
Distributed Solar: The Democratizaton of Energy

Blogroll
- Gabriel's staircase
- Earth Family Beta MIchael Osborne’s blog on Science and the like
- Label Noise
- 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
- Mike Bloomberg, 2020 He can get progress on climate done, has the means and experts to counter the Trump and Republican digital disinformation machine, and has the experience, knowledge, and depth of experience to achieve and unify.
- What If
- Harvard's Project Implicit
- Tony Seba Solar energy, electric vehicle, energy storage, and business disruption professor and visionary
- "Perpetual Ocean" from NASA GSFC
- American Statistical Association
- Gavin Simpson
- Dr James Spall's SPSA
- 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
- 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.
- Brian McGill's Dynamic Ecology blog Quantitative biology with pithy insights regarding applications of statistical methods
- In Monte Carlo We Trust The statistics blog of Matt Asher, actually called the “Probability and Statistics Blog”, but his subtitle is much more appealing. Asher has a Manifesto at http://www.statisticsblog.com/manifesto/.
- All about ENSO, and lunar tides (Paul Pukite) Historically, ENSO has been explained in terms of winds. But recently — and Dr Paul Pukite has insisted upon this for a long time — the oscillation of ENSO has been explained as a large-scale slosh due to lunar tidal forcing.
- Nadler Strategy, LLC, on sustainability Thinking about business, efficient and effective management, and business value
- Ives and Dakos techniques for regime changes in series
- London Review of Books
- SASB Sustainability Accounting Standards Board
- Carl Safina's blog One of the wisest on Earth
- Leadership lessons from Lao Tzu
- Mertonian norms
- BioPython A collection of Python tools for quantitative Biology
- 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.
- Survey Methodology, Prof Ron Fricker http://faculty.nps.edu/rdfricke/
- Leverhulme Centre for Climate Change Mitigation
- Hermann Scheer Hermann Scheer was a visionary, a major guy, who thought deep thoughts about energy, and its implications for humanity’s relationship with physical reality
- American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
- Dollars per BBL: Energy in Transition
- Slice Sampling
- Logistic curves in market disruption From DollarsPerBBL, about logistic or S-curves as models of product take-up rather than exponentials, with notes on EVs
- Earth Family Alpha Michael Osborne’s blog (former Executive at Austin Energy, now Chairman of the Electric Utility Commission for Austin, Texas)
- Karl Broman
- Dominic Cummings blog Chief advisor to the PM, United Kingdom
- Musings on Quantitative Paleoecology Quantitative methods and palaeoenvironments.
- Subsidies for wind and solar versus subsidies for fossil fuels
- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI)
- Charlie Kufs' "Stats With Cats" blog “You took Statistics 101. Now what?”
- Number Cruncher Politics
- 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.”
- Pat's blog While it is described as “The mathematical (and other) thoughts of a (now retired) math teacher”, this is false humility, as it chronicles the present and past life and times of mathematicians in their context. Recommended.
- Professor David Draper
- Mark Berliner's video lecture "Bayesian mechanistic-statistical modeling with examples in geophysical settings"
- Beautiful Weeds of New York City
- Team Andrew Weinberg Walking September 8th for the Jimmy Fund!
- The Alliance for Securing Democracy dashboard
- Bob Altemeyer on authoritarianism (via Dan Satterfield) The science behind the GOP civil war
- Comprehensive Guide to Bayes Rule
climate change
- 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 Sunlight Economy
- Simple box models and climate forcing IMO one of Tamino’s best posts illustrating climate forcing using simple box models
- Climate Change Denying Organizations
- Earth System Models
- All Models Are Wrong Dr Tamsin Edwards blog about uncertainty in science, and climate science
- Reanalyses.org
- "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.
- Risk and Well-Being
- "Climate science is setttled enough"
- 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.
- Nick Bower's "Scared Scientists"
- James Powell on sampling the climate consensus
- Energy payback period for solar panels Considering everything, how long do solar panels have to operate to offset the energy used to produce them?
