Category Archives: conservation

Wind and Solar are Cheaper than Fossil Fuels and Nuclear Right Now

… and that’s based upon levelized cost of energy, without subsidies! See a summary of Lazard’s report, the key chart below: (Click on image to see a larger version. Click on your browser’s Back button to return to blog.) the … Continue reading

Posted in bifurcations, Cape Wind, Carbon Worshipers, clean disruption, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, destructive economic development, economics, efficiency, EIA, energy, energy reduction, energy utilities, engineering, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, methane, microgrids, natural gas, nuclear power, open data, pipelines, politics, prediction, public utility commissions, PUCs, Sankey diagram, solar energy, solar power, SolarPV.tv, sustainability, temporal myopia, the value of financial assets, Tony Seba, wind energy, wind power | Leave a comment

“The storage necessity myth: how to choreograph high-renewables electricity systems”

(This was originally presented by CleanTechMedia.) Sounds like a great role for smart control systems. Flash COP21 won’t matter. Listen to Professor Tony Seba. (Use your browser Back button to return to this blog.) Excerpt: Clearly, though, many vested interests … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, Cape Wind, Carbon Tax, citizenship, clean disruption, climate change, climate disruption, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, denial, dynamic linear models, dynamical systems, economics, efficiency, energy, energy reduction, energy utilities, engineering, fear uncertainty and doubt, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, ignorance, investment in wind and solar energy, meteorology, microgrids, natural gas, obfuscating data, planning, politics, public utility commissions, PUCs, rationality, reasonableness, Sankey diagram, solar energy, solar power, SolarPV.tv, Stanford University, sustainability, the right to know, Tony Seba, University of California Berkeley, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon | 3 Comments

“Wealthy nations spend 40 times as much money subsidizing fossil fuel production as they contribute to the Green Climate Fund”

The next time you hear or read some wag, random solar-hater, or shill for a dirty fossil fuel company (like “natural gas”, really, explosive methane), or the likes of Spectra Energy bemoan the subsidies states like Massachusetts and New York … Continue reading

Posted in Cape Wind, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, citizenship, clean disruption, climate change, climate disruption, conservation, consumption, corporate litigation on damage from fossil fuel emissions, corruption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, disingenuity, efficiency, energy, energy utilities, environment, fear uncertainty and doubt, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, global warming, greenhouse gases, greenwashing, investment in wind and solar energy, methane, microgrids, mitigation, pipelines, planning, politics, public utility commissions, rationality, Sankey diagram, solar energy, solar power, SolarPV.tv, sustainability, Tony Seba, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon | Leave a comment

sonnenCommunity connects households and makes conventional electricity suppliers obsolete through self-generated power

Sonnenbatterie presents the sonnenCommunity; members can generate their own power, store it and share surpluses online with friends or each other. The sonnenCommunity completely replaces traditional power companies and will soon be available to every household in Germany. – sonnenCommunity … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, Bill Gates, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, clean disruption, climate disruption, conservation, consumption, COP21, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, economics, energy, energy reduction, energy utilities, engineering, environment, fossil fuel divestment, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, investment in wind and solar energy, mesh models, meteorology, microgrids, planning, prediction, solar energy, solar power, SolarPV.tv, sustainability, Tony Seba, wind energy, zero carbon | Leave a comment

Walt Disney World holiday, November 2015

Link to photos and other information available at Google+: https://plus.google.com/110148824733929465219/posts/UzzEQ1azUPe If you are just interested in the photos and videos: https://goo.gl/2s5EQ0 The Epcot Food & Wine Festival was a bust: Too many people, walking in uncoordinated directions, and too little … Continue reading

Posted in biofuels, Carbon Cycle, carbon dioxide, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate education, compassion, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, Disney, ecology, energy, energy reduction, energy utilities, engineering, environment, Florida, fossil fuels, global warming, microgrids, rationality, reasonableness, recycling, solar energy, solar power, SolarPV.tv, Spaceship Earth, Walt Disney Company | Leave a comment

