tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74282972509201034792024-03-13T04:57:40.169-07:00Solar NationsSolar Nations<br>
Building the Global Transition to Renewable EnergyRon Swensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13437944688837628074noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7428297250920103479.post-8556951107810082902022-11-20T09:05:00.003-08:002022-11-20T09:09:04.281-08:00Transportation Equity is Basic PhysicsWe have only one place left to go, and that is to question the
unquestioned urban configuration of machines and humans competing on
the same plane, <i>terra firma</i>. Put people and 2-tonne machines in the same
place, and the machines will win. They've been winning for over 100
years. Here's a slice of time, from 1982:<br />
<blockquote>"What a difference there was between the new and the old
parts of Mexico City only 20 years ago [e.g., 1982-20 = 1962, 60 years ago]. In the old parts of the city the streets were true
commons. Some people sat on the road to sell vegetables and
charcoal. Others put their chairs on the road to drink coffee or
tequila. Others held their meetings on the road to decide on the
new headman for the neighbourhood or to determine the price of a
donkey. Others drove their donkeys through the crowd, walking next
to the heavily loaded beast of burden; others sat in the saddle.
Children played in the gutter, and still people walking could use
the road to get from one place to another.<br />
<br />
"Such roads were built for people. Like any true commons, the
street itself was the result of people living there and making
that space liveable. The dwellings that lined the roads were not
private homes in the modern sense - garages for the overnight
deposit of workers. The threshold still separated two living
spaces, one intimate and one common. But neither homes in this
intimate sense nor streets as commons survived economic
development.<br />
<br />
"In the new sections of Mexico City, streets are no more for
people. They are now roadways for automobiles, for buses, for
taxis, cars, and trucks. People are barely tolerated on the
streets unless they are on their way to a bus stop. If people now
sat down or stopped on the street, they would become obstacles for
traffic, and traffic would be dangerous to them. <i>The road has
been degraded from a commons to a simple resource for the
circulation of vehicles. People can circulate no more on their
own. Traffic has displaced their mobility. They can circulate
only when they are strapped down and are moved.</i><i>..</i>."
<br />
</blockquote>
<blockquote><a href="http://www.inist.org/library/1982-03-21.Illich.Silence%20is%20a%20Commons.pdf">Silence is a Commons</a>, Ivan Illich, 1982<br />
</blockquote>The <a href="https://www.sjsu.edu/smssv/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Spartan Superway team at San José State University</a> is designing a
mobility system that separates humans (+pets, deer, kangaroos…)
from machines. The team of mostly mechanical engineering students is applying basic physics to design a mobility system that is intrinsically safe: "No two objects can occupy the same
place at one time." (At the quantum level, it's called the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauli_exclusion_principle" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Pauli Exclusion Principle</a>.) Paying attention to fundamental physics beats the electric vehicle (<i>still a car</i>), the autonomous vehicle (<i>still a car, friendly to the machine and hostile to the human</i>), the bus (<i>a car on steroids</i>), light rail (<i>slicing communities in half</i>), "Safe Streets" (<i>pure rhetoric</i>), "Complete streets" (<i>Would you drop your child off to daycare at a lions den?!</i>), PR campaigns (<i>edutainment trumps physics?</i>), and laws against drunk driving (<i>after the fact</i>). <br /><div><i><br /></i></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-style: italic; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhymB1ZX5GhLM34fkAXumNlm_EGeWL5kWUx4umMukBu3uUzpqm9PYfAhauc5Hjj0D-JzlL9xaxjesZaDOISOBTJRxtBxqhCtsLkK_kSPnERxK1EjN6VHkM8ihgTmJWVXB9KTMnoKtpM_mdHARnc8A0i0cP6tCkE3jB090qtv_9k8zc7AYeFeBNEP8Bo" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Kids playing under the Spartan Superway" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="800" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhymB1ZX5GhLM34fkAXumNlm_EGeWL5kWUx4umMukBu3uUzpqm9PYfAhauc5Hjj0D-JzlL9xaxjesZaDOISOBTJRxtBxqhCtsLkK_kSPnERxK1EjN6VHkM8ihgTmJWVXB9KTMnoKtpM_mdHARnc8A0i0cP6tCkE3jB090qtv_9k8zc7AYeFeBNEP8Bo=w400-h150" width="400" /></a></div><div style="font-style: italic;"><i><br /></i></div><div>Transportation equity is the bicycle, unencumbered by life-threatening monsters on the streets.</div><div><br /></div><i>Rise above!!</i><br /><br /></div><div><i><br /></i></div>Ron Swensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13437944688837628074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7428297250920103479.post-35121418690729868402021-07-31T14:35:00.005-07:002021-07-31T15:19:44.488-07:00Hold anyone responsible for starting the fires accountable<p>A couple days ago I heard on BBC News that Turkish officials promised to "Hold anyone responsible for starting the fires accountable." I was lucky enough to track down a video on Reuters with captions that confirmed what I had heard on the radio. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/death-toll-turkish-wildfires-rises-four-blazes-rage-2021-07-30/" rel="nofollow" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img alt="Turkish officials promised to hold anyone responsible for starting the fires accountable" data-original-height="501" data-original-width="1000" height="200" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-o1KttIgO09A/YQWGF7e08sI/AAAAAAAADAo/M9DvpSCGyHwULFvze5AQIEHE5xpLPDIZACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h200/Four%2BKilled%2BTurkey%2BFires.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: start;"><i>Mert Ozkan, July 30, 2021, </i></span><i style="text-align: start;">Reuters</i></td></tr></tbody></table></div><p>Where do we place the blame when the atmosphere belongs to all of us and we all contribute in some way to the accumulated emissions of CO2 (methane, etc.) which have driven the world to this beleaguered state of siege by Mother Nature. This can get downright personal. A week ago I was on the smokey edge of the Dixie fire in the Sierra Nevadas. My host was accommodating 4 fire refugees whose homes were on the fire's path. I'd like to know who's responsible for starting <i>that</i> fire, since we're sleuthing anyway. </p><p></p><p>The responsibility could be framed this way:</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-9swtLjs3PdE/YQW5RlRQpeI/AAAAAAAADA0/Llrxk6j9xFIObUpNTLh5VE9-V5LJhyZKACLcBGAsYHQ/Carbon%2BMajors%2BVisuals3.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1104" data-original-width="2849" height="155" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-9swtLjs3PdE/YQW5RlRQpeI/AAAAAAAADA0/Llrxk6j9xFIObUpNTLh5VE9-V5LJhyZKACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h155/Carbon%2BMajors%2BVisuals3.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The oil companies are responsible. Oh, you bought gasoline from one of those actors? What is your standing, then?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-DZfexvOmG_g/YQW57-2fI8I/AAAAAAAADA8/CLxeoUYQuIAJKFdYDQw2VTbrY-B0XsmyACLcBGAsYHQ/2010.Country%2Bco2_emissions_percentages-24.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Percentage of Global CO2 emissions by country" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-DZfexvOmG_g/YQW57-2fI8I/AAAAAAAADA8/CLxeoUYQuIAJKFdYDQw2VTbrY-B0XsmyACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h200/2010.Country%2Bco2_emissions_percentages-24.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr></tbody></table><p>The industrialized countries are responsible. Oh, you live in one of those big polluter countries/regions? What is your standing, then? </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-2z1BprMWbHg/YQW9IJe_UBI/AAAAAAAADBE/siJtbwgq9ew4-D6ic2XpE0uU9Bxma3V_wCLcBGAsYHQ/2000.World-GHG-emissions-FlowChart%2BSankey.WRI.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="2000 World-GHG-emissions Sankey Flow Chart by WRI" data-original-height="866" data-original-width="1140" height="304" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-2z1BprMWbHg/YQW9IJe_UBI/AAAAAAAADBE/siJtbwgq9ew4-D6ic2XpE0uU9Bxma3V_wCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h304/2000.World-GHG-emissions-FlowChart%2BSankey.WRI.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>The transportation, electricity, industry, and agriculture sectors are responsible. Oh, you work in or interact with some of these sectors? What is your standing, then? <div><br /></div><div>If we all confess to the Turkish officials, where could they find enough judges, courtrooms, and jail cells? </div><div><br /></div><div>There must be better ways to tackle these crimes. How about following the example of Whatcom County in Washington State?</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://gizmodo.com/the-u-s-s-first-ever-fossil-fuel-infrastructure-ban-is-1847386531" moz-do-not-send="true" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The U.S.’s First-Ever Fossil Fuel Infrastructure Ban Is Even More Important Than It Seems</a></li></ul></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: left;">"Whatcom County has been a fossil fuel hub for years, but its council just banned new fossil fuel activity. It could be a game-changer."</div></blockquote><p>Local commitments make a lot of sense. </p>Ron Swensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13437944688837628074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7428297250920103479.post-35380493055293299552021-06-20T12:06:00.013-07:002021-06-20T13:21:36.353-07:00First we bail out Detroit – then we bail out the oil patch<p>Channeling Leonard Cohen on Father's Day...<br /></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"></blockquote><p></p><blockquote>... Well, it's Father's Day, and everybody's wounded<br />First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin</blockquote><p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"></blockquote><p>This week's US rig count is 470; a year ago it was 266 (having plummeted from over 900 at the beginning of 2020). That 470, a far cry from what it was before Covid, is a harbinger of high prices and gas lines like 1973. It's just a matter of time. </p><p>Meanwhile, back in Washington DC...</p><p><b>First we bail out Detroit</b></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"></blockquote><p>Millennials are buying fewer cars and cities around the world are banning cars from their central districts; Covid motivated people to work from home and drive less. Seeing all these looming threats to the automotive market, Biden et al are on a roll to bail out Detroit with a big push for electric cars (not sustainable with fossil-fuel-intensive manufacturing, but still a well-meaning friendly gesture to corporate America and union jobs). </p><p>But what can governments do for the oil patch?<br /></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"></blockquote><p><b>Then we bail out the oil patch</b></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"></blockquote><p>Here comes the IEA's get-off-oil report on the threat of uncontrollable climate change, the Dutch court ruling against Royal Dutch Shell on climate issues, and the ExxonMobile board of directors fight to bring about a response to climate change. </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"></blockquote><p>Imagine that most intelligent oil company leaders know full well their days are numbered with peak oil breathing down their necks. Now all of a sudden they have a cover story: climate change. Under that smoke screen (literally), they can carry on with all kinds of shenanigans. For starters, governments can now begin subsidizing them to get off oil and into renewables.</p><p>There may be other ways to scoot down the slippery right-hand slope of the Hubbert curve without killing civilization, but this one just might get enough votes for all of us to squeak by.<br /></p>Ron Swensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13437944688837628074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7428297250920103479.post-91458486424057646302020-02-28T15:37:00.000-08:002021-07-31T15:43:09.706-07:00Consider your sourcesThere are conflicting views about nuclear energy vs. renewables in the climate debate. Is nuclear energy safe? Are there sufficient resources and time for renewables to scale up to meet demand as nuclear and fossil fuels are rapidly curtailed? Does nuclear encourage profligate energy use? Is the nuclear industry offering a Faustian bargain to climate restoration advocates?<br />
