Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Xcel Submits Plan to Rev Up Renewables

Excellent news from Xcel Energy via Colorado Energy News. The utility wants to, "add roughly 980 megawatts of solar and wind power by 2015 and cut carbon emissions by 10 percent." I am glad that Xcel is getting aggressive. The writing is on the wall folks, we need to start reducing our dependence on fossil fuels as an energy source. In addition, we can't keep hiding behind the tired arguments that it is going to cost too much. The cost of keeping the status quo is too great.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Five More Forged Letters Uncovered From Bonner & Associates' Work for DC Coal Lobby

Those who know their gonna lose and can't stand to lose, cheat. Take for instance the "clean coal" lobby forging letters to Congress in support of clean coal initiatives. This is sad, yet only proves the point to me that there is no such thing as clean coal.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

GM: New Chevy Volt To Get 230 Miles Per Gallon

230 miles per gallon? I guess it is go big or go home for GM right now. They can't put out a timid product with Toyota dominating the hybrid market. If the Feds approve the mileage, then GM is going to sell a lot of cars even with the $40,000 price tag. It appears that they are working on a cheaper model. This is exciting. I can't wait to test drive one next year.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Clean Energy: U.S. Lags in Research and Development

I'd have to agree that the U.S. is behind on the renewable energy front. We have numerous excuses NOT to invest in renewable energy (costs to much, we can drill our way out of our problems, the RE output of solar and wind is lower than fossil fuels such as coal and oil, CO2 emissions aren't that bad, blah, blah, blah). The excuses not to invest in RE are based on fear or excessive hand-wringing or outright ignorance. But when we compare the Apollo missions to this potential race to be the global authority with respect to RE, we can begin to see the bigger picture.

In the short term the Apollo missions were expensive ($125 billion in today's dollars) and there were probably naysayers who said that we should take care of this planet rather than reach for the stars, or that launching a manned rocket ship to the moon is not only impractical but insane. But in the long-term those naysayers were proved wrong. By putting all of America's good qualities together - ingenuity, will power, and hard work, we beat the Russians to the punch, instilled a gigantic national pride, and were seen as innovators of great proportions over the next several decades. Not to mention all of the new inventions, entire industries that were spawned and jobs created from this one $125 billion project.

So we are behind with respect to renewable energy R&D but it's because we are listening to the blowhards that continue to demean everything that is American.

Wishful Thinking

*Before adding PV, wind, or solar thermal to your residential or commercial structure, the first step is to analyze this structure's energy consumption through a professional energy audit. I'd like to see some public education on the importance of an energy audit for any structure. Remember Smokey the Bear's forest fire shtick drilled into our heads over the last few decades? How about something like, "Henry the House" desperately wanting to know how much energy he consumes and wastes throughout the day?

*With over 300 sunny days a year on the Front Range is it too much to ask for solar PV and thermal modules on every residential and commercial unit (after an energy audit of course)?


*How about affordable plug-in electric cars that go more than 100 miles on a charge with PV and wind powered recharging stations?

*Dreaming of companies large and small adopting business sustainability practices to maximize profits, reduce their carbon footprint, and enhance the lives of their employees and the communities that surround them.

Labels

Abengoa Solar (1) Al Gore (3) algae (3) Amory Lovins (3) anniversary post (1) Arnold Goldman (1) ASES (1) automobile (6) award (3) bacteria (1) bad policy (2) base load (4) battery (4) beer (6) behavior change (2) Berkeley (1) bicycle (1) big business (9) big oil (15) biofuels (39) biomass (3) biomimicry (1) BLM (2) building efficiency (1) carbon capture and storage (1) carbon footprint (5) carbon neutrality (1) cheaper than coal (8) china (1) clean energy (37) cleaner than coal (11) cleantech (29) climate change (2) coal (6) Colorado (204) community solar (4) compost (1) concentrated solar power (17) Congress (6) conservation (3) conserve water (2) consumption (1) covered parking lots (2) CRES (2) CSP (13) Dan Staley (1) demand side management (4) denver (1) department of energy (1) desert (1) distributed power generation (10) DNC (3) DoE (1) doitforthechildren (13) Dr. Dan Arvizu (1) Dr. Ken Swift (1) Dr. Varun Rai (1) editorial (5) education (32) efficiency (11) electric automobiles (9) electric bike (1) energy (7) energy audit (18) energy efficiency (5) energy efficient buildings (62) energy efficient lighting (3) energy independence (5) energy summit (2) environment (5) EPA (4) ethanol (5) externalities (1) financing (2) food (4) fossil fuels (2) fuel cells (3) fuel efficiency (3) futility (3) future thinking (18) gasguzzlersbegone (8) George Orwell (1) geothermal (14) good business (3) good debate (5) good government (79) good thinking (59) grappa (1) green building (1) greengarbage (1) greenhouse gas (1) greenisgood (15) grid-parity (1) HadCRU (1) health (2) high-speed rail (1) Hispanic market (1) homegrown (1) hvac (1) hybrids (3) hydrogen (4) i heart libraries (1) IECC (1) Ignite (2) inaugural post (1) incentives (2) India (1) ingenuity (15) International Energy Conservation Code (1) interview (3) investment (42) irony (1) it'sabouttime (3) jobs (78) kinetic energy (1) Kristen Brown (1) law (6) leasing (3) LED (2) LEED certified (3) legislation (7) light emitting diode (2) localization (21) manufacturing (4) market forces (2) marketing (1) methane gas (5) MIT (8) moo (1) morality (6) morals (1) musings (1) NASA (1) natural gas (11) newyear (1) NOAA (1) nomoredumbpoliticians (9) nomorepetroleum (11) non-originalthought (1) nostalgia (1) NREL (33) nuclear (2) off the grid (1) offshore wind farm (2) op-ed (11) OPEC (1) peak oil (2) petroleumiswaytired (8) photovoltaics (3) piezoelectric (2) policy (33) poopisfuel (4) power plants (9) power purchase agreement (1) President Barack Obama (11) profitability (3) progressive (2) public transit (1) PV (44) renewable energy (2) renewable energy market (1) research (24) ROI (5) RPS (5) Santiago Seage (1) science (23) science is cool (11) Sean Ong (1) second generation biofuels (5) smart design (5) smart grid (12) solar (65) solar cell (4) solar cell efficiency (3) Solar Electric Light Fund (1) solar electric thermal (2) solar gardens (3) solar leases (1) solar market (17) solar thermal (15) solar water heating (1) speed-to-market (2) Steven Chu (1) subsidies (11) suddenoutbreakofcommonsense (24) sun is good (47) Superfund (1) sustainability (46) systems thinking (1) tax credits (22) technology (6) thin-film solar (7) tornado (1) transmission (3) trees (1) triple bottom line (1) United Nations (1) utilities (26) wakeupcall (1) water (3) wearewhatweeat (5) wecandobetter (3) wind (61) World Bank (1) world renewable energy forum (7) WREF 2012 (7) WREF2012 (1) zero energy (3) zero waste (1) zero-energy building (2)