“More benefits for everybody”

http://www.utilitydive.com/news/the-day-after-how-solar-can-thrive-in-the-post-net-metering-era/408357/

Posted in Anthropocene, bifurcations, Carbon Worshipers, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, climate, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, economics, efficiency, energy, energy reduction, energy utilities, engineering, ethics, forecasting, Hyper Anthropocene, investment in wind and solar energy, mesh models, meteorology, microgrids, mitigation, optimization, planning, politics, public utility commissions, PUCs, rationality, reasonableness, Sankey diagram, solar energy, solar power, SolarPV.tv, sustainability, taxes, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon | Leave a comment

What the future of energy everywhere looks like

What will the energy landscape look like after utility companies are either dead, dying, or revert to a tiny portion of their territory? Silicon Valley CCE Partnership gives us all a clue. It’s been described in the San Francisco Chronicle, … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, capricious gods, chance, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, dynamical systems, economics, efficiency, energy, energy reduction, energy utilities, engineering, environment, ethics, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, geophysics, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, investment in wind and solar energy, living shorelines, mesh models, meteorology, microgrids, mitigation, obfuscating data, oceanography, physical materialism, physics, pipelines, planning, politics, prediction, probabilistic programming, public utility commissions, PUCs, quantum, reasonableness, reproducible research, risk, Sankey diagram, science, sea level rise, selfishness, solar energy, solar power, SolarPV.tv, Spaceship Earth, statistics, stochastic algorithms, stochastics, Svante Arrhenius, taxes, temporal myopia, the right to know, the value of financial assets, transparency, UU Humanists, WHOI, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon | Leave a comment

Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles or Electric Vehicles?

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, clean disruption, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, economics, efficiency, engineering, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, investment in wind and solar energy, public transport, rationality, Sankey diagram, solar energy, solar power, SolarPV.tv, Tony Seba | Leave a comment

What it takes to power a (light) bulb, and Sankey Diagrams

Kevin Anderson has a chart he uses to argue for demand-side reduction of energy use as a powerful way to achieve emission reductions of greenhouse gases. That chart is: It is derived from the IPCC AR4 Working Group 3 Report, … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, climate disruption, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, Don Cleland, economics, efficiency, energy, energy reduction, energy utilities, engineering, environment, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, investment in wind and solar energy, IPCC, maths, meteorology, microgrids, natural gas, physics, public utility commissions, PUCs, reasonableness, Sankey diagram, solar energy, solar power, SolarPV.tv, sustainability, thermodynamics, Tony Seba, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon | 11 Comments

Rabett Run reprises the Carbon Cycle … and very well, too

Eli condenses the problem with the Carbon Cycle and excessive emissions of fossil fuel CO2 to a few paragraphs, a great figure, and a trio of linear differential equations.

Posted in astrophysics, Carbon Cycle, carbon dioxide, climate, climate disruption, conservation, differential equations, diffusion, dynamical systems, ecology, environment, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, meteorology, oceanography, physics, Principles of Planetary Climate, rationality, science, time series | Leave a comment

How nice it is that Nature and probability bend to developers whims!

As I have mentioned before, it’s so nice that Nature and probability bend to the whims of property developers and their Town Fathers, with the willing participation of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). If you had property at risk … Continue reading

Posted in capricious gods, chance, citizenship, climate data, conservation, denial, ecology, engineering, environment, ethics, games of chance, ignorance, living shorelines, mathematics, meteorology, obfuscating data, planning, politics, precipitation, prediction, probability, rationality, reasonableness, risk, spatial statistics, University Station, Westwood | 1 Comment

“Projected Costs of Generating Electricity” (IEA report)