<br />
These may all be useful questions, but there's one overriding concern that affects everyone.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Stable governance</b><br />
<br />
Is there a globally effective government (whether a superpower acting unilaterally or all governments in concert as "united" nations) that has demonstrably kept all nation-states and powerful private interests accountable to clean up the radioactive "waste" from nuclear power plants?<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"As of the first quarter of 2019, 162 units are globally awaiting or in various stages of decommissioning... Overall, only 19 reactors, with a capacity of 6 GW, were fully decommissioned ... only 10 have been returned to greenfield sites... </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"When analyzing decommissioning policies, one needs to distinguish between the process itself (in the sense of the actual implementation), and the financing of decommissioning...." [<a href="https://www.worldnuclearreport.org/" target="_blank"><i>The World Nuclear Industry</i></a>, pg 158-159]</blockquote>
Since radioactivity lasts a long time, is there a robust global government that has maintained stability for several thousand years? No? Well then, it would seem that one more nuclear power plant in the hands of the current club of despots is very risky business (not the least of which is the American nuclear superpower's own home-grown "very stable genius"). <br />
<br />
<b>Speaking of unsavory characters... the Kock brothers weigh in</b><br />
<br />
Renewables are criticized for using more land than fossil fuels or nuclear power (for example, in <a href="https://www.strata.org/pdf/2017/footprints-full.pdf" target="_blank"><i>The Footprint of Energy: Land Use of U.S. Electricity Production</i></a>). It turns out that the publisher of this report, Strata Policy Institute, gets it support from incumbents with an agenda: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"In 2016, the Charles Koch Institute contributed $1,677,500 to Strata" [<a href="https://www.energyandpolicy.org/strata-policy/" target="_blank">Energy and Policy</a>]</blockquote>
Now that's not to say their data is entirely wrong, but by publishing independently, they are thereby not under the same rules as academic publications which respectfully require conflict of interest statements.<br />
<br />
When you connect the dots, it gets easier to understand what's going on:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="https://cleantechnica.com/2020/02/09/correcting-anti-renewable-energy-propaganda/" target="_blank">Correcting Anti-Renewable Energy Propaganda</a><br />
"... Renewable energy gets cheaper each year, nuclear power gets more expensive each year — how come they still adamantly claim that renewables are not a cost-effective way of decarbonizing?<br />
<br />
The answer, of course, is that <i><b>the studies are flawed</b></i>. Taking a look at these studies shows that several patterns can be observed in many of these studies. Among these flaws are ridiculous overestimates of storage requirements, overestimates of grid expansion needs, and the insistence on uneconomical strategies of storing electricity, such as insisting on batteries to store several weeks worth of grid electricity consumption.<b> </b></blockquote>
<b>James Hansen</b><br />
<br />
It is strange to find someone so gifted as James Hansen caught up in this drama. <br />
<br />
We can be thankful for Hansen's monumental contributions to climate awareness. That said, he wrote a bizarre opinion piece 6 years ago, "<a href="http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2014/20140221_DraftOpinion.pdf" id="LPlnk701569" target="_blank">Renewable Energy, Nuclear Power and Galileo: Do Scientists Have a Duty to Expose Popular Misconceptions</a>?" In this piece, Hansen tackles "Energy misconceptions" (meaning, his views on renewables, as if he were the arbiter who knew what he was talking about). Unfortunately, his understanding of the technology and its applications is limited and his assumptions are far off the mark. <br />
<br />
For example, has he scrutinized his cohorts when he joined a presentation with Michael Shellenberger at COP23, in a session titled "Nuclear Power? Are Renewables Enough?" <br />
<br />
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/v1f4BKsFrCA" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
Shellenberger has been on the take from the nuclear power industry for a long time. He bolsters his creds by weaving a grand story of his conversion from solar. In this presentation, Shellenberger concludes his remarks by invoking the weight of a rock star, Sting:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NfTz16fN1Wc/XkYOwRqTeNI/AAAAAAAACco/q1h5N9oPo5YdZMb92AN3quIr1rtTy2DWQCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/Sting%2Bon%2BNuclear.jpg"><img border="0" height="217" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NfTz16fN1Wc/XkYOwRqTeNI/AAAAAAAACco/q1h5N9oPo5YdZMb92AN3quIr1rtTy2DWQCK4BGAYYCw/s400/Sting%2Bon%2BNuclear.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
<br />
The very idea that Shellenberger would manipulate his audience on matters of engineering and physics by quoting a celebrity whose credentials are limited to having once sung a song, "Nuclear Waste," is plainly fraudulent. Furthermore, Sting advocates for "massive amounts of power" which completely misses the point. What we need is good engineering, to do more with less and stop trying to power a brute force fossil fuelish world with nuclear. We need an elegant new energy system which directs sophisticated energy to where it's really needed. <br />
<br />
(At the end of the steam era, locomotives were typically only 6% efficient; a few reached 12%. Diesels came along at ≈20% efficiency and put steam locomotives out of business. Would we now go back and use solar energy to power a steam locomotive? With electric motors at more than 80% efficiency, we can find better ways to move things.)<br />
<br />
<hr />
<br />
<!--
Nuclear 2.0: Why a Green Future Needs Nuclear Power, by Mark Lynas (2014)<br />
<br />
By making use of the latest in world energy statistics, author Mark Lynas shows that with wind and solar still at only about one percent of global primary energy, looking to renewable energy as a solution to deliver all the world’s power is a dangerously delusional concept. Moreover, with no possibility of reducing the world’s energy usage—when the developing world is fast extricating itself from poverty and adding the equivalent of a new Brazil to the global electricity consumption each year—additional solutions are needed. This book then details how the antinuclear movement of the 1970s and 1980s succeeded only in making the world more dependent on fossil fuels. Instead of making the same mistake again, this book shows how all those who want to see a low-carbon future need to join forces by backing an ambitious proposal for a combined investment in wind, solar, and nuclear power."<br />
<br />
<hr />
<br />
Climate Gamble: Is Anti-Nuclear Activism Endangering Our Future? (2017 Edition)<br />
In their book, Janne M. Korhonen and Rauli Partane claim that nuclear should not replace solar but add to fossil fuel-free sources for the increasing demand we will see with developing nations.<div><br /></div>
-->
<div>Consider your sources.<br />
<br /><div><br /></div></div>Ron Swensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13437944688837628074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7428297250920103479.post-55703041601961653352020-02-24T15:23:00.000-08:002021-07-31T15:50:34.130-07:00Can we wean ourselves off fossil fuels?<div>
<div>
In that light, a new energy policy editorial ("opinion") just came to my attention, which offers the opportunity to address a gross misunderstanding that prevails in the political community. Here's the article:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/484937-must-we-choose-between-fossil-fuels-and-renewables">https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/484937-must-we-choose-between-fossil-fuels-and-renewables</a></li>
</ul>
In turn, that article makes reference to this list of supposedly great ideas for energy policy: </div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://itif.org/publications/2020/01/21/accelerating-energy-innovation-116th-congress-10-priorities-2020" id="gmail-LPlnk239013" target="_blank">https://itif.org/publications/2020/01/21/accelerating-energy-innovation-116th-congress-10-priorities-2020</a></li>
</ul>
<div>
Now then, let's tease this apart...</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>Looking at the first article, here's the sweetener (to butter you up as the reader for what's next):</div>
<div style="margin-left: 40px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 40px;">
"To begin with, fossil fuels will remain essential since they are plentiful, easy to find, extremely efficient, easy to transport and generate thousands of jobs.</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
And here's the "clincher," the absurd statement by the "opinionator" ......</div><div><br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 40px;">
"To think we can wean ourselves off fossil fuels any time soon is a pipedream..." </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
A "pot calling the kettle black," <i><u>he</u></i> is the dreamer: </div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>We aren't likely to "wean ourselves off fossil fuels". Especially in the overextended USA, fossil fuel "production" (actually _extraction_) is likely to collapse — drop like a stone — because of the limits to Mother Mature's endowment (long story, happy to show you details later);</li>
<li>As climate change impacts accelerate, humanity may be forced to abandon fossil fuels. Maybe Americans will be clueless, but Europeans, Chinese and Indians may move so quickly that they will be putting pressure on Americans within the next 5 years or so.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
So here's what's going on. Consider the author of the first diatribe -- "Jerry Haar is a professor of international business at Florida International University and a global fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C." Well, first of all, his PhD is in <a href="https://business.fiu.edu/faculty/expert-guides.cfm?FlagDirectory=Display&Emp=haarj">Political Science</a>, not engineering or science, and secondly, what do you make of the scientific prowess of the pretentiously named Wilson Center? </div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.energyandpolicy.org/edison-electric-institute-anti-solar-pr-spending-revealed/">https://www.energyandpolicy.org/edison-electric-institute-anti-solar-pr-spending-revealed/</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.thinktankwatch.com/2012/07/how-is-wilscon-center-funded.html">http://www.thinktankwatch.com/2012/07/how-is-wilscon-center-funded.html</a></li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodrow_Wilson_International_Center_for_Scholars">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodrow_Wilson_International_Center_for_Scholars</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
While it might be hard for the layman to understand what's going on with the second article, you have the advantage of starting with what I told you <a href="http://www.solarnations.net/2020/02/thin-is-in.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">yesterday</a>. Do you think there is a chance that _any_ of the 10 initiatives spelled out, now before Congress, arrived there without bias ... and with an eye to correct the egregious wrongs of the past? I'll leave that for you to dig into. Just looking at who is behind these and who is benefiting would be a great exercise to take on. You can look directly into the search paths I've given you here. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
And that leads you to my article, which I referred you to yesterday, available in either of these two libraries (both the same):</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.inist.org/library/2016-08-25.Swenson.Solarevolution.Energies-09-00676.pdf">https://www.inist.org/library/2016-08-25.Swenson.Solarevolution.Energies-09-00676.pdf</a></li>
<li> <a href="http://www.swenson.com/ron/library/2016-08-25.Swenson.Solarevolution.Energies-09-00676.pdf">http://www.swenson.com/ron/library/2016-08-25.Swenson.Solarevolution.Energies-09-00676.pdf</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<div class="gmail_quote">
