Distributed Solar: The Democratizaton of Energy
Blogroll
- Dr James Spall's SPSA
- Dominic Cummings blog Chief advisor to the PM, United Kingdom
- GeoEnergy Math Prof Paul Pukite’s Web site devoted to energy derived from geological and geophysical processes and categorized according to its originating source.
- The Plastic Pick-Up: Discovering new sources of marine plastic pollution
- Risk and Well-Being
- WEAPONS OF MATH DESTRUCTION Cathy O’Neil’s WEAPONS OF MATH DESTRUCTION,
- Fear and Loathing in Data Science Cory Lesmeister’s savage journey to the heart of Big Data
- "Perpetual Ocean" from NASA GSFC
- Mrooijer's Numbers R 4Us
- Why "naive Bayes" is not Bayesian Explains why the so-called “naive Bayes” classifier is not Bayesian. The setup is okay, but estimating probabilities by doing relative frequencies instead of using Dirichlet conjugate priors or integration strays from The Path.
- "Impacts of Green New Deal energy plans on grid stability, costs, jobs, health, and climate in 143 countries" (Jacobson, Delucchi, Cameron, et al) Global warming, air pollution, and energy insecurity are three of the greatest problems facing humanity. To address these problems, we develop Green New Deal energy roadmaps for 143 countries.
- Thaddeus Stevens quotes As I get older, I admire this guy more and more
- WEAPONS OF MATH DESTRUCTION, reviews Reviews of Cathy O’Neil’s new book
- Dollars per BBL: Energy in Transition
- Tony Seba Solar energy, electric vehicle, energy storage, and business disruption professor and visionary
- Professor David Draper
- Musings on Quantitative Paleoecology Quantitative methods and palaeoenvironments.
- The Alliance for Securing Democracy dashboard
- Darren Wilkinson's introduction to ABC Darren Wilkinson’s introduction to approximate Bayesian computation (“ABC”). See also his post about summary statistics for ABC https://darrenjw.wordpress.com/2013/09/01/summary-stats-for-abc/
- AP Statistics: Sampling, by Michael Porinchak Twin City Schools
- Carl Safina's blog One of the wisest on Earth
- Earth Family Beta MIchael Osborne’s blog on Science and the like
- OOI Data Nuggets OOI Ocean Data Lab: The Data Nuggets
- NCAR AtmosNews
- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI)
- Los Alamos Center for Bayesian Methods
- Earth Family Alpha Michael Osborne’s blog (former Executive at Austin Energy, now Chairman of the Electric Utility Commission for Austin, Texas)
- All about models
- Busting Myths About Heat Pumps Heat pumps are perhaps the most efficient heating and cooling systems available. Recent literature distributed by utilities hawking natural gas and other sources use performance figures from heat pumps as they were available 15 years ago. See today’s.
- Giant vertical monopolies for energy have stopped making sense
- Lenny Smith's CHAOS: A VERY SHORT INTRODUCTION This is a PDF version of Lenny Smith’s book of the same title, also available from Amazon.com
- Beautiful Weeds of New York City
- Subsidies for wind and solar versus subsidies for fossil fuels
- Tim Harford's “More or Less'' Tim Harford explains – and sometimes debunks – the numbers and statistics used in political debate, the news and everyday life
- Harvard's Project Implicit
- Bob Altemeyer on authoritarianism (via Dan Satterfield) The science behind the GOP civil war
- Gavin Simpson
- "Talking Politics" podcast David Runciman, Helen Thompson
- Number Cruncher Politics
- SASB Sustainability Accounting Standards Board
- Prediction vs Forecasting: Knaub “Unfortunately, ‘prediction,’ such as used in model-based survey estimation, is a term that is often subsumed under the term ‘forecasting,’ but here we show why it is important not to confuse these two terms.”
- Leverhulme Centre for Climate Change Mitigation
- Ives and Dakos techniques for regime changes in series
- Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard on how businesses can help our collective environmental mess Patagonia’s Yvon Chouinard set the standard for how a business can mitigate the ravages of capitalism on earth’s environment. At 81 years old, he’s just getting started.
