Category Archives: Energy Tough Love Blog

Energy Tough Love Blog – A weblog from Community Energy Systems

China Hops On Australian Solar Market – Sad to say but it could have been America

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This is what the corporate suits missed about government support for solar and wind. They create things that other people want and good paying jobs as well.

http://www.hydrogenfuelnews.com/australia-poised-to-take-the-lead-in-solar-energy-market/854766/

Australia poised to take the lead in solar energy market

– July 16, 2012

Yingli Green Energy notes the solar energy potential of the country

Over the past decade, Australia has shown modest support for alternative energy. In recent years, this support has been growing at a rapid pace, with the country now showing major interest in solar energy. Because of Australia’s exposure to solar radiation, it is one of the most attractive locations in terms of a solar energy market. Yingli Green Energy, a Chinese solar panel manufacturer, believes that the potential for solar energy in Australia is so high that it may become the leader of the photovoltaic mass market by the end of the year.

Australia could benefit from Chinese manufactured solar technologies

Solar energy has been growing in strength all over the world. Demand for solar energy systems is growing amongst consumers who wish to see savings of their energy bills as well as help the environment. As demand for solar energy systems rises, so too does the supply of these energy systems. China has played a large role in the growing availability of solar energy systems. The country has thrown its manufacturing might behind the production of solar panels and other technologies, inundating the mass market with products that are driving down the price of solar energy systems.

Company expects solar energy market prospects to be extraordinary

Yingli Green Energy is one of the three largest solar panel manufacturers in China, as well as the rest of the world. Though the company has a small presence in Australia, it claims that the country could become a world leader in terms of solar energy in the coming years. The company expects Australia to see major progress in the solar energy market by the end of the year, with its prospects becoming “quite extraordinary” in 2014 and 2015.

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Go there and read. More tomorrow.

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The Keystone XL Pipeline Is A Very Bad Idea – So why is the Springfield Chamber of Commerce backing it

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I have no idea how much Keystone and the Koch brothers gave to the Springfield, IL Chamber but it must have been a bunch because they hired someone to coordinate their support for the project. The first I knew of it was an Editorial published in what is left of the State Journal Register. So this posting and the next are in part my preparation for writing a counter Editorial.

http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/rkistner/a_native_people_fight_a_dantes.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+switchboard_rkistner+%28Switchboard%3A+Rocky+Kistner%27s+Blog%29

Rocky Kistner’s Blog

In Canada’s Tar Sands, a Dante’s Hell Threatens People Nearby and Across the Globe

In Canada’s western province of Alberta, Melina Laboucan-Massimo’s community—the Lubicon Lake Nation—has endured a withering toxic tar sands oil assault, an Armageddon against nature few Americans are fully aware of. Here in the once pristine sub-Arctic, tar sands mining operations level vast swaths of boreal forests near native lands, as pipelines burst and spew corrosive chemical-laced tar sands oil into rivers and lakes.

The Lubicon are used to living in harmony with nature. But tar sands mining has brought a deadly discordance to their environment. Melina has watched family and friends battle unheard of cancers and respiratory ailments; she’s listened to local fishermen and hunters complain about unusual lesions and tumors festering in their catches and prey. She’s reacted in disbelief as her government has sponsored airborne sharpshooters to gun down mighty Canadian wolf packs—a zero sum game that is killing one species to try to save another—as dwindling herds of caribou flee their disappearing forest homes and may be gone forever in the not so distant future.

For members of the Lubicon Lake Nation, it is a nightmare of Kafkaesque proportions. Their verdant land of abundant wildlife is metastasizing into pock-marketed battlefields of a thousand Verduns. Melina and other community leaders have not sat idly by as the environmental carnage unfolds around them. She has testified before Congress, spearheaded Greenpeace protest actions, and worked tirelessly to get the word out about the devastation in her community.

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Go there and see the video. Go there and read. More tomorrow.

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This Guy Had A Lot Of Guts – But the year is turning out the way he thought

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I love guys that think clearly about the future. So we will end the week with The Energy Collective and Gil Friend. I do not like the fact that they are backed by Siemens but I am something of a purist.

http://theenergycollective.com/node/75727

 

Posted by: Gil Friend

Predicting the Top Sustainability Stories of 2012

Last month I offered my picks for the Top Sustainability Stories of 2011. Here are my predictions for the Top Sustainability Stories of 2012. (It’s a rugged mix of bad news and good.)

Climate heats up and hides out The sheer pressure of the hard-to-escape evidence — more record-breaking temperatures, more disastrous weather events, big supply chain disruptions, ever-rising insurance payments — will drive more businesses to take global warming seriously as a business risk, even as The Economist and others blast the journalistic malpractice that leaves “climate” out of the weather disaster stories, and President Obama takes cover in an “all of the above” energy strategy.