Stated differently,<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.energycrisis.com/swenson/" target="_blank">http://www.energycrisis.com/<wbr></wbr>swenson/</a></div>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<br /></div>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<br /></div>
Ron Swensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13437944688837628074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7428297250920103479.post-1026885560345408922020-02-23T15:49:00.000-08:002021-07-31T15:51:58.090-07:00Thin is in!You ask about the adequacy of natural resources for a solar future. It's a good question.<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Sunshine is diffuse; we can be very glad for that. Otherwise we would burn to a crisp, of
course. The further advantage is that it is universal. Even the Swedes
have sunshine ... or I wouldn't be here. Somehow my ancestors managed to
thrive in a climate where there was little or no sunshine for months at
a time in the winter. (They used solar energy exclusively. We can be at least as smart as our ancestors, don't you think?!)</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
So how do we handle diffuse energy sources? We use <u><i><b>thin</b></i></u> energy receptors. It's that simple. I was prompted to post this today when I saw a news article that explains it well:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cleantechnica.com/2020/02/21/how-low-can-solar-cells-go-perovskite-researchers-say-down-down-down/">How Low Can Solar Cells Go? Perovskite Researchers Say
Down, Down</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
Speaking of thin,
I suggest you watch this long video which explains in a very compelling
manner how ideas are formulated out of <u><i>thin</i></u> air and then propagated as
if they were real:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LqaotiGWjQ">War on Sensemaking</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
Solar
electricity is so magical that people have a hard time getting their
heads wrapped around it. Skeptics with an agenda can have a field day
with it because so few people have an idea how it works. (Did you know
that Einstein got his Nobel prize, not for relativity (e=mc^2) but for
the photoelectric effect, what we now call photovoltaics?!<br />
<br />
Ron Swensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13437944688837628074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7428297250920103479.post-45198167722745123492020-02-22T09:33:00.000-08:002020-02-22T09:33:54.959-08:00More about Windows A note from a friend raised an important point:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The most efficient solar is the sun warming things, right?<br />
<br />
That is not how Title 24 thinks, which can drive up energy use. Basically Title 24 assumes outside inputs are bad and the way to manage temperature is to seal a house from the outside - and as efficiently as possible use energy inside. This is based on a lifestyle assumption – that you need to live at a constant temperature. If you are OK with letting the sun in to heat your home and having temperature vary by 10º or 15º over the course of a day Title 24 works against you by limiting glass area while mandating sun blocking windows and roof insulation that prevents internal solar gain.</blockquote>
Yes, he's right and that's a long story. The good news is that Title 24 offers the alternative of demonstrating performance compliance through good design.<br />
<br />
So you can hire folks who know what they're doing and prepare calculations which show compliance. Here are a couple of short web pages explaining the basics:<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.ecotopia.com/webpress/4donkeys.htm" target="_blank">The 4 Donkey Method of BioClimatic Design</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.blacktailsolarhomes.com/temperature.html" target="_blank">Temperature Control</a></li>
</ul>
The most challenging detail to grasp is the <i><b>Solar Heat Gain Coefficient</b></i>. Window manufacturers don't want to confuse people with too much information, so they train their sales forces to promote "one size fits all" and for God's sake, don't let the sun come in and fade your drapes and furniture!<br />
<br />
So if the customer says "energy conservation," they will get low-e glass (good insulation) with the standard _low_ solar heat gain—which works well on the southwest or west sides of the home, but for windows on the south, very little heat will come in during the winter when it's needed.<br />
<br />
You can read glowing reports (such as US DOE's Energy Star propaganda) that will confuse you even more. So instead, here are a couple of articles (one from Canada where there are 4 seasons) explaining why you will want to specify the <i><b>high</b></i> solar heat gain coefficient on your south-facing windows:<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/energy/efficiency/data-research-and-insights-energy-efficiency/housing-innovation/low-solar-and-high-solar-gain-glazings/5139" target="_blank">Low-Solar and High-Solar Gain Glazings</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.efficientwindows.org/gtypes_2lowe.php" target="_blank">Window Technologies: Glazing Types - Double Low-E Glazing</a><br />By the way, on this page you can read about "Double-Glazed, Low-solar-gain Low-E Glass." If you retrofit such energy-efficient windows into an old home with smallish windows, it will go dark on you, with visible light transmission at only 64% (in their example). </li>
</ul>
All the more reason to know your home's compass headings... North-South, East-West.Ron Swensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13437944688837628074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7428297250920103479.post-60083469768339278632019-05-29T00:28:00.004-07:002019-05-29T00:28:59.953-07:00Responding to climate emergency with a sense of agencyI thought I had misread the statement below, written and submitted to me today by one of the fellows in the Spartan Superway who has just graduated and is considering his next move:<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"As a young person, [I see] all projections point to catastrophic climate destabilization in my lifetime. It has never been more critical to have a sense of agency about carbon emissions."</blockquote>
Don't you mean, "a sense of urgency"? <br />
<br />
Oops, <i>au contraire</i>, he meant just what he wrote: a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense_of_agency" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">sense of agency</a> "is the subjective awareness of initiating, executing, and controlling one's own volitional actions in the world...."<br />
<br />
Can we really afford to invest a scarce minute of our precious time to better engineer fossil fuel use? If not us, who can deliver a turn-it-around solution for our children's sake? What might happen if we just say no to coal? <br />
<br />
Are we young enough to care about their (our) future?<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now-w-w-w."</i><br /> My Back Pages, Bob Dylan </blockquote>
Ron Swensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13437944688837628074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7428297250920103479.post-35980977254870018902017-10-14T05:52:00.000-07:002019-06-11T23:35:51.353-07:00Cities are ruining our carsAn article in Verge claims that "<a href="https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2017/10/13/16453926/self-driving-car-us-cities-uber-traffic-collision" target="_blank">Self-driving cars are on a collision course with our crappy cities</a>" as if to say cities are ruining the possibilities for our fancy new self-driving cars.<br />
<br />
¡No! Au contraire, cars are ruining our cities! Letting Google be the driver won't change that. In fact, it could get much worse.<br />
<br />
Consider the author's statement of the obvious: "[R]ide-hailing apps like Uber and Lyft, are shockingly creating more traffic problems than they are curing," as if to say this fact could somehow be fixed if cities would only do things differently.<br />
<br />
¡No! An on-demand taxi service carrying one passenger will deliver less than 1 person per vehicle-mile (km) by definition: the back seat has to be empty ("dead-head") en route to picking up the fare-paying passenger. Ron Swensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13437944688837628074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7428297250920103479.post-37058432126543342862017-01-06T12:40:00.000-08:002017-01-06T12:40:25.388-08:00Fossil Fuel Free NationsSeveral nations have declared their intent to become fossil-fuel-free. In this post you can find websites and news articles with more details about this international movement. <br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://theantimedia.org/5-countries-that-prove-the-world-doesnt-need-fossil-fuels/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">5 Countries That Prove the World Doesn’t Need Fossil Fuels</a><br />
These countries now lead the way toward a future free of petroleum and dirty energy. In the process, they save significant amounts of money on national energy costs while preserving and protecting the world’s natural resources.</li>
<ul>
<li>Costa Rica</li>
<li>Denmark</li>
<li>Scotland</li>
<li>Sweden</li>
<li>Finland</li>
</ul>
<li><a href="http://www.government.se/government-policy/fossil-free-sweden/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Fossil Free Sweden</a> (the Swedish Government's website) <br />
Sweden will be one of the world’s first fossil-free welfare countries. To this end, the Government has launched the Fossil Free Sweden initiative, where Swedish actors are given the opportunity to call attention to how they are contributing to climate change work. The initiative brings together actors from the business sector, municipalities, regions and organisations from across the country.</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Making_Sweden_an_Oil-Free_Society" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Making Sweden an Oil-Free Society</a> (Wikipedia) </li>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Making_Sweden_an_Oil-Free_Society#Ban_of_fossil_fuel-driven_vehicles" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ban of fossil fuel-driven vehicles</a></li>
</ul>
<li><a href="http://wakingtimesmedia.com/sweden-become-worlds-first-fossil-fuel-free-nation-history/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Sweden To Become The World’s First Fossil Fuel-free Nation in History</a> </li>
</ul>
<a href="http://www.ecotopia.com/images/nopec.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="NOPEC" border="0" src="http://www.ecotopia.com/images/nopec.gif" title="NOPEC" /></a> The theme of Non-Oil, Power-Exporting Countries ("NOPEC") was first presented online in 1989:<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.ecotopia.com/webpress/nopec/" target="_blank">NOPEC -- Non-Oil Power Exporting Communities</a>© </li>
</ul>
Several papers about NOPEC and the goal of 100% renewable energy have been presented at <a href="http://www.ases.org/" target="_blank">ASES</a> and <a href="http://www.ises.org/" target="_blank">ISES</a> conferences, and in <a href="http://solartoday.org/" target="_blank">Solar Today</a> magazine since that time:<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.swenson.com/ron/library/1990-03-19.Swenson%20etal.NOPEC%20II.ASES.pdf" target="_blank">1990 NOPEC II (ASES)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.swenson.com/ron/library/2000.Swenson.Apollo2%20-%20Solar%20Energy%20Meets%20the%20Challenge.ISES.pdf" target="_blank">2000 Apollo2 - Solar Energy Meets the Challenge (ISES) </a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.swenson.com/ron/library/2005-12.Swenson.A%20Roadmap%20to%20100%25%20Renewable%20Energy.Ecotopia%20WebPress.pdf" target="_blank">2005 A Roadmap to 100% Renewable Energy (Ecotopia)</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://www.swenson.com/ron/library/2006-03.deWinter%20Swenson.A%20Wake-Up%20Call.Solar%20Today%20-%20Dawn%20of%20the%20Solar%20Era.pdf" target="_blank">2006 A Wake-Up Call Dawn of the Solar Era </a><a href="http://www.swenson.com/ron/library/2006-03.deWinter%20Swenson.A%20Wake-Up%20Call.Solar%20Today%20-%20Dawn%20of%20the%20Solar%20Era.pdf" target="_blank">(ASES / Solar Today)</a><br />
</li>
</ul>
Several organizations have been helping to organize international commitments to 100% renewable energy:<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.renewables100.org/en/home/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Renewables 100 Policy Institute</a></li>