- Simon Wood's must-read paper on dynamic modeling of complex systems I highlighted Professor Wood’s paper in https://hypergeometric.wordpress.com/2014/12/26/struggling-with-problems-already-attacked/
- BioPython A collection of Python tools for quantitative Biology
- Slice Sampling
- Karl Broman
- American Statistical Association
- Mark Berliner's video lecture "Bayesian mechanistic-statistical modeling with examples in geophysical settings"
climate change
- Climate impacts on retail and supply chains
- Solar Gardens Community Power
- Reanalyses.org
- Sir David King David King’s perspective on climate, and the next thousands of years for humanity
- Updating the Climate Science: What path is the real world following? From Professors Makiko Sato & James Hansen of Columbia University
- Transitioning to fully renewable energy Professor Saul Griffiths talks to transitioning the customer journey, from a dependency upon fossil fuels to an electrified future
- Spectra Energy exposed
- Andy Zucker's "Climate Change and Psychology"
- Jacobson WWS literature index
- Non-linear feedbacks in climate (discussion of Bloch-Johnson, Pierrehumbert, Abbot paper) Discussion of http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/wol1/doi/10.1002/2015GL064240/abstract
- Grid parity map for Solar PV in United States
- Eli on the spectroscopic basis of atmospheric radiation physical chemistry
- Professor Robert Strom's compendium of resources on climate change Truly excellent
- Energy payback period for solar panels Considering everything, how long do solar panels have to operate to offset the energy used to produce them?
- "A field guide to the climate clowns"
- Paul Beckwith Professor Beckwith is, in my book, one of the most insightful and analytical observers on climate I know. I highly recommend his blog, and his other informational products.
- AIP's history of global warming science: impacts The American Institute of Physics has a fine history of the science of climate change. This link summarizes the history of impacts of climate change.
- The net average effect of a warming climate is increased aridity (Professor Steven Sherwood)
- Bloomberg interactive graph on “What's warming the world''
- SOLAR PRODUCTION at Westwood Statistical Studios Generation charts for our home in Westwood, MA
- Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature
- `The unchained goddess' 1958 Bell Telephone Science Hour broadcast regarding, among other things, climate change.
- The beach boondoggle Prof Rob Young on how owners of beach property are socializing their risks at costs to all of us, not the least being it seems coastal damage is less than it actually is
- The great Michael Osborne's latest opinions Michael Osborne is a genius operative and champion of solar energy. I have learned never to disregard ANYTHING he says. He is mentor of Karl Ragabo, and the genius instigator of the Texas renewable energy miracle.
- Risk and Well-Being
- Thriving on Low Carbon
- David Appell's early climate science
- Nick Bower's "Scared Scientists"
- ATTP summarizes all that stuff about Committed Warming from AND THEN THERE’S PHYSICS
- Steve Easterbrook's excellent climate blog: See his "The Internet: Saving Civilization or Trashing the Planet?" for example Heavy on data and computation, Easterbrook is a CS prof at UToronto, but is clearly familiar with climate science. I like his “The Internet: Saving Civilization or Trashing the Planet” very much.
- The Green Plate Effect Eli Rabett’s “The Green Plate Effect”
- RealClimate
- Rabett Run Incisive analysis of climate science versus deliberate distraction
- Tell Utilities Solar Won't Be Killed Barry Goldwater, Jr’s campaign to push for solar expansion against monopolistic utilities, as a Republican
- Documenting the Climate Deniarati at work
- Sea Change Boston
- The HUMAN-caused greenhouse effect, in under 5 minutes, by Bill Nye
- Ellenbogen: There is no Such Thing as Wind Turbine Syndrome
- “The Irrelevance of Saturation: Why Carbon Dioxide Matters'' (Bart Levenson)
- Wind sled Wind sled: A zero carbon way of exploring ice sheets
- Isaac Held's blog In the spirit of Ray Pierrehumbert’s “big ideas come from small models” in his textbook, PRINCIPLES OF PLANETARY CLIMATE, Dr Held presents quantitative essays regarding one feature or another of the Earth’s climate and weather system.
- "Climate science is setttled enough"
- Mathematics and Climate Research Network The Mathematics and Climate Research Network (MCRN) engages mathematicians to collaborating on the cryosphere, conceptual model validation, data assimilation, the electric grid, food systems, nonsmooth systems, paleoclimate, resilience, tipping points.
- "Mighty Microgrids" Webinar This is a Webinar on YouTube about Microgrids from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), featuring New York State and Minnesota
- Équiterre Equiterre helps build a social movement by encouraging individuals, organizations and governments to make ecological and equitable choices, in a spirit of solidarity.
- An open letter to Steve Levitt
- Klaus Lackner (ASU), Silicon Kingdom Holdings (SKH) Capturing CO2 from air at scale
- "Warming Slowdown?" (part 2 of 2) The idea of a global warming slowdown or hiatus is critically examined, emphasizing the literature, the datasets, and means and methods for telling such. The second part.
