Distributed Solar: The Democratizaton of Energy
Category Archives: climate economics
A SimCity for the Climate
SimCity is/was a classic simulation game teaching basics of public policy, energy management, and environmental regulation. My kids played it a lot. Heck, I played it a lot. Now, Climate Interactive, Tom Fiddaman of Ventana Systems, Prof John Sterman of … Continue reading
Keep fossil fuels in the ground
Ah, wouldn’t it be lovely!? Is this the beginning of the Minsky Moment Mark Carney has feared? In short, that was because the trading markets had not priced in (a) the risks from climate change, and (b) the risks from … Continue reading
Mike Bloomberg 2020: Climate Warrior
Mike will immediately make tackling climate change one of his highest priorities by leading a nationwide push to rebuild American communities and infrastructure with 100% clean energy technology, reducing carbon pollution 50% by 2030. He will propel the U.S. toward … Continue reading
On odds of storms, and extreme precipitation
People talk about “thousand year storms”. Rather than being a storm having a recurrence time of once in a thousand years, these are storms which have a 0.001 chance per year of occurring. Storms aren’t the only weather events of … Continue reading
Posted in American Meteorological Association, American Statistical Association, AMETSOC, catastrophe modeling, climate disruption, climate economics, climate education, ecopragmatism, evidence, extreme events, extreme value distribution, flooding, floods, games of chance, global warming, global weirding, insurance, meteorological models, meteorology, R, R statistical programming language, real estate values, risk, Risky Business, riverine flooding, science, Significance
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What we’ve done and do to ourselves
Who do you think carries most of the burden for fixing the problem? Action. “We have work to do.” (Bill Nye)
A glimpse of Solar Domination
Hat tip to PV Magazine: B. Frew, W. Cole, P. Denholm, W. Frazier, N. Vincent, R. Margolis, “Sunny with a Chance of Curtailment: Operating the US Grid with very high levels of solar photovoltaics“, (open access) iScience, 21, 22 November … Continue reading
Posted in American Solar Energy Society, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, bridge to somewhere, Buckminster Fuller, clean disruption, climate economics, destructive economic development, disruption, distributed generation, EBC-NE, ecocapitalism, ecopragmatism, electrical energy storage, electricity, electricity markets, energy storage, energy utilities, FERC, fossil fuel divestment, green tech, Hermann Scheer, investment in wind and solar energy, keep fossil fuels in ground, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, photovoltaics, Sankey diagram, solar democracy, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, solar revolution, Spaceship Earth, the energy of the people, the green century, Tony Seba, tragedy of the horizon, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon
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Sir David King (1), climate: What’s it all about, and what it will mean
Note the citing of how talent migrated from the fossil fuel industry to offshore wind energy.
“The financial crash and the climate crisis” (The New Yorker Radio Hour)
A great podcast episode. Check out the thoughts of the late Professor Martin Weitzman as well, in “The man who got economists to take climate nightmares seriously“.
Posted in American Statistical Association, an uncaring American public, Anthropocene, being carbon dioxide, bifurcations, bridge to nowhere, Buckminster Fuller, Carbon Cycle, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, catastrophe modeling, climate change, climate disruption, climate economics, climate grief, climate justice, climate mitigation, climate nightmares, climate policy, climate zombies, coastal investment risks, flooding, floods, Florida, global warming, global weirding, home resale values, Hyper Anthropocene, objective reality, oceans, Robert Young, Scituate, shorelines, Sir David King, temporal myopia, the tragedy of our present civilization, the value of financial assets, unreason
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Ted Rall’s “Left, Center and Right: We’re All in Denial About Climate Change”
(Friend, fellow congregant, and committee chair Will Rico of First Parish in Needham sent me this highly appropriate link.) Ted Rall argues at Counterpunch that: Those who deny that climate change is real are engaging in what psychologists call “simple … Continue reading
Posted in #climatestrike, #sunrise, #youthvgov, adaptation, agroecology, an uncaring American public, being carbon dioxide, Bill Maher, bridge to somewhere, Buckminster Fuller, capitalism, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, civilization, clean disruption, climate activism, climate business, climate change, climate disruption, climate economics, climate education, climate grief, climate mitigation, climate policy, consumption, Cult of Carbon, development as anti-ecology, distributed generation, ecological disruption, ecological services, Ecology Action, ecomodernism, ecopragmatism, energy efficiency, First Parish in Needham, FiveThirtyEight, fossil fuel divestment, global blinding, Global Carbon Project, global warming, global weirding, greenhouse gases, greenwashing, Greta Thunberg, investment in wind and solar energy, IPCC, keep fossil fuels in ground, life cycle sustainability analysis, solar democracy, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, solar revolution, zero carbon
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“How dare you pretend …!”
