Now, this is what happens when folks like PG&E (Pacific Gas & Electric) fail to improve our electric grid. (You have been hearing that the heat dome in California will force the state grid to either shut down or reduce power dramatically.)
Continue reading Micro-Grids? Maybe…
Unintended circumstances. Boy, do we do those well. (In other words, we don’t do things all that well.)
Continue reading Let’s not always just rush in…
Every day, we hear about the affordable housing crisis across the US. Of course, it’s more acute in places like Silicon Valley and New York City, where the rents for a single bedroom apartment exceed the mortgage payments that most Americans pay.
Continue reading Housing Crisis Response
Many of these alternative energy systems we pursue had one big failing. What happens when…
(a) the sun doesn’t shine
or, (b) the wind doesn’t blow.
Continue reading Swedish Storage
We know the next big series of wars is going to be over water. And, no, I’m not talking about how neighbors in California will be fighting over their water allocations (or even California fighting with Colorado). I’m talking about the vast portions of this Earth that are basically out of water.
Continue reading Right from the air!
I wrote about the Chevron plant that converts solar energy to steam, so that they can recover oil using a smaller carbon footprint. This Coalinga (CA) plant is pretty darned big. It’s on some 65 acres and nearly 8000 mirrors that track the sun. (They are called heliostats.) And, it yields some 29 MW of steam.
Continue reading Broken Promises?
I wrote about a ‘simple’ device that provides pure water for villages of a thousand or so in developing nations. But, now, instead of converting humidity in the air for water uses on land, solar technology has been adapted- and expanded- to make it relevant and critical to America… for our farms.
Continue reading Water, water everywhere, but not a drop…
Not surprisingly, about 50% of our energy consumption is devoted to heating and cooling our buildings. (This data is substantiated by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development). And, that means that we should pay more attention to these needs- both in the design of our buildings and in the development of new apparati.
Continue reading Solar Cooling- now!
I have written before how the US Armed Forces are concerned about power needs on the battlefield. Today, I will discuss efforts going on in Australia- using solar technology developed and manufactured by a US firm- Transform Solar (Boise, Idaho)- in concert with Origin Energy, an Australian firm.
Continue reading Silicon Thins 4 Soldiers (no, it’s not a cigarette!)
