Category Archives: business

Why Americans and Britons work such long hours

Posted on 25 December 2018 by ecoquant

Why Americans and Britons work such long hours.

Posted in business, economics, labor, statistics | Leave a comment

“All of Monsanto’s problems just landed on Bayer” (by Chris Hughes at Bloomberg)

Posted on 13 August 2018 by ecoquant

See Chris Hughes’ article. Monsanto has touted Roundup (also known as Glyphosate but more properly as ) as a safe remedy for weed control, often in the taming of so-called “invasive species”. It’s used on playfields where children are exposed … Continue reading →

Posted in agroecology, an uncaring American public, business, corporate responsibility, ecology, Ecology Action, environment, environmental law, epidemiology, evidence, invasive species, open data, Peter del Tredici, quantitative biology, quantitative ecology, rights of the inhabitants of the Commonwealth, risk, statistics, sustainability, sustainable landscaping, the right to know, Uncategorized, unreason, Westwood | 1 Comment

“Eon and RWE just killed the utility as we know it”

Posted on 11 March 2018 by ecoquant

The story’s at Bloomberg.

Posted in Bloomberg, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, bridge to somewhere, Buckminster Fuller, business, CleanTechnica, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, economics, EIA, electricity, electricity markets, energy utilities, grid defection, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, investments, Joseph Schumpeter, local generation, local self reliance, marginal energy sources, microgrids, nonlinear systems, regulatory capture, risk, Sankey diagram, solar democracy, solar domination, solar power, stranded assets, supply chains, sustainability, the energy of the people, the green century, the value of financial assets, tragedy of the horizon, unreason, utility company death spiral, wind energy, wind power | Leave a comment

`Insurance companies should collect a carbon levy`

Posted on 13 September 2017 by ecoquant

From Anthony J Webster and Richard H Clarke in Nature, “Insurance companies should collect a carbon levy”: Governments juggle too many interests to drive global action on climate change. But the insurance industry is ideally placed. With annual premiums amounting … Continue reading →

Posted in American Statistical Association, Anthropocene, attribution, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, bridge to somewhere, business, capitalism, Carbon Tax, climate business, climate economics, corporate litigation on damage from fossil fuel emissions, corporations, Cult of Carbon, economics, energy levy, finance, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, insurance, investments, Joseph Schumpeter, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, moral leadership, statistics, stranded assets, sustainability, the right to know, the value of financial assets, tragedy of the horizon, transparency, zero carbon | Leave a comment

`Exxon Shareholders Approve Climate Resolution: 62% Vote for Disclosure’

Posted on 31 May 2017 by ecoquant

Flash from InsideClimate News: ExxonMobil shareholders voted Wednesday to require the world’s largest oil and gas company to report on the impacts of climate change to its business—defying management, and marking a milestone in a 28-year effort by activist investors. … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthropocene, Bloomberg, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, bridge to nowhere, business, capitalism, Carbon Worshipers, clean disruption, climate, climate business, climate change, climate disruption, climate economics, corporations, destructive economic development, environmental law, extended supply chains, Exxon, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuel infrastructure, fossil fuels, Global Carbon Project, global warming, greenhouse gases, Hyper Anthropocene, investing, investments, Joseph Schumpeter, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, making money, Our Children's Trust, petroleum, pollution, rationality, reason, reasonableness, statistics, stranded assets, sustainability, the right to know, the tragedy of our present civilization, the value of financial assets, tragedy of the horizon, zero carbon | Leave a comment

“Climate Change and the Post-Election Blues” (a reblog of a post by Meredith Fowlie at The Energy Institute, BerkeleyHAAS)

Posted on 28 November 2016 by ecoquant

Re: Meredith Fowlie, “Climate change and the post-election blues”, from The Energy Institute, BerkeleyHAAS Some direction. My only comments regard Dr Fowlie’s LCoE analysis. While correct from its perspective, LCoE depends upon the viewpoint of the cost efficiency. For example, … Continue reading →