“Change is coming, whether you like it or not.” Update, 2019-09-24 Some reaction, including some from the fiendishly uncivilized. As Ms Thunberg says, this means this movement is having an impact, and Knowles and 45 are afraid.
Posted in #climatestrike, #sunrise, #youthvgov, American Association for the Advancement of Science, an ignorant American public, an uncaring American public, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, climate disruption, climate economics, climate grief, ecological disruption, Ecology Action, global warming
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How quickly temperature barriers are breached!
This is from the Economist‘s special issue this week on climate disruption. What’s striking is how quickly delay in substantial action takes us from +1.5C to +2C tp +2.5C to +3C, and it’s almost independent of how much we cut, … Continue reading
“Sustainability failed. The future is just climate.” (Simon Propper)
Simon Propper has an excellent blog post at Context. An excerpt: Societies in most countries rumble on, worried about other things. The French are arguing about wealth distribution and church restoration. The Americans about abortion and trade tariffs. The British … Continue reading
Posted in adaptation, Aldo Leopold, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, alternatives to the Green New Deal, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Amory Lovins, Anthropocene, bag bans, being carbon dioxide, Bill Gates, bridge to somewhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, Carbon Worshipers, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate economics, climate justice, climate policy, coastal investment risks, Daniel Kahneman, global warming
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Review of “No … increase of Carbon sequestration from the greening Earth”
(As promised.) Introduction and Abstract This is a review, re-presentation, and report on the August 2019 article, Y. Zhang, C. Song, L. E. Band, G. Sun, (2019), “No proportional increase of terrestrial gross Carbon sequestration from the greening Earth“, Journal … Continue reading
Posted in adaptation, afforestation, agriculture, agroecology, algal blooms, American Statistical Association, argoecology, being carbon dioxide, biology, Botany, bridge to somewhere, carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide sequestration, chemistry, citizen science, clear air capture of carbon dioxide, climate, climate data, climate disruption, climate economics, climate mitigation, di-nitrogen oxide, ecocapitalism, ecological disruption, Ecological Society of America, ecomodernism, ecopragmatism, environment, evidence, food, forests, fossil fuels, geophysics, Glen Peters, Global Carbon Project, greenhouse gases, James Hansen, John Holdren, p-value, phytoplankton, pollution, population biology, quantitative biology, resource producitivity, scholarship, science education, significance test, statistics, Steven Chu, sustainability, sustainable landscaping, wishful environmentalism
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The state of the science: “Heißzeit” … where we are heading.
If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading. ― Lao Tzu Professor Johan Rockström, again. Yeah, and that makes me feel, this way … (Ricardo Maranhão with Indiara Sfair) (Indiara Sfair and Joe Flip) … Continue reading
Posted in #youthvgov, adaptation, alternatives to the Green New Deal, Amory Lovins, an uncaring American public, Anthropocene, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, bridge to somewhere, Buckminster Fuller, Canettes Blues Band, carbon dioxide, climate business, climate disruption, climate economics, climate justice, climate policy, corporate citizenship, corporate litigation on damage from fossil fuel emissions, corporate responsibility, Cult of Carbon, Daniel Kahneman, ecocapitalism, ecomodernism, ecopragmatism, environmental law, fossil fuel divestment, global warming, green tech, greenhouse gases, Hermann Scheer, Humans have a lot to answer for, Hyper Anthropocene, Indiara Sfair, Mark Jacobson, Nature's Trust, science, solar democracy, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, solar revolution, Spaceship Earth, the green century, the tragedy of our present civilization, the value of financial assets, zero carbon
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CBRA is awesome!
Hat tip to Professor Rob Young and Audubon for a great newsfilm.