- Simple box models and climate forcing IMO one of Tamino’s best posts illustrating climate forcing using simple box models
- `Who to believe on climate change': Simple checks By Bart Verheggen
Archives
Jan Galkowski
Author Archives: ecoquant
No better investment
There are many posts here featuring Professor Tony Seba of Stanford University. Professor Seba’s latest update has a definition which permits the rollout of zero Carbon electrical energy in the next ten years to be understood better than his accurate … Continue reading
The New Republic claims climate change mitigation measures are doomed without Brazil
See the article. And then realize it is completely untrue. A lot of progress can be made whether or not Brazil plays along. This is yet another example of a claim which sounds plausible, but which is quantitatively wrong. Now, … Continue reading
”California Defies Doom With No. 1 U.S. Economy” (Bloomberg)
How do you like them apples, ersatz Republicans? Some emphasis added in the excerpt below. By Matthew A. Winkler. The Golden State has no peers when it comes to expanding GDP, raising household income, investing in innovation and a host … Continue reading
Carbon Dioxide reaches levels not recorded in 4 million years. Connecticut Republicans are guilty of child abuse.
And Connecticut Republican Senate Major Leader Kevin Kelly, anytime anyone emits any greenhouse gas, they land a punch in the face of some grandchild alive today. They do that by burning those gallons of gasoline whose price you so want … Continue reading
Baseload is an intellectual crutch for engineers and utility managers who cannot think dynamically
This is an awesome presentation by Professor Joshua Pearce of Michigan Technological University. (h/t Peter Sinclair’s Climate Denial Crock of the Week) The same idea, that “baseload is a shortcut for engineers who can’t think dynamically”, was similar in the … Continue reading
Posted in American Solar Energy Society, an ignorant American public, Bloomberg Green, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, bridge to somewhere, CleanTechnica, control theory, controls theory, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, differential equations, dynamic linear models, dynamical systems, electrical energy engineering, electrical energy storage, electricity, Kalman filter, optimization, photovoltaics, rate of return regulation, solar domination, solar energy, solar revolution, stochastic algorithms, utility company death spiral, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon
Tagged baseload, controls theory, dynamics, electrical engineering, energy storage, marginal cost of energy, solar energy, wind energy
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Discordant Harmonies: Goals for a Holiday in Retirement
Claire and I are lucky enough to have won “Escape to the Cape” at the annual auction of our congregation, First Parish in Needham, courtesy of Muriel and Tom Gehman. We’ll be Tesla-ing down to Hyannisport this week to indulge. … Continue reading
Mosses of the Week, 4 June 2021
All photographs by Jan Galkowski, 2021.
‘Could batteries replace a proposed peaker plant in Massachusetts?’
by Sarah Shemkus, Energy News Network June 2, 2021 Environmental activists and local residents in Massachusetts are urging the group behind a planned natural gas power plant to consider whether battery storage could do the job with fewer climate concerns. … Continue reading
doing wind and solar properly
(A larger version of the above can be seen by right-clicking the above and choosing to open it in a new browser tab.) Kempton, Willett, Felipe M. Pimenta, Dana E. Veron, and Brian A. Colle. “Electric power from offshore wind … Continue reading
Moss of the Week, 2021-05-31: Pohlia nutans
All photographs by Jan Galkowski, 2021.
Posted in American Bryological and Lichenological Society, Botany, bryology, bryophytes, mosses
Tagged Botany, bryophytes, mosses
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‘It begins with attitude’, and about an understated victory
Bill Nye’s Climate Meltdown, introducing Professor Mark Z Jacobson of Stanford University. And Climate Adam reviews a climate action breakthrough:
Posted in #youthvgov, Bill Nye, Bloomberg Green, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, clean disruption, CleanTechnica, climate activism, Climate Adam, climate change, climate disruption, climate economics, climate education, climate emergency, climate mitigation, climate policy, ClimateAdam, ecomodernism, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, global blinding, global warming, global weirding, Mark Jacobson
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Spread the Sun
Posted in alternatives to the Green New Deal, an ignorant American public, an uncaring American public, Bloomberg Green, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, bridge to somewhere, Buckminster Fuller, climate disruption, controls theory, corporate supply chains, decentralized electric power generation, distributed generation, ecocapitalism, ecological disruption, ecomodernism, economics, ecopragmatism, electrical energy storage, energy, environment, environmental law, evidence, extended producer responsibility, extended supply chains, field biology, field science, global blinding, Global Carbon Project, global warming, Green Tech Media, gun violence as public health crisis, guns
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Plans for an Explosive Methane Peaker Plant in Peabody
A collection of articles, including … Doctors cite health risks from new plant. Peabody power plant plans caught city off guard. Residents, officials speak out against plant. And the usual bupkis about wind and solar being unreliable.
