Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Solar thermal is a way of harnessing the largest source of energy available to us, so in this post I’ll have a look at the upswing in interest in the use of this technology for electricity generation in recent years and look at some of the approaches being pursued to make it economically competitive with coal fired power generation.
-Are we really going to let ourselves be duped into this solar panel rip-off?
-Solar panels are not fashion accessories
-There is no ‘green treachery’ in questioning this solar panel rip-off
I accept George Monbiot’s £100 solar PV bet
As Iraqi’s prepare to go to the polls on Sunday the country has been subjected to a month of increased violence including a string of blasts in Baghdad on Thursday targeting early voters which killed at least 14 people. The election, which will decide the next chapter of Iraq’s future, is being keenly watched by the oil industry…
-Environmentalists question coal’s place in Obama policy
-The Dirty Truth Behind Clean Coal
-Parsing fact from fiction with the Bloom Energy box
Many of us need nothing in the world so much as more time. Adding new projects is exhausting – and stressful. And yet, we know that there are things we want to change – for example, most of us would like to grow a garden with our kids, or make sure that we know where our food comes from. We’d like to live in communities with a greater measure of food security, we’d like to know more about what we’re eating. We’d like to have more contact with nature, we’d like to be more self-sufficient. We’d like to have better food at lower cost, we’d like to have a reserve for an emergency or to share. We’d like to do more in our community and to eat with one another. We’d like to sit down to a home cooked meal more often.
The world is heading for a renewed oil crunch as soon as 2013 due to shrinking production capacity and growing demand in the emerging markets, according to reports from two investment banks. Both BofA Merril Lynch and Barclays Capital conclude non OPEC production is close to peak, meaning a shift back to reliance on OPEC for new capacity…
-Does Facebook deserve the hell it’s catching from Greenpeace?
-Saudi Arabia to export solar power soon, US says
-Energy expert Lovins brings conservation message
-The new wave: Harnessing the power of the ocean
More than 1,800 homes in Northwest Ohio are powered by wind thanks to Ohio’s first large scale community wind project—part of a new, growing trend in alternate energy.
Electricity for private homes is something that was not necessary through most of human history, and is not truly essential today.
-What’s stopping us getting solar power from deserts?
-Norway plans the world’s most powerful wind turbine
-It’s Green Against Green In Mojave Desert Solar Battle
A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Prices and production
-China’s Growth
-India
-Quote of the Week
-Briefs
At this juncture in the industrial age, we have two tired, one-armed lifeguards and a handful of victims. All eyes are on Greece — fittingly, the birthplace of western civilization — but Greece, which naturally turned to Goldman Sachs to try to hide its debt, is one tiny canary in a coal mine the size of Earth.