Posted in Anthropocene, Association to Preserve Cape Cod, being carbon dioxide, bridge to somewhere, Cape Cod, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, catastrophe modeling, climate disruption, climate economics, coastal communities, coastal investment risks, coasts, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, destructive economic development, ecological disruption, ecomodernism, economic trade, ecopragmatism, flooding, floods, fossil fuels, global warming, greenhouse gases, home resale values, Humans have a lot to answer for, hurricanes, hydrology, Hyper Anthropocene, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, life cycle sustainability analysis, living shorelines, ocean warming, Robert Young, science, science education, stream flow, sustainable landscaping, the right to know, the tragedy of our present civilization, the value of financial assets, tragedy of the horizon, unreason, UU, UU Mass Action, UU Ministry for Earth, UU Needham, Wally Broecker, wishful environmentalism, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, zero carbon, ``The tide is risin'/And so are we''
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Shifting to a Sustainable Future (Professor Steven Chu)
A lecture at MIT, in 2018, as the Hoyt C Hottel Lecture in Chemical Engineering. Notable quote: “The half-life of CO2 in atmosphere is 10,000 years.” (Professor Steven Chu)
In case you wondered if Carbon Dioxide increases caused climate change, here’s the latest news
In case you wondered if Carbon Dioxide (also called, carbonic acid, CO2) increases caused climate change, here’s the latest news … from 1856-1896:
Posted in American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Chemical Society, American Meteorological Association, AMETSOC, an ignorant American public, an uncaring American public, Anthropocene, atmosphere, being carbon dioxide, Blackbody radiation, Boltzmann, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate economics, climate education, climate grief, climate models, ClimateAdam, Cult of Carbon, Eaarth, earth, Earth Day, ecological disruption, ecomodernism, ecopragmatism, evidence, fossil fuels, gas pipeline leaks, global warming, Green New Deal, Greta Thunberg, Humans have a lot to answer for, Hyper Anthropocene, ice sheet dynamics, investments, Karl Ragabo, klaus lackner, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, local self reliance, moral leadership, new forms of scientific peer review, philosophy of science, physical materialism, physics, Principles of Planetary Climate, quantitative biology, quantitative ecology, radiative forcing, rhetorical science, science, scientific publishing, stranded assets, supply chains, support of black boxes, Talk Solar, Tony Seba
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“Climate Change: Information on potential economic effects could help guide Federal efforts to reduce fiscal exposure” (GAO, September 2017)
In September 2017, the U.S. General Accounting Office completed a report Climate Change: Information on Potential Economic Effects Could Help Guide Federal Efforts to Reduce Fiscal Exposure. A copy is at that link. Foremost, in case anyone doubts it, there … Continue reading
Posted in Bloomberg, climate business, climate change, climate disruption, climate economics, coastal investment risks, corporate litigation on damage from fossil fuel emissions, corporate responsibility, corporate supply chains, corporations, ecological disruption, ecological services, ecomodernism, economics, environmental law, fiscal solvency, fossil fuel divestment, Global Carbon Project, global warming, greenhouse gases, Hyper Anthropocene, Michael Bloomberg, politics, pollution, Risky Business, science, science denier, Sir David King, sustainability
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I am joining up to support the local Green New Deal teams
As anyone who has read my posts here know, I have reservations regarding the Green New Deal, from its lack of specifics, its overly ambitious scope, and its settings of expectations for preventing climate harm which are misleading, because of … Continue reading
Posted in Anthropocene, Ørsted, being carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide, climate activism, climate change, climate disruption, climate economics, climate grief, Ecology Action, ecomodernism, ecopragmatism, ecopragmatist, Emily Shuckburgh, global warming, Green New Deal, Greta Thunberg, Humans have a lot to answer for, Hyper Anthropocene, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, solar domination, solar revolution
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`Investors’ Guide to the End of the World`
David Snowball, at Mutual Fund Observer: Part 1. Part 2. Thoughts from BlackRock. “I amar prestar aen, the world is changed Han mathon ne nen, I feel it in the water Han mathon ne chae, I feel it in the … Continue reading
A proposal: Challenge for the Green New Deal
There is a climate emergency. There are many ways of looking at this, from the big investments perspective (see also a Fed view), to human harms perspective (see also), to what it might cost to reverse these changes if they … Continue reading