- “The Irrelevance of Saturation: Why Carbon Dioxide Matters'' (Bart Levenson)
- MIT's Climate Primer
- Dessler's 6 minute Greenhouse Effect video
- Climate Change Reports By John and Mel Harte
- Ice and Snow
- "Warming Slowdown?" (part 1 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. In two parts.
- Rabett Run Incisive analysis of climate science versus deliberate distraction
- Climate model projections versus observations
- Mrooijer's Global Temperature Explorer
- 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.
- Ricky Rood's “What would happen to climate if we (suddenly) stopped emitting GHGs today?
- Tuft's Professor Kenneth Lang on the physical chemistry of the Greenhouse Effect
- "When Did Global Warming Stop" Doc Snow’s treatment of the denier claim that there’s been no warming for the most recent N years. (See http://hubpages.com/@doc-snow for more on him.)
- Andy Zucker's "Climate Change and Psychology"
- Jacobson WWS literature index
- `The unchained goddess' 1958 Bell Telephone Science Hour broadcast regarding, among other things, climate change.
- 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 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
- "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
- CLIMATE ADAM Previously from the Science news staff at the podcast of Nature (“Nature Podcast”), the journal, now on YouTube, encouraging climate action through climate comedy.
- The HUMAN-caused greenhouse effect, in under 5 minutes, by Bill Nye
- Spectra Energy exposed
- Tamino's Open Mind Open Mind: A statistical look at climate, its science, and at science denial
- NOAA Annual Greenhouse Gas Index report The annual assessment by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the radiative forcing from constituent atmospheric greenhouse gases
- Sir David King David King’s perspective on climate, and the next thousands of years for humanity
- Bloomberg interactive graph on “What's warming the world''
- Eli on the spectroscopic basis of atmospheric radiation physical chemistry
- Équiterre Equiterre helps build a social movement by encouraging individuals, organizations and governments to make ecological and equitable choices, in a spirit of solidarity.
- "Getting to the Energy Future We Want," Dr Steven Chu
- Model state level energy policy for New Englad Bob Massie’s proposed energy policy for Massachusetts, an admirable model for energy policy anywhere in New England
- Professor Robert Strom's compendium of resources on climate change Truly excellent
- Anti—Anti-#ClimateEmergency Whether to declare a climate emergency is debatable. But some critics have gone way overboard.
- David Appell's early climate science
- Tell Utilities Solar Won't Be Killed Barry Goldwater, Jr’s campaign to push for solar expansion against monopolistic utilities, as a Republican
- World Weather Attribution
- James Hansen and granddaughter Sophie on moving forward with progress on climate
Archives
Jan Galkowski
Category Archives: American Petroleum Institute
banks aren’t interested …
From The Hill: The Trump administration auctioned off oil and gas rights in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) for the first time ever Wednesday, selling off 1.6 million acres along the coast to primarily one major buyer: the state … Continue reading
Eminent Domain, the Natural Gas Act, and Explosive Methane Pipelines
Courts are beginning to question the appropriateness of eminent domain as applied to rights of way for pipelines. Damn about time.