<li><a href="http://thesolutionsproject.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Solutions Project</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.go100percent.org/cms/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Go 100% Renewable Energy</a></li>
</ul>
Ron Swensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13437944688837628074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7428297250920103479.post-82040530100896457842016-10-29T15:51:00.004-07:002021-04-04T23:46:08.023-07:00The Wall. How Tall?The Donald wants to build a wall and he wants <i>them</i> to pay for it.<br />
<br />
What a pity. If <i>they</i> pay for it, <i>they</i> will own it. If <i>they</i> own it, <i>they</i> will make billions! <br />
<br />
The Donald wants to give away all the profits that could have been destined for America. And he wants to build it 30-40 feet high. That's to be expected from a man who thinks small, but there's little profit to be made in such a limited and limiting project. <br />
<br />
Let's be ambitious. Let's build a wall 30-40 <i>stories</i> tall, from Tijuana / San Diego to Matamoros / Brownsville, something like this: <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zg2D0MaF0pw/WBUfb0DXJGI/AAAAAAAAB18/yROaB53F5OcmoYV2HFPkiHIhTUFNqebPgCLcB/s1600/Public-transport-effective.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Linear City architecture by Gilles Gauthier" border="0" height="193" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zg2D0MaF0pw/WBUfb0DXJGI/AAAAAAAAB18/yROaB53F5OcmoYV2HFPkiHIhTUFNqebPgCLcB/w400-h193/Public-transport-effective.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Linear City architecture by Gilles Gauthier</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
We're talking about 1,989 miles (3,201 kilometers) of linear city.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
This is not a new idea...</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4yBGXKzY_v0/WBUfamzkIiI/AAAAAAAAB14/uqZ_MK_6pZEhmwvRqbCWRMvveU30jw3-gCLcB/s1600/roadtown.jpg.650x0_q70_crop-smart.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Roadtown, 1910" border="0" height="238" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4yBGXKzY_v0/WBUfamzkIiI/AAAAAAAAB14/uqZ_MK_6pZEhmwvRqbCWRMvveU30jw3-gCLcB/w320-h238/roadtown.jpg.650x0_q70_crop-smart.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"I would take the apartment house and all its conveniences and comforts<br />
out among the farms by the aid of wires, pipes and of <br />
rapid and noiseless transportation." <br />
Edgar Chambless, Roadtown, 1910</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
And there's plenty of support for the idea, including <a href="http://www.citymayors.com/development/linear-cities.html" target="_blank">City Mayors from around the world</a>.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Along the Rio Grande, it could look like this...</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-g32rrCIgItc/WBUffUIltHI/AAAAAAAAB2A/b_BQXT-QzCcLeAZl3nfSu7SdbmisnxnzwCLcB/s1600/photo120123e1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Arcosanti along the Rio Grande by Paulo Solari" border="0" height="160" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-g32rrCIgItc/WBUffUIltHI/AAAAAAAAB2A/b_BQXT-QzCcLeAZl3nfSu7SdbmisnxnzwCLcB/w320-h160/photo120123e1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.arcosanti.org/" target="_blank">Arcosanti</a><br />
Paolo Soleri</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Now what does this have to do with <i>solar</i> nations? Well, take a look at this ...</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VrQPV4pElyI/WBUg4MIOG2I/AAAAAAAAB2M/iuSeh3O9Z2QNFZCTw1BpRBsd-bOUov2cgCLcB/s1600/usa-mexico-canada-map.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Map of Mexico South of USA South of Canada" border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VrQPV4pElyI/WBUg4MIOG2I/AAAAAAAAB2M/iuSeh3O9Z2QNFZCTw1BpRBsd-bOUov2cgCLcB/w231-h320/usa-mexico-canada-map.jpg" width="231" /></a></div>
<br />
As you can see from the map, Mexico is <b><i>south</i></b> of the USA. So all the offices, shopping centers, condos, and podcar networks on the Wall will face south — from one end to the other. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zG6SWydk8Gc/WBUlcF1vkBI/AAAAAAAAB2o/u-w4932tv9001Q7oIJuFs0dssBXDjtorwCLcB/s1600/Windows%2BSouth%2Bsince%2BWashington%2BJefferson.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Windows South from the Anasazi Mesa Verde to George Washington Thomas Jefferson" border="0" height="257" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zG6SWydk8Gc/WBUlcF1vkBI/AAAAAAAAB2o/u-w4932tv9001Q7oIJuFs0dssBXDjtorwCLcB/w400-h257/Windows%2BSouth%2Bsince%2BWashington%2BJefferson.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">... and properly sized overhangs will shade the south-facing windows<br />
from the high summer sun.<br />
(See more at the <a href="http://www.awindowsouth.com/" target="_blank">Windows South</a> website.)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
Now you might ask how everyone in a high rise can have south-facing windows. Aren't half of the units going to face north?<br />
<br />
Nope, not if we take Michael Graves' approach:<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DYOay9NqFwo/WBUogqb2jVI/AAAAAAAAB2w/07Mj2asa8f0NgZgsLWQNrYggB-TVXd5XwCLcB/s1600/Michael%2BGraves%2BLinear%2BCity%2B800.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Michael Graves design" border="0" height="183" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DYOay9NqFwo/WBUogqb2jVI/AAAAAAAAB2w/07Mj2asa8f0NgZgsLWQNrYggB-TVXd5XwCLcB/w320-h183/Michael%2BGraves%2BLinear%2BCity%2B800.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nhuBHWA6OA" target="_blank">Grounds for Sculpture, Michael Graves</a><br />
(YouTube)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
... which was modeled after Unite d' Habitation in Marseilles, the architectural scheme originally developed in 1952 by Le Corbusier:<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><br />
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pMwPfu7Ni9M/WBUqBVQG4vI/AAAAAAAAB28/XdVklOIhvLUc1Cod07Kehcm4XSjqVvJQgCLcB/s1600/Unite%25CC%2581_d%2527Habitation_Marseille.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pMwPfu7Ni9M/WBUqBVQG4vI/AAAAAAAAB28/XdVklOIhvLUc1Cod07Kehcm4XSjqVvJQgCLcB/s320/Unite%25CC%2581_d%2527Habitation_Marseille.jpg" width="240" /></a><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></td><td><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lz0wZaxqNe8/WBUqFmarrvI/AAAAAAAAB3A/RsE1x_erv4gledpDXwE4h4FXdUIQASGqwCLcB/s1600/corbusier_appart.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="98" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lz0wZaxqNe8/WBUqFmarrvI/AAAAAAAAB3A/RsE1x_erv4gledpDXwE4h4FXdUIQASGqwCLcB/s200/corbusier_appart.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
<br />
... in which all units had both south and north façades.<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
You can learn more by exploring the <a href="http://www.ecotopia.com/webpress/4donkeys.htm" target="_blank">Four Donkey Method of Bioclimatic Design</a>.</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Plus there will be <a href="http://www.solarskyways.net/" target="_blank">Solar Skyways</a> running continuously along the entire route, eliminating the need for <a href="http://www.oilcrisis.com/mx/" target="_blank">Mexican Oil</a> ... or oil of any sort, for that matter. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-81jvDf-jKVE/VgIzaqLaHKI/AAAAAAAABX8/nudRfpn8k4EX4noiQWjKRY13F3qi5ykrwCPcB/s1600/20%2BPodcar%2BB%2526B%2Bsolo.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="And Solar Powered General Transportation's podcar platoon" border="0" height="133" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-81jvDf-jKVE/VgIzaqLaHKI/AAAAAAAABX8/nudRfpn8k4EX4noiQWjKRY13F3qi5ykrwCPcB/w320-h133/20%2BPodcar%2BB%2526B%2Bsolo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<b>Conclusions?</b><br />
<br />
The election hasn't happened yet, so the future of "the wall" is to be determined. For now, I can say this much:<br />
<ul>
<li>The expansion of a border wall is ludicrous – and an environmental disaster to boot. </li>
<li>On the other hand, more livable border cities? Well that might be worth further consideration.</li>
<li>
Solar-oriented buildings (along the border or otherwise) will bring greater comfort and reduce border tensions.</li>
<li>Solar transportation will help the energy transition (whether in linear cities or where you live now). </li>
<li>Good design can give bright, sunny, comfortable living spaces featuring functional, effective south and north facades.</li>
<li>If, in order to pass through the border, you must have dinner with someone living in the linear city, then people on both sides will become better neighbors. </li>
</ul>
Let's build solar powered cities, along the border and beyond!<br />
<br />Ron Swensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13437944688837628074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7428297250920103479.post-25014114067471202192016-06-19T17:37:00.002-07:002016-07-30T14:56:29.072-07:00The US DOT-Advocacy or monopoly?<div>
</div>
<div>
</div>
We have a lot to think about... <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div>
<b>An Act in Relation to Removal of Obstructions to Navigation in the Mouth of the Mississippi River</b> </div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div>
"What a vast field would the exercise of this power open for jobbing and corruption! Members of Congress, from an honest desire to promote the interest of their constituents, would struggle for improvements within their own districts, and the body itself must necessarily be converted into an arena where each would endeavor to obtain from the Treasury as much money as possible for its own locality. The temptation would prove irresistible."<br />
<i><br />
President Buchanan's veto message, February 1860</i></div>
</blockquote>
Eight presidents have proclaimed foreign oil to be an enemy.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-f7KeUyH5xZA/V50iBr9T6EI/AAAAAAAABsY/gYA5QhH_a4ASBUXBs9f8kT-rjV-UAp-YACLcB/s1600/8%2Bpresidents.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="182" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-f7KeUyH5xZA/V50iBr9T6EI/AAAAAAAABsY/gYA5QhH_a4ASBUXBs9f8kT-rjV-UAp-YACLcB/s320/8%2Bpresidents.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
The US Department of Energy has a "<a href="http://energy.gov/eere/transportation" target="_blank">sustainable transportation</a>" program within its EERE Office. Is there money for sustainable transportation within that program? <br />
<br />
<table align="center"><tbody>
<tr><td>Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies</td><td align="right">$105 m</td></tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://www.ecotopia.com/ases/solartoday/biofuelsscienceorfiction.pdf" target="_blank">Bioenergy Technologies</a></td><td align="right">279 m</td></tr>
<tr><td>Vehicle Technologies</td><td align="right">468 m</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
What do you think? Ron Swensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13437944688837628074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7428297250920103479.post-28265832326201955932016-06-18T18:05:00.001-07:002016-06-26T09:35:40.424-07:00Disruption is 10X – Innovation is 2XIn Silicon Valley we hear a lot about innovation. It is the mantra
for entrepreneurs, managers, engineers, educators, even our local politicians.<br />
<br />
<u><i>Disruption</i> >> Innovation</u><br />
<br />
What's
a little harder to see is <i>disruption</i> to the entire order. We are so
used to change in Silicon Valley that we don't always see how fast a
complete transformation shifts into place ... or what it takes for that shift to happen. <br />
<br />
Since I first
heard Bucky Fuller explain the essential discipline of doing <i>more with
less</i>, shifting
from "fossil fuels" to renewable energy has been the obvious answer for me. I still regularly encounter skepticism, but that's
normal for those of us who act upon the pressing need for
clean energy. <br />
<br />
One person who has done an excellent job of articulating this need and the opportunity it represents is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kxryv2XrnqM" target="_blank">Tony Seba [video]</a>. He calls it <a href="http://www.swedbank.no/idc/groups/public/@i/@sc/@all/@lci/documents/presentation/cid_1987411.pdf" target="_blank">Clean Disruption [slide deck]</a>.