Posted in alternatives to the Green New Deal, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Chemical Society, American Meteorological Association, American Solar Energy Society, American Statistical Association, Amory Lovins, Anthropocene, basic research, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, bridge to somewhere, carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide capture, cement production, Clausius-Clapeyron equation, clear air capture of carbon dioxide, climate, climate business, climate change, climate data, climate disruption, climate economics, climate education, Climate Lab Book, ClimateAdam, consumption, David Archer, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, ecological disruption, ecomodernism, ecopragmatism, electric vehicles, electrical energy storage, electricity, energy storage, environment, flooding, floods, food, food scarcity, geoengineering, geophysics, Glen Peters, Global Carbon Project, global warming, insurance, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, investments, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, local self reliance, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Our Children's Trust, planning, policy metrics, politics, population biology, population dynamics, radiative forcing, rationality, real estate values, rhetorical statistics, science, stream flow, sustainability, SVD, the right to know, UU Ministry for Earth, UU Needham, zero carbon, ZigZag
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Greta: `All political movements in their present form have failed’
Posted in Anthropocene, being carbon dioxide, bridge to nowhere, bridge to somewhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate economics, climate grief, Cult of Carbon, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, global warming, Greta Thunberg, Humans have a lot to answer for, Hyper Anthropocene, investments, panic
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Earth Day 2019: So how do people transition to the new energy economy?
I’ve been pretty hard on the Green New Deal. That’s partly because its proponents don’t seem to see that a transition to a new zero Carbon energy economy is inevitable. It’s opponents don’t see that either. It may not come … Continue reading
Posted in Amory Lovins, an ignorant American public, Ørsted, capitalism, climate business, climate change, climate disruption, climate economics, climate justice, compassion, corporate citizenship, corporate litigation on damage from fossil fuel emissions, corporate responsibility, corporate supply chains, corporations, ecomodernism, electric vehicles, engineering, ethics, extended producer responsibility, extended supply chains, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuel infrastructure, Gaylord Nelson, global warming, Green New Deal, Hermann Scheer, investment in wind and solar energy, investments, John Farrell, Joseph Schumpeter, LBNL, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, local generation, local self reliance, Mark Carney, Mark Jacobson, microgrids, New England, NIMBY, organizational failures, Orsted, percolation theory, planning, public education, public welfare, RevoluSun, Richard Branson, science, solar democracy, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, Sonnen community, SunPower, sustainability, sustainable landscaping, Talk Solar, technology, temporal myopia, Tesla, the energy of the people, the green century, the right to know, the value of financial assets, Tony Seba, tragedy of the horizon, utility company death spiral, UU, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon
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So, y’say you want a Green New Deal …
There isn’t a lot known about the Green New Deal or “GND”. Its proponents are certainly making the rounds, but it is light on specifics, heavy on urgency, heavily coupled with advancing jobs and justice, racial, climate, and environmental. As … Continue reading
Posted in American Solar Energy Society, Amory Lovins, Anthropocene, anti-intellectualism, Ørsted, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, bridge to somewhere, cement production, clean disruption, CleanTechnica, climate business, climate change, climate economics, corporate citizenship, corporate litigation on damage from fossil fuel emissions, corporate responsibility, corporate supply chains, decentralized electric power generation, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, distributed generation, ecomodernism, ecopragmatism, ecopragmatist, education, electric vehicles, electrical energy storage, electricity, electricity markets, energy utilities, engineering, environment, extended producer responsibility, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, Gaylord Nelson, George Monbiot, global warming, Green Tech Media, Hermann Scheer, Hyper Anthropocene, ILSR, investment in wind and solar energy, John Farrell, Joseph Schumpeter, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, local generation, local self reliance, Mark Jacobson, Mary C Wood, Peter del Tredici, population biology, quantitative biology, quantitative ecology, rationality, rhetorical mathematics, rhetorical science, rhetorical statistics, solar democracy, solar domination, solar energy, Spaceship Earth, stranded assets, sustainability, sustainable landscaping, T'kun Olam, Talk Solar, Tesla, the energy of the people, the green century, the value of financial assets, wishful environmentalism
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October 2013 retrospective … Karl Ragabo on ‘Talk Solar’ podcast, regarding value of solar generation
In October of 2013, Karl Ragabo was interviewed on the Talk Solar podcast from Beth Bond of Decatur, GA. This was shortly after the first version of the Value of Solar report was issued by IREC. Listen to it below: … Continue reading