Posted in American Petroleum Institute, an uncaring American public, Anthropocene, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, CleanTechnica, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, emissions, explosive methane, FERC, fossil fuel divestment, Governor Charlie Baker, greenhouse gases, keep fossil fuels in ground, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, methane, mitigating climate disruption, natural gas, petroleum, pipelines, politics, public utility commissions, public welfare, PUCs, regulatory capture, rights of the inhabitants of the Commonwealth, stranded assets, the tragedy of our present civilization, tragedy of the horizon, utility company death spiral, zero carbon
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Natural Gas Companies are Doing Themselves In
As I wrote before, there will be no Golden Age of Natural Gas. The climate periodical DeSmog Blog now reports on its outright dissolution. But the surprise is that natural gas miners, particularly shale gas miners, are apparently destroying themselves. … Continue reading
Posted in American Chemical Society, American Petroleum Institute, an uncaring American public, Anthropocene, being carbon dioxide, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, children as political casualties, clean disruption, climate disruption, corporate litigation on damage from fossil fuel emissions, Desmog Blog, destructive economic development, ecological disruption, explosive methane, false advertising, fossil fuel infrastructure, fossil fuels, gas pipeline leaks, global warming, greenhouse gases, greenwashing, Hyper Anthropocene, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, natural gas, panic, public welfare, regulatory capture, solar domination, stranded assets, The Demon Haunted World, the right to be and act stupid, the tragedy of our present civilization, tragedy of the horizon, utility company death spiral
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plastic-hating environmentalists as pawns and collaborative distractors of the Trump administration
Andrew Wheeler, 45‘s head of the Environmental Protection Administration and former coal industry attorney and legal advisor to Senator Imhofe, famed climate denier of the U.S. Senate, has stated it quite simply: Clean drinking water is a higher priority for … Continue reading
The Climate Crunch
(with the possibility of rapid 15-20 foot SLR out there) David Suzuki aptly calls the corner we’ve painted ourselves into “the climate crunch”. See his article. Why a “crunch”? Had we heeded early warnings and had political representatives done more … Continue reading
Posted in adaptation, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Petroleum Institute, an ignorant American public, an uncaring American public, Anthropocene, being carbon dioxide, bridge to somewhere, carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide capture, carbon dioxide sequestration, Carbon Worshipers, cement production, clear air capture of carbon dioxide, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate economics, Cult of Carbon, David Suzuki, emissions, geoengineering, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, James Hansen, klaus lackner, Wally Broecker
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Oil and Gas
What the head of the American Petroleum Institute, Frank Ikard, said in 1965.
Posted in Adam Smith, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Petroleum Institute, American Statistical Association, Ørsted, being carbon dioxide, BNEF, bridge to nowhere, Carbon Worshipers, Cult of Carbon, decentralized electric power generation, EIA, energy, explosive methane, solar domination, the green century, the right to know, the tragedy of our present civilization, the value of financial assets
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wind+storage 2.1 ¢/kWh, solar+storage 3.6 ¢/kWh
Update, 2018-01-16 Vox has a widely acclaimed update to this story. (rubbing hands gleefully) Utility scale bids at Xcel Energy had median prices of 2.1 ¢/kWh for wind-with-storage, and 3.6 ¢/kWh for solar-with-storage. Hat tip to Utility Dive. In U.S. … Continue reading
Posted in American Petroleum Institute, American Solar Energy Society, Amory Lovins, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, bridge to somewhere, Buckminster Fuller, Cape Wind, Carbon Worshipers, clean disruption, CleanTechnica, climate economics, corporate litigation on damage from fossil fuel emissions, Cult of Carbon, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, destructive economic development, distributed generation, economics, electrical energy storage, electricity, electricity markets, energy storage, energy utilities, FERC, Green Tech Media, ILSR, investment in wind and solar energy, Joseph Schumpeter, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, local generation, local self reliance, marginal energy sources, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, microgrids, natural gas, petroleum, pipelines, public utility commissions, PUCs, rate of return regulation, regulatory capture, solar democracy, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, Spaceship Earth, stranded assets, sustainability, the energy of the people, the green century, the value of financial assets, Tony Seba, tragedy of the horizon, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon
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“Explosive methane will create two million jobs!”
The American Petroleum Institute has trotted out a commissioned study claiming an increase of two million jobs in 2040 off a base of four million (in 2015). First, these are not people working with development or distribution of natural gas. … Continue reading
Posted in American Petroleum Institute, Anthropocene, being carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, disingenuity, economics, EIA, emissions, explosive methane, false advertising, fossil fuels, gas pipeline leaks, Hyper Anthropocene, methane, natural gas, petroleum, pipelines, the right to be and act stupid, the show, the tragedy of our present civilization, tragedy of the horizon
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Defying technology, trends … nay, defying Mathematics!