Clean <i>disruption</i> goes far beyond clean innovation. Echoing that sentiment in the context of becoming <b><i>Solar Nations</i></b>, it's high time for
humanity to make an about-face, to abandon fossil fuels, not only because
it's necessary but also because it's more effective, and more
economical ... by far.<br />
<br />
Tony sees the big picture. It's not hard, after all. Here's how he laid it out for transportation in his presentation (slide #70):<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aeluAuyc770/V2XyQJdj_sI/AAAAAAAABlQ/LENAR07SxhUDJHhU4SqWzuWE7T0aKDWCQCLcB/s1600/2016-03-17.Tony%2BSeba.Clean%2BDisruption.Swedbank.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="279" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aeluAuyc770/V2XyQJdj_sI/AAAAAAAABlQ/LENAR07SxhUDJHhU4SqWzuWE7T0aKDWCQCLcB/s320/2016-03-17.Tony%2BSeba.Clean%2BDisruption.Swedbank.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6T6bAEqDoTk/V2amwEqz-vI/AAAAAAAABms/mEioaHbadawanxV80IiTV8QIDGeqroFHwCLcB/s1600/2016-03-17.Tony%2BSeba.Clean%2BDisruption.Swedbank%2Bdisruption%2Bcleanup.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
3D - Clean Disruption of [Transportation] <br />
©2016 Tony Seba</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Well, if you look closely, you will notice that he has actually drawn vehicles for a 2D world where the configuration driver is still rubber tires on asphalt (a variation on the theme of fossil fuels, a substance that breeds potholes in the end). And the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Momentum#Conservation" target="_blank">Law of Conservation of Momentum</a> still holds, dictating that sooner or later, energy efficient, asset utilizing, autonomy capable cars will still bump into things. (<a href="http://solarnations.blogspot.com/2015/08/streets-are-commons.html" target="_blank">Ouch!</a>) And because of that, they can't go very fast, either. They gotta watch out for people and things on the ground.<br />
<br />
In the modern 3D city, transportation will soon become 3D too, something like this:<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-81jvDf-jKVE/VgIzaqLaHKI/AAAAAAAABX8/9DKPSVbyYGw4sjDkMXip4A5-akxhH_dBQCKgB/s1600/20%2BPodcar%2BB%2526B%2Bsolo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="166" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-81jvDf-jKVE/VgIzaqLaHKI/AAAAAAAABX8/9DKPSVbyYGw4sjDkMXip4A5-akxhH_dBQCKgB/s400/20%2BPodcar%2BB%2526B%2Bsolo.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.solarevolution.com/" target="_blank">The Solarevolution™</a></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Come the Solarevolution, solar-powered, automated, non-stop, elevated podcars will run on high strength steel lasting 10X longer than asphalt -- and cheaper. The pods will weigh 10X less than Teslas. (They don't have to carry lots of heavy batteries and be built like tanks to protect their occupants.) The pillars will require 1000X less land area than cars, freeing up the ground level for human activity.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ld8PkPueYmk/V2X68osdl8I/AAAAAAAABl0/50eg1CD9nUonUJxJ7Ba6npEd1-NswMV6QCLcB/s1600/2016-03-17.Tony%2BSeba.Clean%2BDisruption.Swedbank%2Bdisruption.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="66" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ld8PkPueYmk/V2X68osdl8I/AAAAAAAABl0/50eg1CD9nUonUJxJ7Ba6npEd1-NswMV6QCLcB/s320/2016-03-17.Tony%2BSeba.Clean%2BDisruption.Swedbank%2Bdisruption.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">4D - Clean Transportation<br />
(with apologies to Tony Seba) </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Ooops.... Excuse me while I make a little adjustment...<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6T6bAEqDoTk/V2amwEqz-vI/AAAAAAAABms/48cpB0Z_SZ8PVU3IlK0cq7BZcQdNQ_5ygCKgB/s1600/2016-03-17.Tony%2BSeba.Clean%2BDisruption.Swedbank%2Bdisruption%2Bcleanup.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="65" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6T6bAEqDoTk/V2amwEqz-vI/AAAAAAAABms/48cpB0Z_SZ8PVU3IlK0cq7BZcQdNQ_5ygCKgB/s320/2016-03-17.Tony%2BSeba.Clean%2BDisruption.Swedbank%2Bdisruption%2Bcleanup.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ahh, that's better.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
So now we have room in our cities for <i><b>people, pets, pedals and petals!</b></i><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-04sY8kzPfME/V3AAzjEkdsI/AAAAAAAABoc/lH0Y8hBKtTgKbJl335wjAShl_HrmD9WhACLcB/s1600/We%2BMake%2Broom%2Bfor%2Bpeople%2Bpets%2Bpedals%2Bpetals%2Bno%2Bcaption.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="175" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-04sY8kzPfME/V3AAzjEkdsI/AAAAAAAABoc/lH0Y8hBKtTgKbJl335wjAShl_HrmD9WhACLcB/s400/We%2BMake%2Broom%2Bfor%2Bpeople%2Bpets%2Bpedals%2Bpetals%2Bno%2Bcaption.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">4D Transportation as if people mattered</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
And travelers win too. Because elevated vehicles can't hit people, the passengers in podcars zooming overhead will get to where they're going much faster. <br />
<br />
Now that's what I call <i>disruption</i>! <br />
<br />
(Clean, too!)<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />Ron Swensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13437944688837628074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7428297250920103479.post-57110548366477550882016-05-08T21:56:00.000-07:002016-05-08T22:01:20.075-07:00Energy Storage Innovation<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">With the emergence of electric cars, much attention is being focused on battery innovation. And yet there are many other innovative energy storage technologies which have better performance than batteries, especially at<span style="font-family: inherit;"> s<span style="font-family: inherit;">mall to medium</span></span> (<a href="http://www.microgridinstitute.org/about-microgrids.html" target="_blank">microgrid</a>) scale and at <span style="font-family: inherit;">large g<span style="font-family: inherit;">rid scale</span></span>. Here are some of those, at various levels of innovation and commercialization.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><u>Gravity Energy Storage</u></b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">P</span>umped hydro, a long established energy s<span style="font-family: inherit;">torage</span> technology</span></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumped-storage_hydroelectricity">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumped-storage_hydroelectricity</a> </span></span></span></li>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helms_Pumped_Storage_Plant"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helms_Pumped_Storage_Plant</span></a></span></span></li>
</ul>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Gravity Power</span></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://www.gravitypower.net/"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">http://www.gravitypower.net/</span></a></span></span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Advanced Rail Energy Storage (ARES), "Gravity Train"</span></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"><a href="http://www.aresnorthamerica.com/">http://www.aresnorthamerica.com/</a> </span></span></span></span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><u>Compressed Air Energy Storage</u></b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><u><br />
</u></b></span></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">LightSail</span></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"><a href="http://www.lightsail.com/"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">http://www.lightsail.com/</span></a><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"> </span></span></span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Underwater Compressed Air</span></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.hydrostor.ca/"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">http://www.hydrostor.ca/</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"> </span></span></span></span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><u>Closed Cycle Heat engines</u></b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Isentropic, hot rocks</span></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"><a href="http://www.isentropic.co.uk/"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">http://www.isentropic.co.uk/</span></a> </span></span></span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">TerraJoule, hot water</span></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.terrajoulecorp.com/">http://www.Terrajouleco<span style="font-family: inherit;">rp</span>.com/</a></span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span>Ron Swensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13437944688837628074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7428297250920103479.post-39327179549445141882015-09-26T10:29:00.000-07:002016-06-26T09:49:47.575-07:00Streets are the CommonsRecently I was invited to watch a <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/ilona_szabo_de_carvalho_4_lessons_i_learned_from_taking_a_stand_against_drugs_and_gun_violence">TED Talk by a passionate social reformer</a>. She spoke first about "changing and controlling the narrative."<br />
<br />
I propose a new narrative for transportation planning: <a href="https://www.inist.org/library/1982-03-21.Illich.Silence%20is%20a%20Commons.pdf" target="_blank">Streets are the Commons</a>. <br />
<br />
Searching for some local indicators of passionate concern for protecting children on streets, I came across this recent article which reminded me of the process of education that was contrived when cars first invaded cities a century ago.* Here we are in the 21st century with incredible technology at our fingertips and urban transportation officials are still designing policies which ignore <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Momentum#Conservation" target="_blank">the laws of physics</a>** and instead depend upon clever advertising to educate thoughtless drivers, to compensate for their inability to design a transportation system that is intrinsically safe:<br />
<blockquote>
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SnVQTIpLIh4/VgbX_sL1nMI/AAAAAAAABYY/Y9H9sxsonWk/s1600/DCDriverCampaign.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SnVQTIpLIh4/VgbX_sL1nMI/AAAAAAAABYY/Y9H9sxsonWk/s200/DCDriverCampaign.png" width="137" /></a><a href="https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/new-speed-limit-nyc-change-takes-effect-25-mph-deblasio" target="_blank"><b>Will “Little Nudges” Slow Drivers Down to New NYC Speed Limit?</b></a><br />
<br />
"... an ambitious campaign to reduce the city’s 4,000 annual pedestrian injuries and 250 deaths through citywide strategies that include stricter enforcement and safer design...<br />
<br />
<i><b>“It really emphasizes the vulnerability of the human body to vehicles</b></i>,” Williams says. When the firm tested their concept on focus groups, she says, drivers showed a marked change.<br />
<br /></blockquote>
This method has left street users in harm's way for a century. Instead of depending on educating fallible drivers, imagine educating engineers to design a transportation system with attention to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Momentum#Conservation" target="_blank">the law of conservation of momentum</a>** — a system that separates two-ton machines in motion from people on the ground where they rightfully belong, maybe something like this:<br />
<br />
<table><tbody>
