Category Archives: energy

Spread the Sun

Posted in alternatives to the Green New Deal, an ignorant American public, an uncaring American public, Bloomberg Green, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, bridge to somewhere, Buckminster Fuller, climate disruption, controls theory, corporate supply chains, decentralized electric power generation, distributed generation, ecocapitalism, ecological disruption, ecomodernism, economics, ecopragmatism, electrical energy storage, energy, environment, environmental law, evidence, extended producer responsibility, extended supply chains, field biology, field science, global blinding, Global Carbon Project, global warming, Green Tech Media, gun violence as public health crisis, guns | Leave a comment

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 | 5 Comments

People ask me, When you want to feel optimistic, or be optimistic, what do you do?

Updated, 1st January 2019 Simple. I bring up the latest, and listen to Professor Tony Seba of Stanford University. I am also a devoted enthusiast for the energy programs of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, per John Farrell’s excellent work. … Continue reading

Posted in Ørsted, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, CleanTechnica, energy, energy utilities, Tony Seba | Leave a comment

Oil and Gas

What the head of the American Petroleum Institute, Frank Ikard, said in 1965.

Posted in Adam Smith, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Petroleum Institute, American Statistical Association, Ørsted, being carbon dioxide, BNEF, bridge to nowhere, Carbon Worshipers, Cult of Carbon, decentralized electric power generation, EIA, energy, explosive methane, solar domination, the green century, the right to know, the tragedy of our present civilization, the value of financial assets | Leave a comment

Blackbody radiation and the greenhouse effect, via plates (from Eli Rabett)

See Eli’s post. Excerpt: Eli can keep on adding plates, Ms. Rabett has gone out to buy some extras. Here is the red plate special. If somebunny works it through they will find that b’=3/4 a, go another plate and, … Continue reading

Posted in Blackbody radiation, carbon dioxide, climate change, Eli Rabett, energy, energy flux, global warming, lapse rate, physics, science | Leave a comment

Defying technology, trends … nay, defying Mathematics!

The creatures from Trumpland are planning an Energy Week in the upcoming, probably to lead up to the Fourth of July celebrations. Our Orange Leader … will tout surging U.S. exports of oil and natural gas during a week of … Continue reading

Posted in American Petroleum Institute, American Solar Energy Society, Anthropocene, being carbon dioxide, Bloomberg, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, bridge to nowhere, bridge to somewhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, clean disruption, climate business, climate economics, corporate litigation on damage from fossil fuel emissions, corporations, destructive economic development, Donald Trump, economics, electricity markets, energy, energy utilities, evidence, explosive methane, exponential growth, extended supply chains, false advertising, FERC, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuel infrastructure, fossil fuels, fracking, global blinding, greenhouse gases, Humans have a lot to answer for, Hyper Anthropocene, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, investments, Joseph Schumpeter, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, military inferiority, Minsky moment, pipelines, politics, pollution, rights of the inhabitants of the Commonwealth, risk, solar democracy, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, the energy of the people, the green century, the problem of evil, the right to be and act stupid, the stack of lies, the tragedy of our present civilization, the value of financial assets, tragedy of the horizon, United States, utility company death spiral, wind energy, wind power | Leave a comment

`Evidence of a decline in electricity use by U.S. households’ (Prof Lucas Davis, U.C. Berkeley)

This is from a blog post by Professor Lucas Davis at his blog. In addition to the subject, that’s an interesting way of presenting a change over time I’ll need to think about: It seems the model could be used … Continue reading

Posted in American Solar Energy Society, American Statistical Association, anomaly detection, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, bridge to somewhere, convergent cross-mapping, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, dependent data, efficiency, EIA, electricity, electricity markets, energy, energy reduction, energy utilities, engineering, evidence, green tech, local self reliance, Lucas Davis, marginal energy sources, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, model-free forecasting, multivariate statistics, public utility commissions, rate of return regulation, statistics, Takens embedding theorem | Leave a comment

Greenwashing

Painted signage on the side of a delivery truck parked outside a neighbor’s home deliverying oil made me curious about this, so I checked out their Web site. Here is what I found: (To see larger figure, click on image … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, being carbon dioxide, biofuels, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, clean disruption, CleanTechnica, climate business, climate change, climate disruption, climate economics, economics, energy, environment, false advertising, fossil fuels, global warming, greenhouse gases, greenwashing, Hyper Anthropocene, regulatory capture, rhetoric, sociology, supply chains, the tragedy of our present civilization | Leave a comment

93% of year is free of cost, with heat, cooling, hot water, powered by free solar PHOTONS