The 2015 edition is now available. Some highlights: They included a sensitivity analysis (!) along with their statistical findings. Applause!! Figure ES.2 shows the LCOE ranges for various renewable technologies – namely, the three categories of solar PV in the … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, carbon dioxide, clean disruption, climate change, climate disruption, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, ecology, economics, efficiency, EIA, energy, energy reduction, energy utilities, environment, forecasting, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, natural gas, NIMBY, pipelines, planning, public utility commissions, rationality, reasonableness, solar power, SolarPV.tv, temporal myopia, time series, Tony Seba, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon | Leave a comment

interesting: Cap-and-Trade died not only because of the fossil fuel lobby, but because of proponents of corn methanol

Read the details in a summary of a new paper by Holland, Hughes, Knittel, and Parker. The summary also contains a link to the technical paper itself. Not surprised. Professor Tony Seba writes how horribly inefficient biofuels are in his … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, biofuels, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, clean disruption, climate, climate disruption, conservation, methanol | Leave a comment

Foul concerns (UPDATE: 14th September 2015)

Updated, 14th September 2015 I submitted a Letter to the Editor of The Westwood Press last week, one which was published in Friday’s paper edition. It did not/has not yet made it online. It was in response to an article … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, bifurcations, Boston, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, climate disruption, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, economics, efficiency, EIA, energy, energy reduction, energy utilities, engineering, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, fracking, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, meteorology, methane, microgrids, mitigation, natural gas, pipelines, planning, politics, public utility commissions, PUCs, rationality, reasonableness, risk, solar energy, solar power, SolarPV.tv, sustainability, temporal myopia, Tony Seba, Westwood, wind power, zero carbon | Leave a comment

Bob Inglis: “Energy optimists. Climate realists.”

Kudos. http://climateeye.republicen.org/ http://blog.republicen.org/ http://republicen.org/areyouen/ http://republicen.org/the-solution-element/ http://republicen.org/the-solution-element/realist-guide/ I’m not, by their definition anyway, a conservative. In fact, I’m pretty apolitical these days although I will do things like demonstrate. But it’s completely clear to me this problem isn’t going to get … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, atheism, bifurcations, Bill Nye, bridge to nowhere, capricious gods, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, climate change, climate disruption, compassion, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, ecology, economics, education, energy reduction, energy utilities, environment, ethics, finance, fossil fuel divestment, global warming, humanism, Hyper Anthropocene, ignorance, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, meteorology, new forms of scientific peer review, NOAA, oceanography, physical materialism, physics, politics, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, sociology, statistics, sustainability, Tea Party, UU Humanists | 1 Comment

Tell Utilities Solar won’t be Killed

TUSK, and former Congressman Barry Goldwater, Jr, interviewed at midwestenergynews.com. Goldwater says “you could almost call it a conspiracy” the way utilities are trying to recoup costs from customers who generate their own solar power, avoiding what utilities claim are … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, Cape Wind, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, conservation, consumption, corruption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions | Leave a comment

“Dismantling the Utility Model is the Fastest Path to a Cleaner Electricity Infrastructure”

Dismantling the Utility Model is the Fastest Path to a Cleaner Electricity Infrastructure, by Thomas Conroy.

Posted in Cauchy distribution, clean disruption, climate disruption, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, economics, efficiency, EIA, energy, energy reduction, energy utilities, engineering, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, global warming, investment in wind and solar energy, maths, mitigation, natural gas, optimization, pipelines, politics, public utility commissions, rationality, reasonableness, solar energy, solar power, SolarPV.tv, Tony Seba, zero carbon | Leave a comment

“Solar: A convenient truth” (2016)

http://solarpv.tv/embed/163 A major documentary regarding the revolutionary emergency of solar energy is in the works, scheduled to be released in 2016. Update, 23rd September 2019 Apparently not only wasn’t this made, but the site touting it has gone away. Would … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, carbon dioxide, clean disruption, climate, climate change, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, economics, efficiency, energy, energy reduction, energy utilities, exponential growth, fossil fuel divestment, global warming, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, meteorology, optimization, physics, politics, rationality, reasonableness, solar energy, solar power, SolarPV.tv, sustainability, temporal myopia, the right to know, Tony Seba, wind power, zero carbon | 1 Comment