“Our pathetic herd immunity failure” (David Brooks)
I would say, too, that the United States is reaping the results of failing to have a sufficiently numerate population, because Mathematics skills at all levels of education are poorly taught.
Posted in zero carbon
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My favorite tech and photo shop
It’s B&H Photo Video, of course. I have bought computers, electronics, cameras, accessories, and all kinds of nifty things there. I was an engineer for 44 years. I’m now “retired” and learning to be a scientist and digital macro photographer. … Continue reading
Posted in zero carbon
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A guide to the Task force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures
From Bloomberg media … https://spotlight.bloomberg.com/story/tcfd-/page/1 Investors in stocks and owners of companies cannot know to which risks they are exposed in their investments unless companies transparently report these risks. Until the TCFD, the very idea of reporting risks to equities … Continue reading
Posted in zero carbon
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“I know rockets produce CO2”. Here’s why that’s a win.
“We must become a multi-planet species.” “We do have a long term plan for even rocket flights.” “There is a long term plan for sustainable production of rocket fuel.”
Posted in zero carbon
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Reblog: “Reporting on the Outlaw Ocean”
A podcast from Follow the Data reporting on The Outlaw Ocean Project, combining deep ocean issues with social concerns. These are include and are related to protecting internationally designated marine protected areas from poaching, as well as protecting reefs. Above … Continue reading
Posted in oceans, slavery, social justice, UU Ministry for Earth
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What is the Tukey loss function?
Originally from Statistical Odds and Ends, there is a nicely brief summary of the Tukey Loss Function. I’d love to see what this does in various kinds of regression. It may be possible to set up some kind of iterative … Continue reading
Posted in loss functions, optimization, statistics
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“… [W]e need to address the climate crisis at the pace and scale it demands.”
“Dear President Biden, “We, the undersigned businesses and investors with a major presence in the U.S., applaud your administration’s demonstrated commitment to address climate change head-on, and we stand in support of your efforts. “Millions of Americans are already feeling … Continue reading
Posted in being carbon dioxide, Bloomberg Green, climate business, climate change, climate disruption, climate emergency, climate hawk, climate policy, ecocapitalism, ecomodernism, ecopragmatism, fossil fuel divestment, global warming, global weirding, investment in wind and solar energy, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, solar revolution, wind energy, wind power
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To Samwise, a noble, incredibly smart cat, Pink Floyd performed by the exquisite Larkin Poe
(Update, 19th April 2021.) We lost Samwise earlier this month, to lymphoma, probably by everybody’s assessment, including veterinarians, due to exposure to herbicides, insecticides, and pesticides earlier in his life. He was a noble, and wonderful cat. He was smart. … Continue reading
Posted in Felinus catus, Larkin Poe, Pink Flyod, Samwise
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Climate Resilience
Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, being carbon dioxide, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, children as political casualties, climate disruption, climate nightmares, climate science, climate sensitivity, distributed generation, ecological disruption, ecopragmatism, engineering, First Parish in Needham, Glen Peters, Global Carbon Project, global warming, global weirding, Greta Thunberg, investment in wind and solar energy, Juliana v United States, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, liberal climate deniers, local generation, local self reliance, Mark Jacobson, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, Mathematics and Climate Research Network, mitigating climate disruption, Nature's Trust, ocean acidification, ocean warming, Our Children's Trust, Principles of Planetary Climate, quantitative ecology, Ray Pierrehumbert, Reverend Catie Scudera, Robert Young, sea level rise, Steven Chu, sustainability, The Demon Haunted World, the energy of the people, the green century, the right to know, the value of financial assets, tragedy of the horizon, Unitarian Universalism, UU, UU Needham, Wally Broecker, zero carbon
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Humble Alternatives to Daylight Savings Time — Math with Bad Drawings
From the ever clever and entertaining Ben Orlin. And the drawings really aren’t bad.
Posted in Ben Orlin, mathematics
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Representative Deb Haaland, confirmed as Secretary of Interior
(Deb Haaland atop a wind turbine. Credit: Representative Deb Haaland, via Twitter.) Representative Deb Haaland, member of the Laguna Pueblo Nation, was confirmed as Secretary of Interior. The feelings of happiness which washed over me are too much to describe. … Continue reading