The creatures from Trumpland are planning an Energy Week in the upcoming, probably to lead up to the Fourth of July celebrations. Our Orange Leader … will tout surging U.S. exports of oil and natural gas during a week of … Continue reading
Posted in American Petroleum Institute, American Solar Energy Society, Anthropocene, being carbon dioxide, Bloomberg, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, bridge to nowhere, bridge to somewhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, clean disruption, climate business, climate economics, corporate litigation on damage from fossil fuel emissions, corporations, destructive economic development, Donald Trump, economics, electricity markets, energy, energy utilities, evidence, explosive methane, exponential growth, extended supply chains, false advertising, FERC, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuel infrastructure, fossil fuels, fracking, global blinding, greenhouse gases, Humans have a lot to answer for, Hyper Anthropocene, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, investments, Joseph Schumpeter, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, military inferiority, Minsky moment, pipelines, politics, pollution, rights of the inhabitants of the Commonwealth, risk, solar democracy, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, the energy of the people, the green century, the problem of evil, the right to be and act stupid, the stack of lies, the tragedy of our present civilization, the value of financial assets, tragedy of the horizon, United States, utility company death spiral, wind energy, wind power
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“The [transport-as-a-service] disruption will crater the value chain of the oil industry” (RethinkX)
… By 2030, the report predicts that oil demand will drop to 70 million barrels per day. The resulting collapse in prices will be catastrophic for the industry, and these effects are likely to be felt as early as 2021. … Continue reading
Posted in American Petroleum Institute, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, bridge to somewhere, Buckminster Fuller, capitalism, clean disruption, CleanTechnica, climate business, decentralized energy, destructive economic development, economics, efficiency, fossil fuel divestment, green tech, ILSR, investments, John Farrell, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, local self reliance, making money, Mark Jacobson, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, public transport, public utility commissions, rationality, reason, stranded assets, sustainability, the energy of the people, the green century, the value of financial assets, Tony Seba, zero carbon
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Indigenous peoples win a reprieve, and, no matter what comes later, a solid victory
“The Army has determined that additional discussion and analysis are warranted in light of the history of the Great Sioux Nation’s dispossessions of lands, the importance of Lake Oahe to the Tribe, our government-to-government relationship, and the statute governing easements … Continue reading
Posted in American Petroleum Institute, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, bridge to nowhere, Buckminster Fuller, ecological services, ecology, Ecology Action, Equiterre, ethics, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuel infrastructure, fossil fuels, greenhouse gases, indigenous peoples, land use to fight, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, Our Children's Trust, pipelines
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TOO LATE: “There will be no golden age of [natural] gas”
Last month, Tom Randall at Bloomberg New Energy Finance (“BNEF”) profiled a new forecast which shows costs for zero Carbon energy and energy are plummetting so fast that coal, oil, and natural gas will begin their terminal decline within a … Continue reading
Posted in adaptation, American Petroleum Institute, Anthropocene, Bloomberg, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, bridge to nowhere, Buckminster Fuller, Chevron, citizenship, clean disruption, climate change, climate disruption, climate economics, climate justice, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, disruption, distributed generation, Ecology Action, economics, efficiency, electricity, electricity markets, energy, energy storage, energy utilities, engineering, explosive methane, Exxon, false advertising, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, fracking, geoengineering, global warming, green tech, greenhouse gases, grid defection, Gulf Oil, Hermann Scheer, Hyper Anthropocene, investment in wind and solar energy, ISO-NE, Joseph Schumpeter, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, Mathematics and Climate Research Network, methane, microgrids, natural gas, petroleum, pipelines, rate of return regulation, rationality, reason, reasonableness, regime shifts, risk, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, Standard Oil of California, stranded assets, supply chains, sustainability, the energy of the people, the green century, the right to be and act stupid, the right to know, the stack of lies, the tragedy of our present civilization, the value of financial assets, utility company death spiral, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon
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videos of the week, the blocking pattern edition
(This is another new, weekly feature, like the 8:00 a.m. mashup recently introduced, intending to collect a group of videos together for your enjoyment.) Don’t know how many realize it or not, but New England weather is blocked. That’s why … Continue reading
Posted in American Petroleum Institute, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, Buckminster Fuller, Cape Wind, Carbon Worshipers, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, conservation, consumption, Debbie Dooley, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, destructive economic development, disruption, distributed generation, economics, electricity, electricity markets, energy, energy reduction, energy storage, energy utilities, engineering, feed-in tariff, fossil fuel divestment, grid defection, investment in wind and solar energy, local generation, mesh models, microgrids, public utility commissions, PUCs, rate of return regulation, rationality, reasonableness, regulatory capture, Sankey diagram, solar energy, Solar Freakin' Roadways, solar power, SolarPV.tv, Spaceship Earth, Tony Seba, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon
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“Oil’s Big Dive” (by Peter Sinclair)
From Peter Sinclair’s Climate Denial Crock of the Week.