US falls behind in solar China, Germany, Brazil — and California — continue to invest policy and capital in the new economy, while Washington remains lost in ideological shock and awe (as House republicans tell the Pentagon “you have to waste taxpayers money and make the troops less safe so we can continue to ignore both the science and the economics of climate change”). But there are surprises too: “red state” Iowa has decided that exporting $6b/year to buy fossil fuel from unfriendly nations might not be the most “conservative” plan, and is investing government money to reduce that balance of payments deficit!

EPA battle royal The right’s war on the EPA (and on regulation in general) will continue, and in fact heat up as campaign fodder. Little noticed: 191 house votes attacking the EPA in 2011. Expect this battle to continue into 2013 (depending on how the elections turn out). But there’s good news too.

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Go there and read. More next week.

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This American Land – Interesting media site

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Man, I have been all over the map this month. Jumping from topic to topic like a gyrating Spider Man. Still this is a pretty cool site with pretty cool people so:

http://www.thisamericanland.org/blog/?cat=31

More on Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument

Author: Jeanna Thomas  |  Category: Behind the Scenes, Caroline Raville, Environment, Landscapes, Season Two, TAL on PBS

This is the third in a series of blogs written by This American Land host Caroline Raville on her recent experience shooting  a story for season two at Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. Read the first two blogs in this series, Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument in Season Two and Host Caroline Raville on Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.

And now we are crossing over the mighty Paria River,” Dr. Titus observes.

I look down below. I see dirt and a puddle. Dr. Titus and Scott Richardson are grinning at my incredulous look as we bump along the pockmarked road. Apparently, this crack in the mud does become a river occasionally. Escalante experiences extreme weather ranging from boiling, fly-infested summers to frozen winters. Still, the evidence before me seems to suggest that this place is in a constant state of dry heat.

We drive deeper into the monument, and the paleontologists decide to take a quick detour promising spectacular views. After a steep climb with some seriously wicked turns, we find ourselves looking down on a valley littered in rock formations. There are the tar colored hills which look like a blackened sand dune. Further up, rust tinted rocks roll in the shape of a dragon’s back. And above are the whitewashed peaks dotted with green scrub brush. These layers are a physical timeline that helps scientists to establish the changes in habitat that occurred here. From ocean floor to swampland to the now arid desert, Escalante has experienced some major changes during its existence due to plate tectonics and the resulting mountain building.

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Go there and read. There are even pretty talking pictures. More tomorrow.

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OH and some housekeeping issue. The below websites asked for “links”. So by posting them here I believe we are linked. I have never used either so these are not endorsements, but they seem legitimate. As with all of the internet, buyer beware.

www.interectsolar.com

http://www.specialawnings.com/

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Nuclear Power – On time and under cost

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Yah right. That is so laughable. Even after they announced that they were going to try to bring 5 nuclear plants on line there were no commercial backers and so the price went up before they even started. It has been all downhill since then.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/news-guide-building-nuclear-power-plants-16750327#.T_2tBZGkNyU

News Guide: Nuclear Industry Facing Cost Pressures

By The Associated Press
July 10, 2012 (AP)

Q: How many nuclear plants are under construction in the U.S.?

A: Three. Two nuclear reactors are being built at Plant Vogtle in eastern Georgia. Two more reactors are under construction at Plant Summer in central South Carolina. A fifth reactor mothballed in 1985 is being finished at Plant Watts Bar in Tennessee.

Q: How often are nuclear plants built?

A: The last nuclear plant built in the United States was the existing reactor finished at Watts Bar in 1996.

Q: How much does a nuclear plant cost?

A: Billions of dollars. Nuclear plants are among the most complicated and expensive infrastructure projects in the world. The plants require incredible amounts of design and engineering work and must be built to exacting safety standards. Federal inspectors can require that parts of the plant be ripped out and replaced if they don’t meet muster. The plants require huge amounts of metal, concrete, cables and wires. Building two Westinghouse Electric Co. AP1000 reactors at Plant Vogtle is supposed to cost roughly $14 billion, though the final expenses could be more.

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Go there and read the rest. More tomorrow.

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How Many Ways Can You Get Aternative Energy Wrong – Americans will always think of something

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Got no more to say than the title. This is some really dumb stuff.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204012004577072470158115782.html

The Cellulosic Ethanol Debacle

Congress mandated purchase of 250 million gallons in 2011. Actual production: 6.6 million.

‘We’ll fund additional research in cutting-edge methods of producing ethanol, not just from corn but from wood chips and stalks or switch grass. Our goal is to make this new kind of ethanol practical and competitive within six years.”

—George W. Bush, 2006 State of the Union address

Years before the Obama Administration dumped $70 billion into solar and wind energy and battery operated cars, and long before anyone heard of Solyndra, President Bush launched his own version of a green energy revolution. The future he saw was biofuels. In addition to showering billions of dollars on corn ethanol, Mr. Bush assured the nation that by 2012 cars and trucks could be powered by cellulosic fuels from switch grass and other plant life.