Solar array with cloud predicting technology launched in WA

Australia’s first grid-connected solar power project with cloud predicting technology launched at Karratha Airport, WA, in bid to smooth solar supply. Source: Solar array with cloud predicting technology launched in WA

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, carbon dioxide, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, dynamic linear models, efficiency, energy, energy reduction, energy utilities, engineering, environment, ethics, forecasting, geophysics, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, investment in wind and solar energy, Kalman filter, mathematics, maths, meteorology, microgrids, mitigation, NCAR, numerical software, optimization, physics, prediction, probabilistic programming, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, solar power, stochastics, sustainability, time series | Leave a comment

Yep, power to developing countries as simple as that

No tanker trucks needed, no pipelines, no roads, no utilities, no security forces to defend them, and no government back-room-deals with oil and gas companies. Hat tip to Eco inventos for the original inspiration.

Posted in Anthropocene, civilization, clean disruption, climate education, compassion, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, destructive economic development, economics, education, efficiency, energy, energy reduction, environment, ethics, fossil fuel divestment, humanism, Hyper Anthropocene, investment in wind and solar energy | 2 Comments

Locally generated solar PV will destroy America’s electric utilities: Barclays

We fully expect utilities and regulators to make a good faith effort to preserve the status quo “regulatory compact,” whereby the monopoly utility provides a safe and reliable service and regulators allow it to earn a reasonable low-risk return. However, … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, bridge to nowhere, Cape Wind, carbon dioxide, citizenship, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, compassion, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, dynamical systems, economics, efficiency, energy, energy reduction, energy utilities, engineering, environment, ethics, exponential growth, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, meteorology, microgrids, physics, prediction, public utility commissions, PUCs, rationality, reasonableness, risk, solar power, statistics, Tony Seba, wind power, zero carbon | Leave a comment

Leaks in Westwood: Natural Gas — a bridge to nowhere

These are ongoing leaks of natural gas in the Westwood area. They are reported, as required by law, by Eversource, the local utility, to Massachusetts government authorities, along with an indication of Eversource’s estimate of the severity of the leak. … Continue reading

Posted in bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, climate, climate change, climate data, climate disruption, conservation, consumption, ecology, energy reduction, energy utilities, environment, fossil fuels, fracking, global warming, investment in wind and solar energy, meteorology, methane, natural gas, open data, pipelines, politics, public utility commissions, PUCs, rationality, reasonableness, risk, spatial statistics, sustainability, the right to know, zero carbon | Leave a comment

Why coastal New England is good for wind

(Click on image for larger graphic.) By the way, this “sigma.995” says the wind speeds are for where the atmospheric pressure is 0.995 of Sea Level atmospheric pressure. Compare with Texas. And see this chart of installed wind capacity: (Click … Continue reading

Posted in Cape Wind, carbon dioxide, civilization, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, ecology, economics, EIA, energy, energy utilities, environment, ethics, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, games of chance, geophysics, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, ignorance, investment in wind and solar energy, MA, meteorology, NCAR, NIMBY, NOAA, physics, politics, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, wind power | Leave a comment

Google shows how it’s done

Google’s Project Sunroof. Google Green. Google’s corporate statement on rising to the climate challenge. Google’s negative Carbon footprint. Green power at Google. Simply put, Google shows it can be done, and what can be done, if the problem of climate … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, carbon dioxide, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, conservation, consumption, COP21, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, destructive economic development, ecology, economics, efficiency, energy, energy reduction, energy utilities, environment, ethics, fossil fuel divestment, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, investment in wind and solar energy, rationality, risk, science, solar power, sustainability, wind power, zero carbon | Leave a comment