Posted in American Solar Energy Society, Anthropocene, Berkeley, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, bridge to somewhere, business, clean disruption, CleanTechnica, climate economics, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, distributed generation, electricity markets, energy, energy utilities, engineering, Hyper Anthropocene, investment in wind and solar energy, Joseph Schumpeter, local generation, local self reliance, solar democracy, solar energy, solar power, the energy of the people, the green century, wind energy, wind power | Leave a comment

Westwood Solar & Energy Fair

Posted on 5 November 2016 by ecoquant

Today. Flyer. Position yourself to ride the Energy Revolution. Adapt to warming due to human-caused climate change in the Northeast U.S. by changing over your heating and cooling sources. Make Money. Increase the value of your home. Move towards your … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthropocene, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, bridge to somewhere, Buckminster Fuller, business, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, CleanTechnica, climate business, climate economics, consumption, Debbie Dooley, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, disruption, distributed generation, economics, education, efficiency, EIA, electricity, electricity markets, energy, energy reduction, energy storage, engineering, environment, Epcot, Equiterre, exponential growth, feed-in tariff, fossil fuel divestment, global warming, Green Tea Coalition, green tech, grid defection, Hermann Scheer, Hyper Anthropocene, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, Joseph Schumpeter, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, local generation, local self reliance, making money, marginal energy sources, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, Massachusetts Interfaith Coalition for Climate Action, New England, public utility commissions, PUCs, rate of return regulation, rationality, reason, reasonableness, regime shifts, RevoluSun, Sankey diagram, solar democracy, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, Solpad, Spaceship Earth, stranded assets, SunPower, supply chains, sustainability, Tea Party, the energy of the people, the green century, the value of financial assets, Tony Seba, wind energy, zero carbon | Leave a comment

An example of technology the future will bring … Solpad.

Posted on 2 November 2016 by ecoquant

In a recent interview, Professor Tony Seba of Stanford University predicted that solar+storage was going to achieve parity with average grid transmission costs by 2022. This is what he called “god parity”, because even if utilities generated at zero cents … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthropocene, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, Buckminster Fuller, business, clean disruption, CleanTechnica, climate business, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, disruption, distributed generation, economics, efficiency, electricity, electricity markets, energy reduction, energy storage, energy utilities, engineering, exponential growth, fossil fuel divestment, green tech, grid defection, Hermann Scheer, Hyper Anthropocene, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, Joseph Schumpeter, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, marginal energy sources, microgrids, networks, public utility commissions, PUCs, rate of return regulation, regulatory capture, Sankey diagram, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, Solpad, Spaceship Earth, sustainability, the energy of the people, the green century, the value of financial assets, Tony Seba, utility company death spiral, zero carbon | Leave a comment

“BlackRock Investment Fund will include climate change as risk factor for portfolio”

Posted on 8 October 2016 by ecoquant

BlackRock, the world’s largest private investment fund, has announced that it will include climate change as an important factor in how it assigns risks to its investment portfolio … BlackRock is not your average investment fund. With $4.9 trillion in … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Meteorological Association, American Solar Energy Society, American Statistical Association, AMETSOC, Anthropocene, Bloomberg, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, Buckminster Fuller, business, Carbon Worshipers, central banks, clean disruption, CleanTechnica, climate business, climate change, climate disruption, consumption, corporate litigation on damage from fossil fuel emissions, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, destructive economic development, distributed generation, Ecology Action, economics, electricity markets, environment, Equiterre, extended supply chains, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, green tech, greenhouse gases, grid defection, Hyper Anthropocene, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, Joseph Schumpeter, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, liberal climate deniers, Mark Jacobson, meteorology, Our Children's Trust, Principles of Planetary Climate, quantitative ecology, Sankey diagram, science, science denier, Science magazine, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, sea level rise, shorelines, solar democracy, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, Spaceship Earth, Stanford University, 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 tragedy of our present civilization, the value of financial assets, Tony Seba, transparency, UNFCCC, utility company death spiral, wind energy, wind power, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, zero carbon | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Gustin and companies lack technological and business imagination