To launch this wonder-fuel industry, the feds under Mr. Bush and President Obama have pumped at least $1.5 billion of grants and loan subsidies to fledgling producers. Mr. Bush signed an energy bill in 2007 that established a tax credit of $1.01 per gallon produced.

Most important, the Nancy Pelosi Congress passed and Mr. Bush signed a law imposing mandates on oil companies to blend cellulosic fuel into conventional gasoline. This guaranteed producers a market. In 2010 the mandate was 100 million barrels, rising to 250 million in 2011 and 500 million in 2012. By the end of this decade the requirements leap to 10.5 billion gallons a year.

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Go there and read as long as you can bare it. More tomorrow.

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Oil Stocks By Mike Nadel – Good advice from a good guy

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I do not normally boost someone else’s net contributions just because I think the author is cool. Had he not written about oil stocks I probably wouldn’t either, but it is the summer. Because I was getting alittle burnt out on all the serious blogging I have done for 5 years, I gave myself permission to post whatever I wanted too and boringly I have stuck to energy conservation, the residential market and all things environmental. So today is a really “what the hell” kinda day. Enjoy.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/708101-time-to-slide-into-oil-stocks

Time To Slide Into Oil Stocks

??By Mike Nadel

The last time I filled my car’s tank, I paid less than $3 a gallon. As my wife will attest, I was more than a little giddy. “Two-ninety-seven!?!? You gotta be kidding me!!! This is incredible!!!” Hey, we all have to find life’s little thrills wherever we can, right?

The price of crude oil, the source of gasoline, is determined by numerous factors: supply and demand, the Middle East unrest, natural and unnatural disasters, Wall Street speculators, economies in the U.S., Europe and emerging markets, etc.

Crude oil reached $110 per barrel on February 24 and was still over $100 per barrel two months later. It has been on a fairly steady decline since, hitting $80 per barrel on June 22 – its lowest level in two years – before rebounding into the mid-80s. So what’s next?

I certainly am no oil-price-trend expert… and even if I were, I wouldn’t listen to myself. Wasn’t it just a few months ago that alleged experts were predicting $5 gas by Memorial Day and maybe even $6 by the Fourth of July? Still, when it comes to forecasting oil prices, “Up” usually is a reasonable guess – especially after it has been down.

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Go there and read. More tomorrow.

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Is Tidal Energy Coming – According to this the answer is yes

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Tapping The Source: The Power Of The Oceans

Posted by Big Gav in , , , , , ,

Last year I came across the story of Dutch company Kema and their energy island idea – basically a variant on the usual pumped hydro energy storage concept where water is pumped out of a space below sea level then allowed to flow back in, generating power as it does. The “island” uses wind power to pump water out of the enclosed area. An obvious extension to this idea would be to harness ocean energy as well – letting wave and/or tidal power supplement the output of the wind turbines. An attraction of this concept is that it potentially allows a large amount of new energy storage to be brought online – and this storage would be along the world’s coastlines, where most of the population lives.


Another form of energy island has been in the news recently, this one a substantially more ambitious proposal which envisions artificial islands to collect wind, wave, ocean current and solar power in the tropics, along with a more unusual energy source – harnessing the difference in water temperatures between the warm surface and the cold depths using a technique called OTEC (Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion). These islands are being proposed by architects Dominic Michaelis and his son Alex Michaelin as a response to Richard Branson’s Virgin Earth Challenge, which offers $25 million in prizes for innovative solutions for combating global warming.

While the practicality of these particular proposals has yet to be put to the test, the various forms of ocean power are probably the most overlooked of the big 6 renewable energy sources (along with solar, wind, geothermal, biomass and hydro).

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Go there and read. More next week.

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Smart Grid Efforts Breed Parasites – Blame monopoly capitalism

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If the utility companies were smart they would have been in the forefront of this effort, but years of being monopolies have sucked their brains out of their ears. So now we are going to have parasites festering all over the new grid. This can not be good. That is obviously not how this author sees it.

http://gigaom.com/cleantech/a-startup-emerges-to-help-time-shift-energy-use/

A startup emerges to help time shift energy use

By Jul. 5, 2012, 12:00am PT

Dialing down your home’s energy consumption during times of peak power grid use in exchange for compensation is an emerging service. Picture it’s a hot day and you agree not to jack up your air conditioner in exchange for a discount on your utility bill. Startups like new-comer Smart Grid Billing are developing applications to help manage this process, and later this month Smart Grid Billing plans to launch a field trial of its service at a golf course.

Founded in 2009, Smart Grid Billing is testing its combination of energy-monitoring wireless-connected plugs and software that collect and crunch energy consumption data. The service stores the data in a central server and can determine which appliance or equipment has the potential to reduce or cut its electricity use in real time.

This block of unused power can be sold to a local grid operator. Smart Grid Billing shares the revenue from that sale to its customers, and the plugs are programmed to restore the electricity flow back to the equipment at a later time.

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Go there and read. More tomorrow.

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