Posted in Beth Bond, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, bridge to somewhere, Buckminster Fuller, CleanTechnica, climate disruption, climate economics, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, distributed generation, ecomodernism, ecopragmatism, energy storage, energy utilities, engineering, investment in wind and solar energy, investments, Joseph Schumpeter, Karl Ragabo, microgrids, public utility commissions, regulatory capture, resiliency, RevoluSun, solar democracy, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, Sonnen community, Stewart Brand, stranded assets, Talk Solar, the energy of the people, the green century, Tony Seba, utility company death spiral
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Still a climate hawk, and appreciate all my climate friends: To the climate deniers, the greenwashers, the liberal environmental opportunists, and the environmental purists who will never compromise …
“Not ready to make nice” (Dixie Chicks) I stick by my friends in these hard times: Tamino’s community The Azimuth Project Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution The American Statistical Association The International Society for Bayesian Analysis Losing Earth: The decade we … Continue reading
Posted in American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Statistical Association, Anthropocene, Bayesian, climate change, climate disruption, climate economics, climate grief, coastal investment risks, ecological disruption, ecological services, ecomodernism, ecopragmatism, engineering, environment, flooding, global warming, Grant Foster, Humans have a lot to answer for, Hyper Anthropocene, investment in wind and solar energy, investments, Joseph Schumpeter, Mathematics and Climate Research Network, mathematics education, personal purity, population biology, quantitative biology, quantitative ecology, regulatory capture, risk, riverine flooding, sampling without replacement, Scituate, secularism, shorelines, solar democracy, solar domination, solar energy, Solar Freakin' Roadways, solar power, SolarPV.tv, Spaceship Earth, statistical dependence, SunPower, the energy of the people, the green century, the tragedy of our present civilization, the value of financial assets, tragedy of the horizon, Unitarian Universalism, unreason, utility company death spiral, UU Needham, Wally Broecker, Walt Disney Company, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, ``The tide is risin'/And so are we''
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Result of our own fiddling: Bob Watson and climate risk
https://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/746045 Professor Bob Watson, University of East Anglia, presents the summary risk, climate change: The question is not whether the Earth’s climate will change in response to human activities, but when, where and by how much. Human activities are changing … Continue reading
Posted in Anthropocene, attribution, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, catastrophe modeling, climate, climate change, climate data, climate disruption, climate economics, climate education, climate grief, climate justice, ecological disruption, ecology, Ecology Action, environment, global blinding, global warming, greenhouse gases, greenwashing, meteorology, National Center for Atmospheric Research, non-parametric model, Principles of Planetary Climate, radiative forcing, reasonableness, science, solar democracy, solar domination, solar energy, Solar Freakin' Roadways, solar power, SolarPV.tv, Solpad, Sonnen community, Spaceship Earth, stranded assets, sustainability, the energy of the people, the green century, the tragedy of our present civilization, the value of financial assets, tragedy of the horizon, utility company death spiral, water, wind energy, wind power
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Welcome to snowy New England … Bad place for solar PV, right?
And this is ISO-NE, who, as little as three years back were highly sceptical anything other than additional natural gas generation could supply the ever increasing electrical power needs of the region, particularly with the withdrawal of generation from oil, … Continue reading
Posted in American Solar Energy Society, Amory Lovins, Arnold Schwarzennegger, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, bridge to somewhere, clean disruption, CleanTechnica, climate economics, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, corporations, decentralized energy, destructive economic development, distributed generation, ecological disruption, economic trade, economics, ecopragmatism, ecopragmatist, engineering, entrpreneurs, green tech, Green Tech Media, grid defection, investment in wind and solar energy, ISO-NE, Joseph Schumpeter, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, rate of return regulation, reworking infrastructure, rights of the inhabitants of the Commonwealth, Sankey diagram, solar democracy, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, SolarPV.tv, Sonnen community, Spaceship Earth, technology, 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, UNFCCC, Unitarian Universalism, unreason, utility company death spiral, Wally Broecker, wishful environmentalism, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, zero carbon
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