A retrospective, something we all now need. Remember: Want your democracy back? Take back control of your energy supply Energy Democracy Dramatis personæ: How to do zero Carbon emissions at a residence (Westwood, MA) Three stories of solar energy domination: … Continue reading

Posted in American Solar Energy Society, Anthropocene, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, Carbon Worshipers, clean disruption, CleanTechnica, climate business, Debbie Dooley, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, distributed generation, ecology, Ecology Action, economics, efficiency, electricity, electricity markets, energy, energy reduction, energy storage, energy utilities, engineering, environmental law, feed-in tariff, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuel infrastructure, Green Tea Coalition, Hermann Scheer, Hyper Anthropocene, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, making money, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, microgrids, public utility commissions, rate of return regulation, regulatory capture, RevoluSun, Sankey diagram, solar democracy, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, Spaceship Earth, SunPower, sustainability, the energy of the people, the green century, the value of financial assets, Tony Seba, utility company death spiral, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon | 1 Comment

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

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

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

“Trump can’t stop the energy revolution” (Bloomberg)

See the article by Chris Bryant. Excerpt: Onshore wind is already cost-competitive with natural gas in the U.S. and solar costs are falling rapidly. This chart shows the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) for various generating technologies entering service in … Continue reading

Posted in Bloomberg, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, Buckminster Fuller, clean disruption, CleanTechnica, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, distributed generation, Donald Trump, dump Trump, economics, efficiency, electricity markets, energy, energy utilities, fossil fuel divestment, green tech, grid defection, investment in wind and solar energy, Joseph Schumpeter, local generation, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, microgrids, solar democracy, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, Solpad, Spaceship Earth, stranded assets, the energy of the people, the green century, the right to be and act stupid, the tragedy of our present civilization, Tony Seba, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon, ``The tide is risin'/And so are we'' | Leave a comment

Westwood Solar & Energy Fair

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

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

Why natural gas is a problem for the Massachusetts GWSA

The Massachusetts Global Warming Solutions Act (“GWSA”) requires that Massachusetts must limit its emissions in four important sectors to less than 80% of emissions in the year 1990 beginning in 2050, and its emissions must decrease year after year beginning … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, Carbon Tax, climate change, climate disruption, climate economics, coastal communities, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, ecology, energy, energy reduction, global warming, greenhouse gases, Hyper Anthropocene, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, planning, politics | Leave a comment

Testimony to MassDEP, M.G.L. chapter 21N, section 3(d) (from the Global Warming Solutions Act)

I testified to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (“MassDEP”) yesterday regarding means of enforcing limits as required by the Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 21N, Section 3(d), otherwise known as (a portion of) the Massachusetts Global Warming Solutions Act, as … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Meteorological Association, American Solar Energy Society, AMETSOC, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, Buckminster Fuller, Carbon Tax, citizenship, clean disruption, climate, climate business, climate disruption, coastal communities, coasts, consumption, corporate litigation on damage from fossil fuel emissions, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, distributed generation, ecology, Ecology Action, economics, electricity, electricity markets, energy, energy reduction, energy storage, energy utilities, environment, environmental law, evidence, feed-in tariff, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, gas pipeline leaks, global warming, greenhouse gases, grid defection, Hyper Anthropocene, investment in wind and solar energy, ISO-NE, Joseph Schumpeter, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, living shorelines, MA, marginal energy sources, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, Massachusetts Interfaith Coalition for Climate Action, meteorology, methane, politics, public utility commissions, PUCs, rate of return regulation, regulatory capture, solar democracy, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, Spaceship Earth, the energy of the people, the green century, the value of financial assets, Tony Seba, utility company death spiral, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon | 1 Comment

A state that doesn’t provide zero Carbon energy is at a competitive disadvantage

From Utilities squeezed as corporations seek renewable energy elsewhere, as seen on Google+: As of September, 62 of the country’s largest corporations had indicated their energy priorities by endorsing the Corporate Renewable Energy Buyers Principles. Other large institutions such as … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, clean disruption, CleanTechnica, climate economics, corporate litigation on damage from fossil fuel emissions, corporate supply chains, data centers, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, destructive economic development, distributed generation, electricity, electricity markets, energy, energy utilities, extended supply chains, fossil fuel divestment, green tech, grid defection, Hermann Scheer, Hyper Anthropocene, investment in wind and solar energy, John Farrell, Joseph Schumpeter, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, local generation, marginal energy sources, microgrids, public utility commissions, PUCs, rate of return regulation, reasonableness, regulatory capture, resiliency, Sankey diagram, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, Spaceship Earth, stranded assets, supply chains, sustainability, the green century, the value of financial assets, Tony Seba, utility company death spiral, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon | Leave a comment

Who paved the roads?

