Category Archives: consumption

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

“Natural Gas Pipeline Replacement Programs Reduce Methane Leaks and Improve Consumer Safety”

Update, 2018-11-19 Pipeline replacements, yes, assuming they are done correctly. Otherwise, strand them. See “NTSB faults NiSource for deadly Massachusetts gas explosions“. NiSource is the parent company of Columbia Gas of Massachusetts. Here are the NTSB recommendations and report. Natural … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, bridge to nowhere, citizenship, climate, climate change, climate disruption, consumption, economics, energy utilities, environment, fossil fuels, fracking, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, investing, methane, mitigation, natural gas, pipelines, politics, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, sociology, spatial statistics, the right to know | 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

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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

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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

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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

Hausfathers “Climate Impacts of Coal and Natural Gas”

(Updated below, 21st June 2018.) Zeke Hausfather published “Climate Impacts of Coal and Natural Gas” on the BEST project site. He makes a close analysis of the relative benefits of coal and natural gas, considering the subtleties and pitfalls of … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, climate, climate change, climate disruption, consumption, COP21, ecology, energy, energy reduction, environment, forecasting, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, James Hansen, methane, natural gas, physics, pipelines, rationality, Ray Pierrehumbert, reasonableness, risk, statistics, the right to know, zero carbon | Leave a comment

It was the year 2000, Elizabeth Houghton had just died, and the plan was to restore the ecosystems about Fowl Meadow

Please remember Elizabeth Houghton as you pass by Routes 128 and 95 in Canton, looking north over her beloved Fowl Meadow and the Neponset River. She can no longer show you her photographs of the watershed under flood conditions and … Continue reading

Posted in biology, citizenship, consumption, destructive economic development, ecology, environment, ethics, exponential growth, floods, Hyper Anthropocene, ignorance, living shorelines, politics, population biology, prediction, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, statistics, the right to know, transparency, University Station, Westwood | Leave a comment

Draft elements of COP21 agreement for Paris

There is a revised text now available which provides elements of a draft for the COP21 agreement in Paris. The context of this document and what it contains is provided by a news story at RTCC (“Responding To Climate Change”), … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate justice, compassion, consumption, COP21, environment, ethics, fossil fuel divestment, global warming, history, humanism, Hyper Anthropocene, investing, IPCC, politics, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, UNFCCC, zero carbon | Leave a comment

Tea Party member Debbie Dooley on solar power (from The Guardian)

I support solar energy because of my Tea Party beliefs — not despite them (From Debbie Dooley, in an article at The Guardian, one of the 22 founding members of the Tea Party.) I am a lifelong conservative and, also, … Continue reading

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Spectra Energy (and others) Plan to Expand Pipeline to Feed Gas to DownEast LNG (Maine) for Export! – Natural Gas Watch.org

Spectra Energy (and others) Plan to Expand Pipeline to Feed Gas to DownEast LNG (Maine) for Export! – Natural Gas Watch.org. This would not occur if the natural gas had been assigned a stiff Carbon Tax.

Posted in bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, climate, climate change, climate disruption, consumption, denial, economics, environment, ethics, finance, geophysics, global warming, methane, natural gas, physics, rationality, reasonableness, risk, statistics, temporal myopia, the right to know | 4 Comments

What Boston will eventually look like under TWO DEGREES global warming

International efforts are under way to bring greenhouse gas emissions to zero in a manner fast enough to limit global warming to +2 degrees Celsius. That’s proving tough to do, and there are some expectations it won’t be achieved. Some … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Boston, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate change, climate disruption, conservation, consumption, ecology, environment, floods, forecasting, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, IPCC, living shorelines, meteorology, NCAR, NOAA, nor'easters, oceanography, Principles of Planetary Climate, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, sea level rise, statistics, zero carbon | 1 Comment