Posted in American Petroleum Institute, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, bridge to nowhere, Carbon Worshipers, Chevron, citizenship, clean disruption, conservation, consumption, corporate litigation on damage from fossil fuel emissions, corporate supply chains, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, disruption, distributed generation, economics, energy, energy reduction, energy utilities, engineering, extended supply chains, Exxon, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, fracking, Gulf Oil, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, local generation, methane, natural gas, petroleum, pipelines, public utility commissions, PUCs, rate of return regulation, rationality, reasonableness, regime shifts, regulatory capture, resiliency, risk, Sankey diagram, solar domination, supply chains, Texaco, the tragedy of our present civilization, the value of financial assets, utility company death spiral
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This Earth Day: The Data
(Amendments on 25the April 2016.) Sorry, folks, it’s It’s not just El Niño. El Niño’s have gotten bigger over the years. (Click on image for a larger picture. Use your browser Back Button to return to blog.) (Click on image … Continue reading
Posted in American Petroleum Institute, Antarctica, Anthropocene, Arctic, Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project, BEST, Bill Nye, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, Chevron, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate education, climate justice, corporate litigation on damage from fossil fuel emissions, corruption, Dan Satterfield, ecology, El Nina, El Nino, ENSO, environment, evidence, Exxon, false advertising, fear uncertainty and doubt, fossil fuels, fracking, geophysics, glaciers, glaciology, global warming, greenhouse gases, Gulf Oil, Hyper Anthropocene, ice sheet dynamics, icesheets, ignorance, James Hansen, John Cook, La Nina, meteorology, NASA, NCAR, NOAA, oceanography, open data, organizational failures, physics, rationality, reasonableness, regulatory capture, science, science education, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, sea level rise, selfishness, Spaceship Earth, statistics, sustainability, Texaco, the problem of evil, the right to know, the tragedy of our present civilization, UU Humanists, WAIS, WHOI, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, zero carbon
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Climate Conclusions: The American Petroleum Institute (1980)
The following are excerpted from a memorandum quoted by the Inside Climate News team, documenting the minutes of a 29th February 1980 of a task force on climate change at the American Petroleum Institute. Hat tip to Climate Denial Crock … Continue reading
Posted in adaptation, American Petroleum Institute, AMETSOC, Anthropocene, bridge to nowhere, Carbon Cycle, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, Chevron, climate, climate change, climate data, climate disruption, climate models, corporate litigation on damage from fossil fuel emissions, denial, ecology, economics, environment, ethics, evidence, Exxon, fear uncertainty and doubt, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, greenhouse gases, Gulf Oil, Hyper Anthropocene, meteorology, natural gas, open data, physics, pipelines, Principles of Planetary Climate, rationality, reasonableness, science, selfishness, Standard Oil of California, sustainability, Texaco, the right to know, the value of financial assets
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