Professor Tony Seba of Stanford University is a great leader, visionary, speaker, and business expert. He often starts his talks with two successive public domain images to illustrate technological and business disruption. These are shown below. One is a photograph … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, Carbon Worshipers, clean disruption, CleanTechnica, climate business, climate disruption, climate economics, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, disruption, distributed generation, economics, electricity markets, energy, energy reduction, energy storage, energy utilities, feed-in tariff, fossil fuel divestment, Gaylord Nelson, global warming, green tech, grid defection, Hyper Anthropocene, ILSR, investment in wind and solar energy, ISO-NE, Joseph Schumpeter, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, local generation, marginal energy sources, Mark Jacobson, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, meteorology, microgrids, Minsky moment, planning, public utility commissions, PUCs, rate of return regulation, rationality, reason, reasonableness, regime shifts, regulatory capture, resiliency, risk, Sankey diagram, solar democracy, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, Stanford University, stranded assets, supply chains, sustainability, the energy of the people, the green century, the right to know, the value of financial assets, Tony Seba, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon | Leave a comment

Once more, with feeling: Responding to Kostrzewa in The Providence Journal

It’s making the rounds. Today it’s John Kostrzewa, Assistant Managing Editor of The Providence Journal, arguing the necessity of natural gas and its pipelines with his “Why R.I.’s economy needs a natural-gas pipeline”. And my response, below, which allowed me … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, bridge to nowhere, Carbon Worshipers, citizen science, citizenship, clean disruption, CleanTechnica, climate business, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, denial, disruption, distributed generation, electricity, electricity markets, energy, energy utilities, evidence, extended supply chains, FERC, fossil fuels, fracking, gas pipeline leaks, global warming, greenhouse gases, Hermann Scheer, Hyper Anthropocene, investment in wind and solar energy, Joseph Schumpeter, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, methane, microgrids, natural gas, pipelines, public utility commissions, PUCs, regime shifts, regulatory capture, Rhode Island, risk, Sankey diagram, solar democracy, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, stranded assets, supply chains, the energy of the people, the green century, the right to be and act stupid, the right to know, the stack of lies, the tragedy of our present civilization, the value of financial assets, Tony Seba, utility company death spiral, zero carbon | Leave a comment

Gustin and companies lack technological and business imagination

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

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

`The Future of Energy’

Writing in Newsweek, Kevin Maney talks about the Future of Energy and Elon Musk’s long term plan to kill Big Oil. Hat tip to Peter Sinclair at Climate Denial Crock of the Week where I first found the mention of … Continue reading

Posted in American Solar Energy Society, Anthropocene, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, bridge to somewhere, Buckminster Fuller, CleanTechnica, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, destructive economic development, disruption, distributed generation, electricity, electricity markets, energy, energy utilities, exponential growth, fossil fuel divestment, green tech, grid defection, Hermann Scheer, Hyper Anthropocene, ILSR, investment in wind and solar energy, John Farrell, Joseph Schumpeter, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, local generation, Michael Osborne, microgrids, public utility commissions, PUCs, regime shifts, solar democracy, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, Spaceship Earth, the energy of the people, the green century, the value of financial assets, utility company death spiral, zero carbon | Leave a comment

An Energy Revolution

Professor Mara Prentiss speaks at Harvard on the possibility of an “energy revolution”: Update, 2016-08-16 Although I am not a PhD professor like Professor Prentiss, nor am I associated with an institution as esteemed as Harvard University, I disagree with … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, clean disruption, climate change, climate disruption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, disruption, distributed generation, ecology, electricity, electricity markets, energy, energy storage, energy utilities, engineering, fossil fuel divestment, global warming, green tech, greenhouse gases, grid defection, Hermann Scheer, Hyper Anthropocene, investment in wind and solar energy, Joseph Schumpeter, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, Mark Jacobson, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, Michael Osborne, microgrids, public utility commissions, PUCs, Sankey diagram, smart data, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, Spaceship Earth, stranded assets, sustainability, the energy of the people, the green century, the right to be and act stupid, the right to know, the tragedy of our present civilization, the value of financial assets, Tony Seba, utility company death spiral, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon | Leave a comment

Energy Democracy

I’ve actually written about this before, but John Farrell of the ILSR (“Institute for Local Self-Reliance” a famous Emerson essay, by the way) presents an up-to-date synthesis of developments, incorporating policy as well as Tony Seba-like, Hermann Scheer-like, and Michael … Continue reading