<tr><td><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr> <td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-E-YYEfZLqSo/VgbaeWyUJdI/AAAAAAAABYg/tzCzCLQfTkM/s1600/56%2BGrunalund%2BRoller%2Bcoaster.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-E-YYEfZLqSo/VgbaeWyUJdI/AAAAAAAABYg/tzCzCLQfTkM/s320/56%2BGrunalund%2BRoller%2Bcoaster.JPG" width="320" /></a></td> </tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i>A roller coaster above people at Gröna Lund in Stockholm</i></b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</td> <td style="text-align: right;"><br />
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IQWerr4iUzI/VgbbLlU_r9I/AAAAAAAABYo/RgWd5Dd3x8c/s1600/%257ELogo%2BSpartanSuperway%2Brise%2Babove.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img 176="" align="right height=" border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IQWerr4iUzI/VgbbLlU_r9I/AAAAAAAABYo/RgWd5Dd3x8c/s200/%257ELogo%2BSpartanSuperway%2Brise%2Babove.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Imagine a city where people on the ground can safely coexist with machines moving above. Pedestrians and bicyclists will thrive and travelers will speed non-stop to their destinations twice as fast as cars, buses and street cars inching their way from stoplight to stoplight. <br />
<br />
<hr noshade="" />
* See <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Fighting-Traffic-American-Inside-Technology/dp/0262516128" target="_blank">Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City (Inside Technology)</a> by Peter D. Norton<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Before the advent of the automobile, users of city streets were diverse
and included children at play and pedestrians at large. By 1930, most
streets were primarily a motor thoroughfares where children did not
belong and where pedestrians were condemned as "jaywalkers." In Fighting
Traffic, Peter Norton argues that to accommodate automobiles, the
American city required not only a physical change but also a social one:
before the city could be reconstructed for the sake of motorists, its
streets had to be socially reconstructed as places where motorists
belonged. It was not an evolution, he writes, but a bloody and sometimes
violent revolution. Norton describes how street users struggled to
define and redefine what streets were for. He examines developments in
the crucial transitional years from the 1910s to the 1930s, uncovering a
broad anti-automobile campaign that reviled motorists as "road hogs" or
"speed demons" and cars as "juggernauts" or "death cars." He considers
the perspectives of all users--pedestrians, police (who had to become
"traffic cops"), street railways, downtown businesses, traffic engineers
(who often saw cars as the problem, not the solution), and automobile
promoters. He finds that pedestrians and parents campaigned in moral
terms, fighting for "justice." Cities and downtown businesses tried to
regulate traffic in the name of "efficiency." Automotive interest
groups, meanwhile, legitimized their claim to the streets by invoking
"freedom" -- a rhetorical stance of particular power in the United
States. Fighting Traffic offers a new look at both the origins of the
automotive city in America and how social groups shape technological
change."</blockquote>
** The amount of momentum object 1 gains from a collision is the same
as the amount of momentum object 2 loses. The total momentum remains the
same.<br />
<br />
<br />Ron Swensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13437944688837628074noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7428297250920103479.post-36739424843384770142015-09-22T20:58:00.000-07:002015-09-25T18:49:58.555-07:00Is solar energy intermittent?Once Bucky Fuller told a story about being at MIT, talking to some of the brightest people in the world. There he asked to see hands: would anyone deny that the sun rises every morning? Of course there were no hands. Then he pointed out that they were all wrong — we have known for centuries, if not millennia, that the earth spins; the sun is constant. In the morning as the Earth revolves the sun into seeability, we experience <i>sunsight. </i><br />
<br />
The other day I chanced upon a TED Talk by Bill Gates, <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates" target="_blank">Innovating to zero</a> (zero carbon, that is). When he got around to renewables, he said "these are intermittent sources."<i> </i><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mnzreWpzmEY/VgIlSAoafJI/AAAAAAAABXk/w4yL_dQ0nZk/s1600/Gates%2BIntermittent.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="191" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mnzreWpzmEY/VgIlSAoafJI/AAAAAAAABXk/w4yL_dQ0nZk/s200/Gates%2BIntermittent.png" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Genius in a box!</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Life emerged from the deep because the Earth spins on its axis, generating thermodynamic processes. Substances pulsing between hot and cold eventually captured the flux and complexified, surfing at the margins as it were. A planet with one side always facing its sun is a dead planet. <br />
<br />
We can be thankful that the sun gives us respite every night, time to cool off and reconsider the wisdom of Bill Gates.<br />
<br />
I am more interested in hearing what engineers have to say about all this. Good engineering starts with a clear understanding of the constraints. I for one am ecstatic that our Sun's energy is constant and the Earth spins. I can design accordingly. <br />
<br />
Beware of programmers carrying screwdrivers. If trees can make it through the night without burning fossil fuels, so can we.Ron Swensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13437944688837628074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7428297250920103479.post-84541758482897272052015-09-22T18:10:00.001-07:002015-09-28T22:37:13.932-07:00Immediate not Gradual Liberation from Fossil FuelsIn 1824 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Heyrick">Elizabeth Heyrick</a> published a pamphlet in England arguing for "<a href="http://www.inist.org/library/1824-00-00.Heyrick.Immediate%20not%20gradual%20abolition.pdf" target="_blank">Immediate, not Gradual Abolition</a>." Respecting her genius, in like fashion I propose Immediate, not Gradual Liberation from Fossil Fuels.<br />
<br />
In 1824 the cry went out — Oh, we must be practical and do it gradually. Let's simply stop kidnapping and shipping slaves from Africa to the West Indies (the dirtiest side of the business). But Elizabeth Heyrick persevered, others joined her cause and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_Abolition_Act_1833" target="_blank">the transformation was made rapidly and peacefully</a>. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-09BjVmfql7k/VgH4k8UB8-I/AAAAAAAABXQ/r426qqmK63g/s1600/C%25E2%2588%2586PO%2BLeap.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-09BjVmfql7k/VgH4k8UB8-I/AAAAAAAABXQ/r426qqmK63g/s320/C%25E2%2588%2586PO%2BLeap.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">What can be gradual about a leap across the divide?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
In the USA it wasn't so easy. Instead of switching to machines delivering by then kilowatts of power tirelessly, as was the case in the northern states, southern masters continued to use slaves producing 100-200 watts of power. A war ensued, entangling masters, slaves and soldiers in abject suffering, with repercussions persisting to this very day. <br />
<br />
In like fashion the quest for fossil fuels has already led to untold suffering, entangling millions of people in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Baku#World_War_I" target="_blank">violent oil wars, since World War I</a>. In World War II, Hitler invaded Russia to conquer the Caspian Sea: "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Baku#World_War_II" target="_blank">Unless we get Baku oil, the war is lost</a>." And oil wars persist without respite. <br />
<br />
The burning of fossil fuels is transforming the atmosphere and the oceans. The earth's atmosphere and oceans have changed before; the earth will survive. But will humans? Will we move directly now to the age of electricity? Will we continue to fight over oil? Will humanity's old friend Fire transform the atmosphere until we won't even be able to breathe? <br />
<br />
And I can hear the cry going out — Oh, we must be practical. We must preserve our way of life. Some climate change activists will say we must avoid burning coal (the
dirtiest side of the business) but burning natural gas is sorta okay. <br />
<br />
But is that so? Who has sufficient understanding to unequivocally guarantee that humans can continue to test Mother Nature's limits without consequences?<br />
<br />
If we follow the example of Elizabeth Heyrick's profound courage, there are only two possible futures for humanity and fossil fuels — get off or die off.<br />
<br />
With quiet, clean, safe, low maintenance, economical renewable energy technology reaching maturity in the marketplace, it's an easy choice to make. Ron Swensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13437944688837628074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7428297250920103479.post-77920894632095677682015-09-08T20:33:00.003-07:002015-09-08T20:33:51.838-07:00Spartan Superway 4Building on the achievements of San José State students over the past three years, forty San José State Mechanical Engineering students have just joined the Spartan Superway project, together with several more including several grad students working in Solar Engineering, Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Software Engineering. A new blog has been created to showcase their progress over the course of the 2015-2016 academic year. You can check it out at <a href="http://spartansuperway.blogspot.com/">SpartanSuperway.Blogspot.com</a>. <br />
<br />
The new students have a solid foundation of work upon which to build. In addition to the previous three years of effort, this past summer nineteen engineering students from Brazil, South Korea, Sweden and France joined a handful of California students from San Jose State, Carnegie Mellon and UC Davis to continue developing the Spartan Superway.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TayBn9NgpzQ/Ve-nQ9AIb1I/AAAAAAAABQ0/vt4eha4FLGg/s1600/SMSSV%2B3.5.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TayBn9NgpzQ/Ve-nQ9AIb1I/AAAAAAAABQ0/vt4eha4FLGg/s400/SMSSV%2B3.5.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Students and mentors from 5 countries in front of their flags <br />at the Spartan Superway Design Center <br />just a couple blocks from San José State</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
You can check out the earlier student work at the <a href="http://www.inist.org/library/" target="_blank">INIST Library</a>.<br />
<br />
Welcome to the new members of Spartan Superway 4!Ron Swensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13437944688837628074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7428297250920103479.post-38064432504477034012014-08-03T09:30:00.000-07:002014-08-03T09:37:18.138-07:00Spartan Superway in the NewsHere are some news articles about Spartan Superway at <a href="http://www.intersolar.us/en/visitor-service-north-america/special-exhibits/spartan-superway.html" target="_blank">Intersolar</a> in July and <a href="http://makerfaire.com/makers/superway/" target="_blank">Maker Faire</a> in May. <br />
<br />
2014-07-15 <a href="http://www.sjsu.edu/me/aboutus/newsarchives/makerfaire2014/" target="_blank">Automated Transit Network (ATN) at Maker Faire 2014</a> <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
An interdisciplinary team of engineers, industrial designers, urban planners, and
business students are designing a paradigm-breaking, sustainable transportation system
- the Spartan Superway. The Superway is a solar-powered automated transit network
(ATN) that has potential to significantly impact urban transportation.
