Distributed Solar: The Democratizaton of Energy
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climate change
- Climate Communication
- An open letter to Steve Levitt
- Climate impacts on retail and supply chains
- Sea Change Boston
- Climate at a glance
- RealClimate
- James Powell on sampling the climate consensus
- Steve Easterbrook's excellent climate blog: See his "The Internet: Saving Civilization or Trashing the Planet?" for example
- Transitioning to fully renewable energy
- US$165/tonne CO2: Sweden
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Jan Galkowski
Category Archives: climate economics
Texas. Wonderment.
h/t ClimateAdam. See also: Cohen, Judah, Xiangdong Zhang, J. Francis, T. Jung, R. Kwok, J. Overland, T. J. Ballinger et al. “Divergent consensuses on Arctic amplification influence on midlatitude severe winter weather.” Nature Climate Change, 10(1), 2020: 20-29. Ayarzagüena, Blanca, … Continue reading
Posted in American Association for the Advancement of Science, Amory Lovins, Bloomberg Green, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, climate denial, climate disruption, climate economics, ClimateAdam, decentralized electric power generation, distributed generation, electrical energy engineering, electricity markets, energy utilities, fossil fuels, global warming, photovoltaics, solar democracy, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon
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Wind turbines in winter
Drone footage in first from Peter Sinclair of Climate Denial Crock of the Week. (Skip to time step 80 in the next if you just want to see wind turbines.) Five GE Halide 6MW turbines, near Block Island, RI.
“…. [T]here’s something wonderful about … shooting for 200% renewable generation [over what’s needed] rather than struggling to get to 90% or net zero”
Professor Saul Griffith, MIT I think our failure on fixing climate change is just a rhetorical failure of imagination. We haven’t been able to convince ourselves that it’s going to be great. It’s going to be great.
Posted in American Solar Energy Society, Australia, Bloomberg Green, bridge to somewhere, Buckminster Fuller, clean disruption, climate economics, decentralized electric power generation, distributed generation, ecocapitalism, ecomodernism, ecopragmatism, electricity, engineering, green tech, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, photovoltaics, Saul Griffith, solar democracy, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, the energy of the people, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon
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Another reason air source heat pumps are a win
We have had air source heat pumps for house heating and cooling since 2014. For the most part, they’ve performed well, or, at least, there’s nothing inherent in the technology which has made the experience sound and enjoyable. If you … Continue reading
The recipe for success of green energy in the Massachusetts suburbs
This is Dr Saul Griffith entrepreneur and inventor at Otherlab, addressing impediments to putting solar on rooftops in the United States. Eventually, it will be ridiculous to people not to put solar on their roofs. And any bylaws or other … Continue reading
Posted in bridge to somewhere, clean disruption, climate economics, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, distributed generation, ecocapitalism, ecopragmatist, electric vehicles, fossil fuel divestment, investment in wind and solar energy, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, photovoltaics, solar democracy, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, solar revolution, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon
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What is to be done? Personal ideological purity not only doesn’t help, it can be counterproductive
From “Warmer, Warmer” by John Lanchester in the London Review of Books, 2007: What is to be done? The first thing to do is to admit that Dick Cheney is right. ‘Conservation may be a personal virtue,’ he said in … Continue reading
Simple: Stop burning things
Bill McKibben, at The New Yorker. And, to go with that, stop burning things down.
