot blades make the tip 40 feet above the ground.

Mercurio’s wind turbine and solar panels produce power without pollution - without greenhouse gases, mercury, and radioactive wastes. And with an annual bill of $114. Click Here for Treehugger, or Here for the International Herald Tribune.

His neighbors prefer smog. They prefer the hacking cough of polution related “health effects” and other “externalities” to the gentle whirr of wind power. And electric bill of $2500 per year and $3500 per year, as opposed to his grid-connect charges of $114. What are they thinking? Are they thinking?

Mercurio is a real patriot who believes in intelligent action, not empty words. His wind turbine and photovoltaic solar panels show us how to achieve energy independence, and national security, with clean safe energy, with lower costs, with no pollution.

He should be applauded and emulated, not sued and shut down.

Prometheus Revisited - Dr. Hermann Scheer

Published
by
Larry
on April 28, 2007
in Global Warming, Green household, Solar and Wind Power
. 1 Comment

 

Dr. Scheer

Dr. Hermann Scheer, on the Eurosolar page.

The mythical Prometheus was banished from Mount Olympus for giving control over fire - technology - to man. Dr. Hermann Scheer, a contemporary Prometheus, an economist, and member of the German Parliment, and board member of Eurosolar, says “A Solar global economy will enable the total demand for energy and raw materials to be met. … By the systematic use of solar … all material needs of humanity can be satisfied on a permanent basis.” (For the text of the article, click here.)

President Kennedy once said “Ich bin Ein Berliner.” To paraphrase Kennedy, “Ich bin ein Scheermench.”

President Kennedy in Berlin. Curtesy American Rhetoric . com

Is Sunpower the Next Microsoft?

Published
by
Larry
on April 24, 2007
in Clean Energy, Global Warming, Green household, Nuclear Power, Solar, Stock Market, Wind Power and nuclear terrorism
. 0 Comments

Sunpower Corp, which trades using the symbol SPWR, makes photovoltaic “modules” that turn sunlight into electricity. These can be small enough to power a calculator and large enough, when linked together, to power homes, stores, warehouses and office buildings. Johnson & Johnson uses solar power at its Cordis facility in Warren, NJ. As does Whole Foods in Princeton, NJ. and Timberland in various factories around the world.

Sunpower, through its Powerlight subsidiary ‘designs, deploys, operates and maintains the largest solar power systems in the world.’ Other publicly traded solar energy companies include Akeena, Evergreen Solar, First Solar, World Water and Power. They compete with BP Solar, a subsidiary of British Petroleum, Kyocera, Nanosolar, Sanyo, Sharp. Home Depot sells BP Solar’s best panels.

Microsoft Corp, which trades using the symbol MSFT, is a software company. It writes computer programs such as Microsoft Windows, Office, Exchange, SQL Server, etc.

The question is not will Sunpower start writing software, but will Sunpower’s stock price, or that of any of their competitors, follow a tragectory like Microsoft’s. What trajectory? A $3 Thousand investment in Microsoft stock at their IPO March 1986, would be worth something like $1 Million today. Each share of stock purchased in 1986 is worth 288 shares today, after splitting 9 times. (Click Here and Here) Because Microsoft, along with Intel, Apple, Sun, Oracle, Compaq, and other companies, changed the way we work, play, learn, and, think. They shifted the paridigm.
Solar panels turn sunlight into electricity without pollution, toxic wastes, radioactive wastes, mercury, greenhouse gases. There is no fuel, so there are no fuel costs, fuel spills, etc. There are no greenhouse gases as there are with fossil fuels and no security ramifications, as with nuclear power.
And Clean Energy costs less. Solar power costs about $7 per watt not counting any tax breaks or government subsidies. Wind is $3 per watt for offshore turbines, less for land based turbines, altho the maintenance costs are higher. Nuclear is hard to price because it relies so heavily on government subisdies. When you factor in the “externalities,” the time required to build, the fuel costs, nuclear power is probably on the order of $20 to $50 per watt.

So as Otis said, ‘Sittin in the mornin’ sun. …’ I can feel the paradigm shifting.

*
In the intrests of disclosure,. I am not a licensed financial advisor and I do not currently work in the financial industry. I do, however, own stock in some of these and other companies.

Global Warning: Adapt or Die

Published
by
Larry
on April 6, 2007
in California, Clean Energy, Global Warming, Green household, New Jersey, Solar, Texas and Wind Power
. 0 Comments

“Adapt or Die” says Gary Yohe, economist at Wesleyan and co-author of the UN study on climate change, on Marketplace this morning. Growing seasons will lengthen, rainfall patterns will change.

Some people are in denial. George Bush, Dick Cheney, and their cheerleaders. Others are adapting. You can see solar panels on homes in California and New Jersey. Their visionary owners have no electric bill; their solar powered roof top power plants will pay for themselves 8 or 10 times during their 40 year life-span.

We see wind farms in operation from Jersey to Texas to California. More are on the horizon. Power without pollution. Wind Power. Solar Power. No greenhouse gases, no radioactive wastes, no mercury. Clean Energy.

If Vestas, harnessing the wind to produce 30% of Denmark’s electric power, may be the Apple Computer of wind power, GE is the IBM, legitimizing the industry with Arklow Bank as IBM did when they introduced their PC in 1981.

Evergreen, First Solar, and Sunpower may be leap-frogging each other for “best” solar panels. Meanwhile BP, the energy company that sees itself moving “Beyond Petroleum,” manufactures solar panels in factories in Maryland, Spain, Germany, and India, for sale in Home Depot.

The best example of adapt or die can be seen in the auto industry. Honda and Toyota offer hybrids with low emissions, good mileage, and great performance. Ford and GM are still pushing gas guzzlers. Big SUV’s are only profitable when they are sold, not while rusting on dealer lots. Wall Street is voting with its “Market Capitalization” and Main Street is voting with its wallet.

“Push to Fix Ozone Layer and Slow Global Warming”

Published
by
Jon
on March 16, 2007
in Global Warming and International Agreements
. 0 Comments

A group of industrial counties, opposed by China, is pushing  to accelerate the phasing-out of the use of HCFC-22, a refrigerant chemical used in refrigerations and air conditions all around the world. Dog bites man? Not quite. The Bush Administration supports the change.

Of course, a complete change would mean that everyone would have  to replace their “old” units; perhaps this is a little like the HDTV conversion — one industry does well merely by virtue of the transition. Keith Bradsher, Push to Fix Ozone Layer and Slow Global Warming, Thursday, 15 march, 2007, in The New York Times page C12 print edition.