</blockquote>
<br />
2014-07-11 <a href="http://www.intersolar.us/en/news-north-america/intersolar-news/intersolar-news.html?tx_ttnews[tt_news]=1056&cHash=67839e43fc81a7d1903f3b6878f36ecc" target="_blank">Spartan Superway showcases sustainable transportation</a> <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The Spartan Superway special exhibit at Intersolar North America
demonstrated practical applications of PV in the transportation
industry. Students and faculty from San Jose State University showcased
their futuristic transportation system, which utilizes solar power to
move compact, fully automated vehicles along above ground steel rail
system. The concept is designed to maximize efficiency by ensuring cars
only accelerate and decelerate between stops once. The system generates 1
MW per mile of track, moving the vehicles close to 40 miles per hour to
the occupant’s destination. Faculty staffing the booth explained the
advantages to the system.</blockquote>
<br />
2014-07-10 <a href="http://www.solarpowerworldonline.com/2014/07/little-trouble-lot-hope-spartan-superway-project/" target="_blank">A Little Trouble And A Lot Of Hope At The Spartan Superway Project:</a><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The <a href="http://www.engr.sjsu.edu/smssv/" target="_blank" title="Spartan Superway Project"><b>Spartan Superway Project</b></a>
is a multi-disciplinary team of student engineers, designers and urban
planners at San Jose State University. The group envisions cities where
on-demand, elevated transport alleviates traffic congestion and gets
people to destinations faster – and all of it would be powered by
renewable energy.</blockquote>
<br />
2014-07-08 <a href="http://abc7news.com/business/new-innovations-shown-at-intersolar-conference-in-sf/170448/" target="_blank">New Innovations Shown at Intersolar Conference in SF</a><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The sun can move lots of things -- like one day, a public transit system.<br />
<br />
"And move people with the energy that they're sitting underneath," said <a href="https://www.inist.org/" rel="" target="">Inist.org</a> project manager Sam Ellis.<br />
<br />
Here, it's not just about making more power, but using less.<br />
<br />
"You don't want to have rubber tires on an asphalt road," Ellis said. "You want to have steel wheels on a steel rail." </blockquote>
<br />
2014-05-10 <a href="http://engineering.sjsu.edu/news-and-events/news/sjsu-students-unveil-their-innovative-solar-powered-automated-transit-network" target="_blank">SJSU students to unveil their innovative solar-powered Automated Transit Network design at upcoming Maker Faire</a><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In an interdisciplinary effort, San José State University engineering,
business, design and urban planning students are determined to
revolutionize transportation with their new Spartan Superway, a 100
percent solar-powered Automated Transit Network (<span class="caps">ATN</span>), using driverless podcars. The <span class="caps">ATN</span> project was first motivated by a solar design challenge proposed by the Institute of Sustainable Transportation (<span class="caps">INIST</span>) two years ago, to help cities move toward a more sustainable future.
</blockquote>
<br />Ron Swensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13437944688837628074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7428297250920103479.post-4197712216139053862014-04-15T12:00:00.000-07:002014-08-03T09:57:05.113-07:00Beyond Fire, Insurance The term <i>conservative</i> has more than one meaning. In politics, <i>conservative</i> means "disposed to preserve existing conditions, institutions, etc., or to restore traditional ones, and to limit change." <br />
<br />
In risk assessment and decision-making, <i>conservative</i> means: "cautiously moderate or purposefully low: a <i>conservative</i> estimate." <br />
<br />
Another consideration is that risk can be asymmetrical. The likelihood that buying fire insurance will bankrupt you is very low. But even though the probability that your house will catch fire is very low, if you don't have fire insurance and your home <i>does</i> burn down, your finances will be in shambles. <br />
<br />
There is a fire alarm wailing – people in the know are telling us that climate change will lead to unprecedented chaos. We have been alerted that the fire danger today is extreme. But does the fire brigade even hear the siren? You realize, of course, that losing a planet is far worse than losing your home. A house can be replaced, but good planets are hard to find. (They're scarce and few.) It is highly unlikely that humanity could find another one if ours burns up. <br />
<br />
Compared to the asymmetrical risk asssociated with lighting the match that would destroy our planet's experiment in consciousness, the cost of insurance is obviously negligible, even if it turns out to be a full time task for every human being on the planet to put out the fire. <br />
<br />
A yardstick against which climate change has been measured is global temperature, influenced in turn by CO2 and other gases in the atmosphere. Another yardstick is the acidity of the oceans. <br />
<br />
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SNTqv3A8_mE/UxTFhJyXVOI/AAAAAAAAAHI/HXsG_vF6muI/s1600/C%E2%88%86+Better+world+for+nothing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="What if we create a better world for nothing?" border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SNTqv3A8_mE/UxTFhJyXVOI/AAAAAAAAAHI/HXsG_vF6muI/s1600/C%E2%88%86+Better+world+for+nothing.jpg" height="213" title="" width="320" /></a>A politically <i>conservative</i> response might be to leave well enough alone: "... disposed to preserve existing conditions..." <br />
<br />
For effective risk assessment and decision-making, on the other hand, clearly the <i>conservative</i> estimate would mean to err on the side of doing too much. <br />
<br />
In 1824, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Heyrick" target="_blank">Elizabeth Heyrick</a> (1769-1831) wrote a pamphlet, "<a href="https://archive.org/download/immediatenotgr00heyr/immediatenotgr00heyr.pdf" target="_blank">Immediate, Not Gradual Abolition</a>." Her appeal was the first public voice that dared to challenge the notion that abolition must, by its very nature, be gradual and measured. A few years later, one bloody war and the Emancipation Proclamation put slavery to rest. <br />
<br />
Many suffered under slavery. Continuing to use hydrocarbons as energy is a death sentence for all. This is a call for immediate, not gradual transformation from illicit energy to renewable energy. <a href="http://www.solarevolution.com/">Ground transportation can be solar powered</a>. We must prove that it can be done and expand it rapidly to alleviate the suffering inherent in climate change. Ron Swensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13437944688837628074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7428297250920103479.post-39108722651277196572014-01-20T17:00:00.000-08:002014-08-03T09:41:10.771-07:00Meeting the Challenge Notwithstanding glamorous
advertisements of automobiles posed in pristine natural landscapes,
there is nothing to celebrate about machines dominating the urban
landscape, nor in aiding and abetting humanity’s nasty habit of digging
up those toxic carbonaceous substances again to burn and spew those
byproducts of <b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Fire</span></i></b> into the atmosphere. Climate change and resource
depletion are potential threats of such enormous proportions that, in a
world nearly 100% dependent on <b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Fire</span></i></b> for transportation, any solutions
must have high leverage and produce immediate results.<br />
<br />
Such high
leverage options are available. Though implementation to date has
been fragmented, cities are developing automated transportation networks
integrated with solar Electricity, notably in Uppsala in Sweden,
at 60º North (2/3 of the way from the equator to the North Pole) and in Silicon Valley.