Posted on 1 September 2016 by ecoquant

Carl Gustin, a consultant to the New England Coalition for Affordable Energy, which “includes many of New England’s major business and industry organizations and labor representatives”, wrote an op-ed in favor of additional natural gas and pipelines for Massachusetts in … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthropocene, bifurcations, Bloomberg, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, bridge to nowhere, Buckminster Fuller, business, clean disruption, CleanTechnica, climate disruption, climate economics, corporate supply chains, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, denial, disruption, distributed generation, economics, EIA, electricity, electricity markets, energy, energy storage, energy utilities, engineering, evidence, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, global warming, green tech, grid defection, Hyper Anthropocene, insurance, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, ISO-NE, Joseph Schumpeter, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, lobbying, local generation, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, methane, microgrids, natural gas, politics, public utility commissions, PUCs, rate of return regulation, regime shifts, regulatory capture, risk, solar democracy, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, Spaceship Earth, stranded assets, sustainability, temporal myopia, the energy of the people, the green century, the right to be and act stupid, the tragedy of our present civilization, the value of financial assets, Tony Seba, utility company death spiral, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon | 1 Comment

“Holy crap – an actual book!”

Posted on 10 August 2016 by ecoquant

Originally posted on mathbabe:
Yo, everyone! The final version of my book now exists, and I have exactly one copy! Here’s my editor, Amanda Cook, holding it yesterday when we met for beers: Here’s my son holding it: He’s offered…

Posted in American Association for the Advancement of Science, Buckminster Fuller, business, citizen science, citizenship, civilization, complex systems, confirmation bias, data science, data streams, deep recurrent neural networks, denial, economics, education, engineering, ethics, evidence, Internet, investing, life purpose, machine learning, mathematical publishing, mathematics, mathematics education, maths, moral leadership, multivariate statistics, numerical software, numerics, obfuscating data, organizational failures, politics, population biology, prediction, prediction markets, privacy, quantitative biology, quantitative ecology, rationality, reason, reasonableness, rhetoric, risk, Schnabel census, smart data, sociology, statistical dependence, statistics, the right to be and act stupid, the right to know, the value of financial assets, transparency, UU Humanists | Leave a comment

Three stories of solar energy domination: Which outcome would YOU prefer?

Posted on 13 July 2016 by ecoquant

(Updated, 2016-07-14) See Shayle Kann’s great piece at GreenTech media. The choices: “Version one: Aimless transformation” “Version two: The balkanized grid” “Version three: Embracing the transformation” In addition to solar PV, wind energy of all forms (especially underutilized local wind … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, biofuels, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, bridge to somewhere, Buckminster Fuller, business, Chris Goodall, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, disruption, distributed generation, ecology, Ecology Action, economics, efficiency, electricity, electricity markets, energy, energy reduction, energy storage, energy utilities, engineering, environment, fossil fuel divestment, green tech, grid defection, Hermann Scheer, Hyper Anthropocene, Internet, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, ISO-NE, Joseph Schumpeter, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, local generation, microgrids, public utility commissions, PUCs, rationality, reasonableness, regime shifts, Sankey diagram, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, Spaceship Earth, stranded assets, the energy of the people, the green century, the right to know, the tragedy of our present civilization, the value of financial assets, Tony Seba, utility company death spiral, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon | 2 Comments