Posted in Amory Lovins, Ørsted, being carbon dioxide, Bill McKibben, Bloomberg Green, bridge to somewhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, climate disruption, climate economics, decentralized energy, ecocapitalism, ecomodernism, ecopragmatism, global warming, solar energy, solar power, Spaceship Earth, the green century, the value of financial assets, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon
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“The U.S. should lead the world on climate change”
This excerpt is from Bloomberg Opinion, written by its Editorial Board. I recommend the entire op-ed. Climate change is a global threat requiring global action, so it’s essential that the U.S. join, and preferably guide, worldwide cooperative efforts. Among Biden’s … Continue reading
Posted in alternatives to the Green New Deal, American Solar Energy Society, Amory Lovins, Arnold Schwarzennegger, Benji Backer, Bloomberg, Bloomberg Green, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, bridge to somewhere, Buckminster Fuller, capitalism, Carbon Cycle, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, clean disruption, CleanTechnica, climate business, climate change, climate disruption, climate economics, climate hawk, climate justice, climate policy, climate science, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, ecocapitalism, ecomodernism, ecopragmatism, electrical energy engineering, electricity markets, engineering, fossil fuel divestment, global warming, Hermann Scheer, investment in wind and solar energy, ISO-NE, Joseph Schumpeter, Karl Ragabo, keep fossil fuels in ground, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, liberal climate deniers, local generation, making money, marginal energy sources, Mark Carney, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, Mathematics and Climate Research Network, Michael Bloomberg, Michael Osborne, ocean warming, On being Carbon Dioxide, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, solar revolution, Stewart Brand, stranded assets, the green century, Tony Seba, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon
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Consumer, Employment, and Environmental Benefits of Electricity Transmission Expansion in the Eastern United States
If local towns and neighborhoods continue to oppose decentralized zero Carbon energy, whether solar ground mounts or utility scale solar farms or wind turbines, we’re going to need more transmission, much more transmission. Opponents to decentralized solar generation are either … Continue reading
Posted in alternatives to the Green New Deal, American Solar Energy Society, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, bridge to somewhere, Carbon Cycle, carbon dioxide, clean disruption, CleanTechnica, climate change, climate disruption, climate economics, climate policy, complex systems, Cult of Carbon, decentralized electric power generation, distributed generation, ecomodernism, electric vehicles, electrical energy engineering, electrical energy storage, electricity, electricity markets, energy storage, energy utilities, extended supply chains, global warming, greenhouse gases, IEEE, ILSR, investment in wind and solar energy, keep fossil fuels in ground, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, liberal climate deniers, local generation, mitigating climate disruption, On being Carbon Dioxide, photovoltaics, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, tragedy of the horizon, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon
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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
… [T]oo detached from my natural origins to see the problem …
The proprietor of the false progress blog which I mentioned in an earlier blog post made a comment about another one of my posts. Actually, that’s not quite right in three respects. I don’t really know if it’s really the … Continue reading
Posted in afforestation, Amory Lovins, being carbon dioxide, bridge to nowhere, bridge to somewhere, carbon dioxide, clean disruption, climate change, climate disruption, climate economics, climate policy, Cult of Carbon, decentralized electric power generation, degrowth, development as anti-ecology, ecocapitalism, ecological disruption, ecological services, ecology, ecomodernism, ecopragmatism, extended producer responsibility, extended supply chains, fossil fuel divestment, global warming, Green New Deal, greenhouse gases, Hermann Scheer, investment in wind and solar energy, Joseph Schumpeter, lichens, luckwarmers, luckwarmism, Mark Jacobson, Mary C Wood, mosses, Nature's Trust, nuclear power, NuScale, ocean warming, On being Carbon Dioxide, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, supply chains, technology, the green century, the tragedy of our present civilization, Tony Seba, tragedy of the horizon, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon
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On living with wind turbines
Posted in alternatives to the Green New Deal, Ørsted, bridge to somewhere, Buckminster Fuller, Cape Wind, climate disruption, climate economics, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, distributed generation, ecomodernism, ecopragmatism, electricity markets, energy utilities, fossil fuel divestment, global warming, Green Tech Media, Hermann Scheer, investment in wind and solar energy, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, LBNL, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, local generation, local self reliance, Mark Jacobson, Michael Bloomberg, Michael Osborne, microgrids, mitigating climate disruption, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, solar democracy, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, solar revolution, the energy of the people, the green century, Tony Seba, tragedy of the horizon, utility company death spiral, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon
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On the Nuclear option
Where does a state government turn when they have a strong mandate to remove fossil fuels from electricity generation, heating, cooling, and transportation? Suppose they proposed a cross-border hydropower purchase from Quebec? Suppose they planned to roll out land-based wind, … Continue reading
Posted in alternatives to the Green New Deal, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Solar Energy Society, an uncaring American public, atmosphere, Ørsted, Benji Backer, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, bridge to somewhere, Cape Wind, carbon dioxide, CleanTechnica, climate change, climate disruption, climate economics, climate mitigation, climate nightmares, climate policy, climate science, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, ecomodernism, ecopragmatism, electricity, electricity markets, energy utilities, environment, Ernest Moniz, Falmouth, fossil fuel divestment, global warming, greenhouse gases, investment in wind and solar energy, New England, nuclear power, NuScale, ocean warming, On being Carbon Dioxide, photovoltaics, solar energy, stranded assets, technology, the green century, Tokarska and Zickfield, wind power, zero carbon
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Saul Griffith’s musings: Rather than secretary of energy, I’d prefer a bigger role. If efforts to curb climate change are only housed within DOE, we won’t succeed at the scale required. I’d like a job that doesn’t yet exist, analogous … Continue reading
Book: 100% Clean, Renewable Energy and Storage for Everything
Professor Mark Z Jacobson‘s latest marvelous book, 100% Clean, Renewable Energy and Storage for Everything, summarized in a great one hour interview.