Links explaining climate change Kevin Jones liked

Kevin Jones asked me if I could put the links in a Comment on a post I made at Google+ in a collection or something for reference. I am therefore repeating the Comment with these details below. No one simple … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, astrophysics, bifurcations, biology, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, chance, citizen science, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate education, climate models, climate zombies, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, dynamical systems, ecology, economics, efficiency, energy, energy reduction, environment, exponential growth, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, history, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, IPCC, living shorelines, mass extinctions, mass transit, mathematics, maths, meteorology, methane, microgrids, model comparison, NASA, natural gas, NCAR, NOAA, oceanography, physics, politics, population biology, Principles of Planetary Climate, rationality, Ray Pierrehumbert, reasonableness, science, science education, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, sea level rise, sociology, solar power, statistics, temporal myopia, the right to know, Tony Seba, WHOI, wind power, zero carbon | Leave a comment

disruption to global electricity production during the next 25 years

I am a huge fan of Tony Seba’s writings and work, primarily because I am an engineer, and I simply cannot accept that the situation with the impending climate catastrophe is hopeless. Engineers are eternal optimists. Not everyone will be … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, citizenship, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, dynamical systems, economics, energy, engineering, environment, ethics, exponential growth, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, fracking, global warming, history, investment in wind and solar energy, mathematics, maths, methane, microgrids, natural gas, politics, rationality, reasonableness, risk, sociology, solar power, statistics, stochastics, sustainability, taxes, the right to know, Tony Seba, transparency, wind power, zero carbon | 6 Comments

federal energy subsidies: your tax dollars at work

Don’t even begin to talk about how “favored” renewables are, or how much people need taxes cut until something is done to address this: (Hat tip to Paul Lauenstein of the Sustainable Sharon Coalition for the graphic.)

Posted in bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, chance, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate education, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, denial, economics, education, efficiency, energy, energy reduction, environment, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, global warming, investment in wind and solar energy, methane, natural gas, politics, rationality, reasonableness, solar power, statistics, sustainability, taxes, wind power, zero carbon | Leave a comment

Cost of (unsubsidized) solar reaches a new low

LCOE for solar has reached a new low, still higher than land-based wind turbines, but otherwise cheaper than any other source of energy. See the Clean Technica article.

Posted in citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, economics, efficiency, energy, energy reduction, engineering, environment, fossil fuel divestment, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, microgrids, rationality, reasonableness, solar power, sustainability, wind power, zero carbon | Leave a comment

Climate Justice

December 2015 will see the definitive meeting of the UNFCCC COP 21 intended to set targets and commitments under the UN treaty establishing UNFCCC and the IPCC, one approved and ratified by the United States (*). Before then, a good … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, bifurcations, carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide capture, carbon dioxide sequestration, Carbon Tax, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate education, climate justice, compassion, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, dynamical systems, economics, education, energy, energy reduction, environment, ethics, fossil fuel divestment, games of chance, geophysics, global warming, history, humanism, investment in wind and solar energy, IPCC, NOAA, oceanography, physics, politics, population biology, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, science education, sociology, temporal myopia, Unitarian Universalism, UU Humanists, zero carbon | 1 Comment

Bill Nye on BIG THINK: Fracking, renewable energy storage, and climate deniers

Posted in Bill Nye, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, ecology, economics, efficiency, environment, fracking, geophysics, global warming, investment in wind and solar energy, physics, politics, rationality, reasonableness, science, temporal myopia, wind power, zero carbon | Leave a comment

Why decentralized electrical power has to win, no matter what Elon Musk says, and utilities are doomed

Posted in bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, citizenship, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate education, compassion, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, diffusion processes, dynamical systems, ecology, economics, efficiency, energy, energy reduction, engineering, environment, ethics, exponential growth, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, geophysics, global warming, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, living shorelines, mass transit, mathematics education, maths, meteorology, microgrids, natural gas, NCAR, NOAA, nor'easters, obfuscating data, oceanography, open data, optimization, physics, politics, population biology, Principles of Planetary Climate, rationality, Ray Pierrehumbert, reasonableness, reproducible research, risk, science, science education, scientific publishing, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, solar power, state-space models, statistics, temporal myopia, testing, the right to know, time series, wind power, zero carbon | 3 Comments

One year, and ten years of carbon dioxide concentration readings, Mauna Loa

From NOAA.

Posted in carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate education, consumption, diffusion processes, dynamical systems, ecology, environment, ethics, exponential growth, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, geophysics, investment in wind and solar energy, IPCC, meteorology, NOAA, open data, Principles of Planetary Climate, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, science education, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, statistics, sustainability, temporal myopia, the right to know, time series, zero carbon | Leave a comment