“Allocating a 2° C cumulative carbon budget to countries”: Gignac and Matthews

Abstract Recent estimates of the global carbon budget, or allowable cumulative CO2 emissions consistent with a given level of climate warming, have the potential to inform climate mitigation policy discussions aimed at maintaining global temperatures below 2° C. This raises … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, Boston Ethical Society, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, chance, chemistry, citizen science, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate education, climate justice, compassion, conservation, consumption, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, ecology, education, energy, energy reduction, environment, ethics, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, humanism, Hyper Anthropocene, ignorance, investment in wind and solar energy, IPCC, meteorology, mitigation, open source scientific software, physical materialism, physics, population biology, prediction, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, science education, scientific publishing, sociology, solar power, sustainability, temporal myopia, the right to know, time series, UNFCCC, UU Humanists, wind power | Leave a comment

Utilities for dummies: How they work and why that needs to change (from grist.org)

“Utilities are shielded by a force field of tedium.” “Solar panels could destroy U.S. utilities, according to U.S. utilities.” Utilities for dummies: How they work and why that needs to change“, a compact introduction, from grist.org. And there’s an additional … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, bifurcations, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate education, conservation, consumption, corruption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, disingenuity, dynamic linear models, dynamical systems, ecology, economics, education, efficiency, energy, energy reduction, energy utilities, engineering, environment, ethics, exponential growth, finance, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, fracking, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, ignorance, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, mathematics, maths, meteorology, methane, microgrids, natural gas, optimization, physics, pipelines, politics, prediction, public utility commissions, PUCs, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, solar power, statistics, sustainability, taxes, temporal myopia, the right to know, time series, Tony Seba, wind power, zero carbon | 1 Comment

Solar installation progress, courtesy of MacSolarIndex.com

The MAC Solar Index tracks a set of solar manufacturing and installation companies. It is also the basis for the Guggenheim Investments “TAN” Exchange-Traded Fund (“ETF”, *). They recently published a progress report on global solar installations, which I wanted … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, carbon dioxide, citizen science, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate data, climate disruption, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, dynamic linear models, dynamical systems, ecology, economics, efficiency, energy, energy reduction, environment, exponential growth, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, mathematics, mathematics education, maths, meteorology, microgrids, open data, optimization, physics, politics, prediction, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, science education, solar power, sustainability, the right to know, time series, Tony Seba, wind power, zero carbon | Leave a comment

California solar users already affecting per-residence rates of non-solar utility customers

Lead article in the San Francisco Chronicle today addresses how non-solar customers of Pacific Gas & Electric are already carrying a larger burden of the network costs for that utility, costs which are reflected in their rates. This is the … Continue reading

Posted in bifurcations, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, differential equations, dynamical systems, economics, efficiency, energy, energy reduction, environment, exponential growth, finance, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, global warming, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, maths, microgrids, natural gas, pipelines, politics, rationality, reasonableness, solar power, statistics, temporal myopia, Tony Seba, wind power, zero carbon | Leave a comment

SCIENCE OF DOOM takes on assessing zero Carbon power and a zero Carbon grid

Updated, 2127 EDT, 10th August 2015 The blog, Science of Doom, has taken on a new thread discussing the technical feasibilities and problems associated with building out zero Carbon energy in the context of an electric grid. As such, it … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, clean disruption, climate data, climate disruption, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, dynamic linear models, dynamical systems, economics, efficiency, energy, energy reduction, engineering, environment, exponential growth, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, microgrids, open data, optimization, prediction, rationality, reasonableness, risk, solar power, state-space models, stochastics, sustainability, the right to know, time series, wind power, Wordpress, zero carbon | 4 Comments

BOYCOTT University Station, Westwood, MA

Details here: https://goo.gl/1HleSW. Image below. Additional reasons were given here. And here. Here’s the re-cap: https://www.neponset.org/your-watershed/natural-history/ The Town of Westwood has pushed, encouraged, supported, and, some might say, rushed and railroaded through the development of a major shopping mall on … Continue reading

Posted in citizenship, climate change, climate disruption, conservation, corruption, destructive economic development, ecology, environment, ethics, MA, risk, shop, University Station | 8 Comments