Posted in abstraction, Anthropocene, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, bridge to somewhere, Buckminster Fuller, citizenship, clean disruption, CleanTechnica, climate economics, corporate litigation on damage from fossil fuel emissions, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, distributed generation, economics, efficiency, electricity, electricity markets, energy, energy reduction, energy storage, energy utilities, engineering, evidence, extended supply chains, feed-in tariff, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, green tech, grid defection, Hermann Scheer, Hyper Anthropocene, ILSR, investment in wind and solar energy, John Farrell, Joseph Schumpeter, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, liberal climate deniers, life purpose, local generation, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, Michael Osborne, microgrids, open data, public utility commissions, PUCs, rate of return regulation, rationality, reason, reasonableness, regime shifts, regulatory capture, risk, Sankey diagram, solar democracy, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, SolarPV.tv, Spaceship Earth, spatial statistics, statistics, stranded assets, sustainability, temporal myopia, the energy of the people, the green century, Tony Seba, utility company death spiral, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon | 1 Comment

Dramatis personæ: How to do zero Carbon emissions at a residence (Westwood, MA)

Updated, 1st October 2019 (To see a larger picture for this and all images, click on image and then use browser Back Button to return to blog.) Our external meter is now reading negative. Peak was 2850 in April 2016. … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, bridge to somewhere, Buckminster Fuller, citizenship, clean disruption, climate business, climate disruption, climate economics, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, electricity, electricity markets, energy, energy reduction, energy utilities, fossil fuel divestment, global warming, green tech, grid defection, Hyper Anthropocene, investment in wind and solar energy, local generation, Mark Jacobson, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, Michael Osborne, microgrids, New England, open data, regime shifts, RevoluSun, Sankey diagram, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, Spaceship Earth, SunPower, sustainability, the energy of the people, the green century, the value of financial assets, Tony Seba, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon | 11 Comments

TOO LATE: “There will be no golden age of [natural] gas”

Last month, Tom Randall at Bloomberg New Energy Finance (“BNEF”) profiled a new forecast which shows costs for zero Carbon energy and energy are plummetting so fast that coal, oil, and natural gas will begin their terminal decline within a … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, American Petroleum Institute, Anthropocene, Bloomberg, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, bridge to nowhere, Buckminster Fuller, Chevron, citizenship, clean disruption, climate change, climate disruption, climate economics, climate justice, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, disruption, distributed generation, Ecology Action, economics, efficiency, electricity, electricity markets, energy, energy storage, energy utilities, engineering, explosive methane, Exxon, false advertising, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, fracking, geoengineering, global warming, green tech, greenhouse gases, grid defection, Gulf Oil, Hermann Scheer, Hyper Anthropocene, investment in wind and solar energy, ISO-NE, Joseph Schumpeter, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, Mathematics and Climate Research Network, methane, microgrids, natural gas, petroleum, pipelines, rate of return regulation, rationality, reason, reasonableness, regime shifts, risk, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, Standard Oil of California, stranded assets, supply chains, sustainability, the energy of the people, the green century, the right to be and act stupid, the right to know, the stack of lies, the tragedy of our present civilization, the value of financial assets, utility company death spiral, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon | 5 Comments

A model of an electrical grid: A vision

Many people seem to view the electrical grid of the future being much like the present one. I think a lot about networks, because of my job. And I especially think a lot about network topologies, although primarily concerning the … Continue reading

Posted in abstraction, American Meteorological Association, anomaly detection, Anthropocene, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, Boston, bridge to somewhere, Buckminster Fuller, Canettes Blues Band, clean disruption, climate business, climate economics, complex systems, corporate supply chains, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, differential equations, distributed generation, efficiency, EIA, electricity, electricity markets, energy, energy reduction, energy storage, energy utilities, engineering, extended supply chains, green tech, grid defection, Hermann Scheer, Hyper Anthropocene, investment in wind and solar energy, ISO-NE, Kalman filter, kriging, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, Lenny Smith, local generation, marginal energy sources, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, Mathematics and Climate Research Network, mesh models, meteorology, microgrids, networks, New England, New York State, open data, organizational failures, pipelines, planning, prediction markets, public utility commissions, PUCs, rate of return regulation, rationality, reason, reasonableness, regime shifts, regulatory capture, resiliency, risk, Sankey diagram, smart data, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, Spaceship Earth, spatial statistics, state-space models, statistical dependence, statistics, stochastic algorithms, stochastics, stranded assets, supply chains, sustainability, the energy of the people, the green century, the value of financial assets, thermodynamics, time series, Tony Seba, utility company death spiral, wave equations, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon | Leave a comment