Posted in #youthvgov, an uncaring American public, Ørsted, being carbon dioxide, Benji Backer, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, bridge to somewhere, Buckminster Fuller, clean disruption, CleanTechnica, climate activism, climate business, climate economics, climate education, climate hawk, climate mitigation, climate policy, control theory, decentralized electric power generation, distributed generation, ecomodernism, ecopragmatism, emergent organization, fossil fuel divestment, Green New Deal, grid defection, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, investments, Karl Ragabo, keep fossil fuels in ground, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, local generation, local self reliance, Mark Jacobson, Michael Osborne, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Sankey diagram, solar democracy, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, solar revolution, stranded assets, the energy of the people, the green century, the value of financial assets, Tony Seba, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon
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Codium fragile for Saturday, 21st November 2020
Great Web sites here, all about truly preserving Walpole for the long term, rather than in pursuit of myopic interests: http://walpolepreservationalliance.org http://walpole-preservation-alliance.org http://walpolepreservationalliance.net http://walpolepreservationalliance.com http://walpolepreservationalliance.co http://walpolepreservationalliance.info http://walpolepreservationalliance.earth How Norfolk County preserves forest. Choices. Walpole Preservation Alliance
Posted in #climatestrike, #sunrise, #youthvgov, agrivoltaics, American Solar Energy Society, an ignorant American public, an uncaring American public, anti-science, being carbon dioxide, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, bollocks, bridge to nowhere, bridge to somewhere, Carbon Cycle, carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide sequestration, Carbon Tax, clean disruption, CleanTechnica, climate activism, climate change, climate disruption, climate economics, climate justice, climate mitigation, climate nightmares, climate policy, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Cult of Carbon, decentralized electric power generation, development as anti-ecology, distributed generation, DNS, ecomodernism, ecopragmatism, electricity markets, emissions, evidence, fossil fuel divestment, global warming, Green Tea Coalition, Greta Thunberg, Hermann Scheer, Humans have a lot to answer for, indigenous peoples, Internet, investment in wind and solar energy, Juliana v United States, keep fossil fuels in ground, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, local generation, local self reliance, luckwarmers, mitigating climate disruption, On being Carbon Dioxide, Our Children's Trust, Principles of Planetary Climate, public welfare, regulatory capture, risk, solar democracy, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, solar revolution, stranded assets, the green century, the right to be and act stupid, the tragedy of our present civilization, the value of financial assets, Tony Seba, tragedy of the horizon, utility company death spiral, wind energy, wishful environmentalism, zero carbon
Tagged Walpole Preservation Alliance
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Dr Emily Shuckburgh, OBE : Where we are
Posted in Arctic amplification, being carbon dioxide, bridge to nowhere, children as political casualties, civilization, climate activism, climate change, climate denial, climate disruption, climate economics, climate grief, climate hawk, Climate Hope, climate mitigation, climate nightmares, climate policy, climate science, climate zombies, ClimateAdam, global blinding, global warming, global weirding, ice sheet dynamics, sea level rise
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Wake Up
Posted in #youthvgov, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, bridge to somewhere, Buckminster Fuller, climate activism, climate business, climate change, climate disruption, climate economics, climate grief, climate justice, climate mitigation, climate nightmares, climate policy, climate science, coastal communities, coastal investment risks, ecocapitalism, ecological disruption, ecological services, Ecology Action, ecomodernism, ecopragmatism, ecopragmatist, fossil fuel divestment, global warming, Greta Thunberg, Humans have a lot to answer for, investment in wind and solar energy, James Hansen, John Holdren, Joseph Schumpeter, Juliana v United States, keep fossil fuels in ground, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, liberal climate deniers, solar democracy, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, solar revolution, Talk Solar, the energy of the people, the green century, Tony Seba, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon
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Choices.