synopsis of NY-REV

Posted on 17 May 2016 by ecoquant

What New York State is doing, and Massachusetts, apparently not. Cheap supplies of domestic natural gas have driven the New England power plant market toward that fuel and away from the more expensive coal, oil and nuclear material. Limited capacity … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, bridge to somewhere, Buckminster Fuller, business, causal diagrams, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate justice, coastal communities, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, disruption, distributed generation, ecology, economics, efficiency, electricity markets, energy, energy storage, energy utilities, engineering, environment, extended supply chains, feed-in tariff, fossil fuel divestment, global warming, greenhouse gases, grid defection, Hyper Anthropocene, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, Joseph Schumpeter, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, marginal energy sources, meteorology, microgrids, rate of return regulation, rationality, reasonableness, regime shifts, regulatory capture, risk, Sankey diagram, solar domination, solar energy, Solar Freakin' Roadways, solar power, SolarPV.tv, Spaceship Earth, stranded assets, sustainability, temporal myopia, the energy of the people, the green century, the right to know, the tragedy of our present civilization, the value of financial assets, Tony Seba, utility company death spiral, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon | 1 Comment

“Solar power is contagious. These maps show how it spreads.” (from Vox)

Posted on 6 May 2016 by ecoquant

Brad Plumer at Vox writes on take-up patterns of rooftop solar based upon a large dataset from SolarCity. The full article is available at the SolarCity site. Mr Plumer combines it with a report on other studies of solar adoption … Continue reading →

Posted in Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, business, clean disruption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, diffusion, diffusion processes, disruption, distributed generation, economics, electricity markets, energy, energy utilities, exponential growth, grid defection, investment in wind and solar energy, local generation, Peter Diggle, point pattern analysis, public utility commissions, PUCs, rate of return regulation, regulatory capture, sociology, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, SolarPV.tv, spatial statistics, statistics, stochastics, the energy of the people, the green century, utility company death spiral, zero carbon | Leave a comment

This is what the future looks like, for towns and villages — and utilities

Posted on 27 April 2016 by ecoquant

Welcome to Minster, Ohio. (Hat tip to Clean Technica.) Check One: A 4.3 MW solar array. Check Two: A history of being supportive to local residents, and a plan for making them more efficient and reducing their electrical energy needs. … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, bridge to somewhere, Buckminster Fuller, business, clean disruption, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, distributed generation, economics, electricity markets, energy, energy reduction, energy storage, energy utilities, engineering, grid defection, Hyper Anthropocene, investment in wind and solar energy, local generation, microgrids, politics, public utility commissions, PUCs, rate of return regulation, rationality, reasonableness, regime shifts, regulatory capture, risk, Sankey diagram, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, SolarPV.tv, Spaceship Earth, sustainability, the energy of the people, the green century, the value of financial assets, Tony Seba, wind energy, zero carbon | 8 Comments

Tony Seba’s latest. Yes, there’s new stuff.

Posted on 16 April 2016 by ecoquant
Posted in Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, business, decentralized electric power generation, disruption, distributed generation, economics, energy storage, exponential growth, grid defection, Hermann Scheer, investing, Mark Jacobson, Sankey diagram, solar energy, Solar Freakin' Roadways, solar power, SolarPV.tv, Stanford University, supply chains, Tony Seba | 3 Comments

patents disincentivize progress

Posted on 27 February 2016 by ecoquant

Very interesting.

Posted in business, data centers, destructive economic development, economics, high frequency trading, humanism, Hyper Anthropocene, mathematics, maths, rationality, reasonableness, risk, selfishness, stochastics | 1 Comment

Not too shabby: “What’s warming the world” (Bloomberg Business), and “The siege of Miami” (The New Yorker)

Posted on 30 December 2015 by ecoquant

What’s warming the world Infographic allowing the visitor to overlay time series of candidate causes for global warming, and thereby permitting them to draw their own conclusions. And Elizabeth Kolbert’s piece in The New Yorker, brings home the contradictions and … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthropocene, business, climate change, climate data, climate zombies, complex systems, critical slowing down, denial, disingenuity, economics, environment, evidence, fossil fuels, global warming, greenhouse gases, Hyper Anthropocene, mitigation, model comparison, time series | Leave a comment