Natural gas: The Zaphod Beeblebrox of energy

Amber Lin at The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists describes the two-headed character of natural gas plants needed to implement “natural gas as a bridge fuel”, and sketches the stark reality proponents of that argument are embracing if they are … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, atmosphere, Bloomberg, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, bridge to nowhere, bridge to somewhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, Carbon Worshipers, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate economics, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, distributed generation, electricity, electricity markets, energy, energy utilities, explosive methane, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, fracking, gas pipeline leaks, global warming, greenhouse gases, greenwashing, Hyper Anthropocene, investment in wind and solar energy, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, methane, natural gas, networks, petroleum, pipelines, planning, politics, public utility commissions, PUCs, rate of return regulation, rationality, reason, reasonableness, regulatory capture, Sankey diagram, solar domination, stranded assets, supply chains, 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, zero carbon | 2 Comments

Now, if we could only say the same thing about Massachusetts …

Massachusetts is supposed to be a Blue State. Massachusetts is supposed to be concerned about the environment, full of tree-hugging eco-weenies (like myself!), and sprouting solar panels from every other rooftop. Massachusetts is supposed to have aggressive support for zero … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, bridge to nowhere, bridge to somewhere, Buckminster Fuller, Cape Wind, Carbon Worshipers, citizenship, clean disruption, climate business, corruption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, distributed generation, economics, electricity, electricity markets, energy, energy utilities, explosive methane, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, gas pipeline leaks, Green Tea Coalition, greenhouse gases, Hyper Anthropocene, investment in wind and solar energy, ISO-NE, Joseph Schumpeter, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, local generation, MA, Mark Jacobson, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, Massachusetts Interfaith Coalition for Climate Action, Michael Osborne, natural gas, New England, Nikola Tesla, pipelines, politics, public utility commissions, PUCs, rate of return regulation, rationality, reason, reasonableness, regulatory capture, risk, Sankey diagram, solar energy, solar power, Spaceship Earth, supply chains, Texas, the energy of the people, the green century, the tragedy of our present civilization, the value of financial assets, Tony Seba, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon | 1 Comment

Rushing the +2 degree Celsius boundary

I made a comment on Google+ pertaining to a report of a recent NOAA finding. Enjoy. But remember that COP21 boundary is equivalent to 450 ppm CO2.

Posted in adaptation, AMETSOC, Anthropocene, atmosphere, Bill Nye, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, Carbon Worshipers, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, climate, climate disruption, COP21, corporate litigation on damage from fossil fuel emissions, differential equations, disruption, distributed generation, Donald Trump, ecology, El Nina, El Nino, energy, energy reduction, engineering, environment, environmental law, Epcot, explosive methane, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, greenhouse gases, greenwashing, Hyper Anthropocene, investment in wind and solar energy, IPCC, local generation, Mark Jacobson, Martyn Plummer, microgrids, Miguel Altieri, philosophy, physical materialism, R, resiliency, Ricky Rood, risk, Sankey diagram | Leave a comment

BOYCOTT natural gas, American or otherwise

It’s one thing to oppose pipelines and continued use of fossil fuels, but there is little as effective as a boycott of the key product. This is certainly not a new idea. (I don’t do Facebook. See this 2001 article … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, atmosphere, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, bridge to nowhere, Carbon Worshipers, citizenship, civilization, climate change, climate disruption, climate economics, climate justice, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, denial, destructive economic development, distributed generation, ecology, economics, electricity, electricity markets, energy, environment, explosive methane, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, fracking, gas pipeline leaks, global warming, greenhouse gases, greenwashing, Hyper Anthropocene, ignorance, ISO-NE, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, methane, natural gas, New England, politics, public utility commissions, rationality, regulatory capture, Sankey diagram, the energy of the people, the problem of evil, the right to be and act stupid, the stack of lies, the tragedy of our present civilization, zero carbon, ``The tide is risin'/And so are we'' | Leave a comment

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

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

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

Want your democracy back? Take back control of your energy supply

Some progressives lament the loss of Bernie Sanders’ run for President, arguing “we need to get our democracy back.” A necessary step in order to get your democracy back is to take back control of your energy supply. Centralized energy … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, bridge to somewhere, Buckminster Fuller, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, climate disruption, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, distributed generation, ecology, economics, efficiency, electricity, electricity markets, energy, energy storage, energy utilities, environment, Epcot, extended supply chains, fossil fuel divestment, global warming, green tech, grid defection, Hermann Scheer, Hyper Anthropocene, investment in wind and solar energy, ISO-NE, Joseph Schumpeter, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, liberal climate deniers, local generation, microgrids, public utility commissions, PUCs, rate of return regulation, rationality, reasonableness, Sankey diagram, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, SolarPV.tv, Spaceship Earth, the energy of the people, the green century, the right to know, zero carbon | 6 Comments