This is a retake of a presentation at the invitation of the Walpole Greens and made at their meeting of 9th November 2020. It is longer and more leisurely. I interleave some of the answers to questions that followed the … Continue reading
Posted in adaptation, agriculture, agrivoltaics, agroecology, alternatives to the Green New Deal, American Solar Energy Society, argoecology, Ørsted, being carbon dioxide, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, Botany, carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide sequestration, Clausius-Clapeyron equation, clean disruption, CleanTechnica, climate business, climate change, climate disruption, climate economics, climate hawk, climate policy, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Conservation Action Coalition, Debbie Dooley, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, distributed generation, ecocapitalism, ecological services, ecomodernism, ecopragmatism, ecopragmatist, electric vehicles, electrical energy storage, electricity, emissions, energy, energy storage, energy utilities, engineering, environment, explosive methane, forests, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, fracking, fragmentation of ecosystems, gas pipeline leaks, global warming, Google Earth, Green Tea Coalition, greenhouse gases, grid defection, Hermann Scheer, investment in wind and solar energy, investments, Joseph Schumpeter, Karl Ragabo, Keeling curve, keep fossil fuels in ground, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, liberal climate deniers, local generation, local self reliance, meteorology, microgrids, mitigating climate disruption, natural gas, nuclear power, NuScale, ocean acidification, ocean warming, oceans, On being Carbon Dioxide, plankton, Principles of Planetary Climate, public utility commissions, RethinkX, solar democracy, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, solar revolution, Stewart Brand, the energy of the people, the green century, Tony Seba, utility company death spiral, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon
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RethinkX update on Wind, Solar, and Storage
Posted in American Solar Energy Society, Amory Lovins, being carbon dioxide, Benji Backer, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, bridge to somewhere, children as political casualties, clear air capture of carbon dioxide, climate business, climate economics, climate education, Conservation Action Coalition, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, disruption, distributed generation, ecocapitalism, ecological disruption, ecomodernism, ecopragmatist, electric vehicles, electrical energy storage, electricity, electricity markets, energy storage, energy utilities, entrpreneurs, Green Tea Coalition, grid defection, investment in wind and solar energy, Joseph Schumpeter, keep fossil fuels in ground, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, local self reliance, Michael Bloomberg, microgrids, On being Carbon Dioxide, photovoltaics, RevoluSun, solar democracy, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, solar revolution, Talk Solar, the energy of the people, the green century, Tony Seba, utility company death spiral, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon
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“A Matter of Degrees”
“A Matter of Degrees” is a new climate change mitigation podcast, created and produced by Drs Katharine Wilkinson and Leah Stokes. The first episode, “Give up your climate guilt“, is auspicious. Check it out. Fair disclosure: I have been pretty … Continue reading
Opposition to solar PV field at new Hanlon-Deerfield school, Westwood, MA
(Updated 2020-10-07, 17:36) This is sometimes was called the “Shuttleworth Solar Field Project”. In addition to building a combined pair of schools on Town of Westwood property, there is a proposal for building a 2 MW solar array on adjacent … Continue reading
Posted in agrivoltaics, American Solar Energy Society, an uncaring American public, being carbon dioxide, bridge to somewhere, Carbon Worshipers, climate activism, climate disruption, climate economics, climate justice, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, decentralized electric power generation, distributed generation, ecocapitalism, ecomodernism, ecopragmatism, fossil fuel divestment, greenhouse gases, Greta Thunberg, Hermann Scheer, investment in wind and solar energy, ISO-NE, John Farrell, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, local generation, NIMBY, On being Carbon Dioxide, Our Children's Trust, photovoltaics, solar democracy, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, solar revolution, Talk Solar, Tony Seba, Westwood
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Professor Mark Z Jacobson on 100% zero Carbon energy, at North County Climate Change Alliance
With respect to some of the comments below the video: Comment: Consumerwatchdog.org thinks that 100 million $ from ExxonMobil to fund Stanford and Mark Jacobsens research weakens public trust in his research results. Response: https://bit.ly/2YdPkmy This report at same site … Continue reading
Posted in carbon dioxide, clean disruption, CleanTechnica, climate change, climate disruption, climate economics, fossil fuels, global warming, investment in wind and solar energy, Mark Jacobson, solar democracy, solar energy, solar power, solar revolution, Tony Seba, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon
Tagged climate change, climate disruption, great energy transition, Green New Deal, solar pv, wind energy, zero carbon energy
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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.
ecoquant