With research and <a href="http://www.superway.us/" target="_blank">engineering support from San Jose State University</a> and the <a href="http://www.presidioedu.org/" target="_blank">Presidio Graduate School</a>, several
<a href="http://www.atna.us/" target="_blank">Silicon Valley cities are organizing</a> to create a sustainable alternative
to automobile centered transportation, beyond <b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Fire</span></i></b>.<br />
<br />
Given the risk of abrupt and devastating climate change, the incumbent carbon-dependent industries are in turn increasingly <a data-mce-href="http://www.carbontracker.org/" href="http://www.carbontracker.org/" target="_blank" title="Carbon Tracker">at risk of losing access to their asset portfolios</a>
(e.g., oil / gas / coal reserves). Governments will be forced to put
out the <b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Fire</span></i></b> in order to alleviate ever-increasing and devastating
climate instability. The movement will be slow at first. Then Mother
Nature will “pick up the bat” and, in the face of looming unrelenting
and unequivocal pressure from Her, the momentum for sweeping societal
change will be unstoppable.<br />
<br />
Can we stop the curtain from falling on the human saga? Now is the time for humanity to respond to the central challenge of the 21st Century.Ron Swensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13437944688837628074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7428297250920103479.post-56339530701007846932013-11-26T18:00:00.000-08:002014-04-10T13:59:25.641-07:00Beyond Fire<b><i>What is all this madness?</i> </b><br />
<br />
Humanity is facing stunningly challenging times in the coming years (not decades: years). We have learned that, for our very survival, we must quit burning carbon. This is common knowledge; there are no mysteries here. Yet major institutions continue aggressively pursuing carbon power, not only burning the deadly stuff, but even building more voracious furnaces to accelerate the suicidal madness. <br />
<br />
Yet it is reasonable that humans cling to <b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Fire</span></i></b>. The discovery of <b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Fire</span></i></b> defined humanity's humble origins, after all. <b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Fire</span></i></b> has been at the very core of human existence for eons. <br />
<br />
Long before humans harnessed <b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Fire</span></i></b>, there was a great happening in the primeval world, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Oxygenation_Event" target="_blank" title="The Great Oxygenation Event">Great Oxygenation Event </a>(GOE). Primitive photosynthesis in the oceans extracted oxygen from water (H<sub>2</sub>O) which then first combined with mineral salts (producing, e.g., rust). Much later as oxygen saturated the ocean's minerals, it then emerged into the atmosphere and helped break down methane into CO<sub>2</sub> and water, and primitive life forms slowly continued to evolve. From the time when CO<sub>2</sub> was almost 20% of the atmosphere, much of it was gradually absorbed into the ocean and plant life or was buried away, opening the way for large oxygen-breathing organisms. During the Carboniferous Period 360 million years ago, coal was formed and submerged, capturing even more carbon from the atmosphere and further making way for modern life forms. These conditions were in place when humans appeared on the stage... and all was well. <br />
<br />
Then very recently things changed. Humans began burning that long sequestered carbon in earnest, in pursuit of a better way of life. All of that seemed reasonable for a time but then scientists became keenly aware of the dangers of releasing great quantities of carbon back into the atmosphere, and finally their message has been laid out plainly for all who will listen. However, like the sorcerer's apprentice, humans are fascinated with the power that can be released from burning carbon. As pyromaniacs, we are altering the climate, threatening the delicate composition of the atmosphere and the very survival of the living organisms upon which our own survival depends. <br />
<br />
But is it possible to turn away from <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><i><b>Fire</b></i></span>, the very phenomenon which once defined humanity and now ironically threatens our very existence? <br />
<br />
Yes. A couple of centuries ago, another great discovery was made that has forever changed the human experience – <b><i>Electricity</i></b>. It is now <i><b>Electricity</b></i> that defines human society: <b><i>Electricity</i></b> is at the very core of modern civilization. Ironically, though, until now much of that transformative <b><i>Electricity</i></b> has been produced under a Faustian bargain with our once dependable servant <b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Fire</span></i></b>. <br />
<br />
Stated differently, in the process of transformation, humanity's friend <b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Fire</span></i></b> has become the arch-enemy. The prescient Wizard of <i><b>Electricity</b></i>, Thomas Edison, laid down the gauntlet over 100 years ago, in 1910:<br />
<blockquote>
Sunshine is spread out thin and so is <b><i>Electricity</i></b>. Perhaps they are the same, Sunshine is a form of energy, and the winds and the tides are manifestations of energy.<br />
<br />
Do we use them? Oh, no! We burn up wood and coal, as renters burn up the front fence for fuel. We live like squatters, not as if we owned the property.<br />
<br />
There must surely come a time when heat and power will be stored in unlimited quantities in every community, all gathered by natural forces. <b><i>Electricity</i></b> ought to be as cheap as oxygen....</blockquote>
<br />
Two more great discoveries have opened the door to such a viable future beyond <b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Fire</span></i></b>, both attributed to that other prescient Wizard, Albert Einstein. One was the release of the energy of the atom. The other was to capture the sun's energy, e.g., with silicon. (It was for his 1905 paper on the photoelectric effect that Einstein won the Nobel Prize in 1921, not the theory of relativity which remained controversial at the time.) <br />
<br />
Unfortunately the effective exploitation of atomic energy in a controlled manner remains elusive. The possibilities of fission and fusion are constrained by the unpredictability of human behavior and the very real danger of radiation escaping from manageable concentrations, under some combination of human error, warfare, climate change and natural disasters. <br />
<br />
That leaves us with one option – "natural forces" – the solar energy, wind and tides which Edison was able to see so clearly ahead. And, ironically, to validate Edison's challenge and keep the atmosphere in balance, humanity must put out the <b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Fire</span></i></b>. Thankfully, burning wood in modern cities has been reduced to a summer ritual (the charcoal barbeque). But we like squatters are still burning hydrocarbon minerals to make <b><i>Electricity</i></b> ... and to get around town. Though progress is being made to produce <b><i>Electricity</i></b> with solar and wind, infernal <b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Fire</span></i></b>-belching machines are still running around loose on the streets. <br />
<br />
It is encouraging that city dwellers have abandoned <b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Fire</span></i></b> in the kitchen (at least wood fires, that is) so the next step for humanity's survival is to banish <b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Fire</span></i></b> from the streets. Further, given what humanity knows today, it is just plain absurd to allow machines on wheels to dominate the urban landscape. We can take the <a href="http://www.solarevolution.com/"><b><i>Solarevolution</i></b></a> to the streets and liberate ourselves from machine dominance. We can return our streets to the people again. <b><br /></b>Ron Swensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13437944688837628074noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7428297250920103479.post-87890181322496921972012-12-17T17:53:00.003-08:002012-12-23T23:49:07.034-08:00Northern Lights and Cold NightsIt is incredibly simple but seemingly impossible for architects and engineers in the construction industry to find the north arrow on a compass. Maybe they just didn't join the Boy Scouts when they were growing up?! <br />
<br />
To heat a home in the winter, whether in the desert (which can be sunny and yet cold) or in a cloudy temperate zone rain forest in northern climes, the best solar collectors bar none are windows on the south side. Trouble is, first you have to find the south side. That's apparently the hard part. <br />
<br />
If your floor plan offers you a garage on the south side, forget it. You might have a warm car but you will be burning the midnight oil to keep warm. If you have only doors, hallways, closets and bathrooms on the south side, your clothes might be warm when you put them on, but you will still be needlessly spending a lot on heating. Windows South! <br />
<br />
In the past few years, the construction industry has introduced new "low-E" window technology which offers high insulating properties. But when government got on board, this new advantage got bundled with a severe hidden liability. The government had to take into account the fact that designers no longer carry compasses. <br />
<br />
What could possibly have gone wrong when government jumped on board to achieve their laudable energy conservation goals? Sadly, in order to simplify the regulations to accommodate those developers and architects who had lost their way, all windows are now conveniently deemed to be the same, regardless of window orientation (north-south-east-west). The result is low-E glass, delivering good cold weather and night time insulation combined with severely filtered solar heat gain, down to 25%-30% of normal. You're sitting by the window; it's cold outside but the sun is streaming in through the window ... and you're nearly freezing. <br />
<br />
With these well-intentioned energy efficiency regulations, your heating costs can get much worse. You can see this on the <a href="http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=windows_doors.pr_anat_window">Energy Star</a> website. Here you will be obliged to conclude that the southern half of the USA is hot all year long ... <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jBIP9OUHZfA/UM_AeTxu-5I/AAAAAAAAADc/WEacdRL7Ego/s1600/Energy+Star+map!+Promotional_Map_Only.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="207" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jBIP9OUHZfA/UM_AeTxu-5I/AAAAAAAAADc/WEacdRL7Ego/s400/Energy+Star+map!+Promotional_Map_Only.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
... because the energy standard requires that all of your windows block out the sun in the winter:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dqDsoEtu0v0/UM_QDUzV_CI/AAAAAAAAAEE/8KPd1MIoPeE/s1600/Energy_Star_Window_Criteria.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="250" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dqDsoEtu0v0/UM_QDUzV_CI/AAAAAAAAAEE/8KPd1MIoPeE/s400/Energy_Star_Window_Criteria.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
In the yellow, orange and red zones, all which experience cold winter weather (except perhaps for southern Florida), Energy Star requires that all windows must be stingy and let through less than 40% (yellow), 30% (orange) or 27% (red) of the sun to keep you warm. <br />
<br />
In the colder northern zone, your solar heat gain (SHGC) is only required to be greater than 35%-40%. I'm sorry, that's just not enough. <br />
<br />
Though low solar heat gain makes sense for windows on the west side of a home, to cut out the sunlight on the south side is a travesty. <br />
<br />
If you are specifying windows for your home, seek out windows for the south side which use "low-E hard coat" glass such as Pilkington's <a href="http://www.pilkington.com/north-america/usa/english/products/bp/bybenefit/thermalinsulation/energyadvantage/default.htm">Energy Advantage</a> which can deliver over 70% solar heat gain while preserving the attractive low "U-factor" with its high insulating properties. "Energy Advantage™ is a pyrolitically on-line coated low-emissivity glass." In other words, they bake the coating right into the glass while it's being made, not as an afterthought like the so-called "soft coat" low-E glazing. The regular window manufacturers, dealers and installers know close to nothing about this until you get pretty far north (it's the law in Germany) but the Pilkington people are very helpful and knowledgeable. They can put you in touch with window companies where people understand the Energy Advantage. <br />
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By the way, if you want to keep the sun out in the summer time, all you have to do is put an overhang over the window, like this:<br />
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<br />Ron Swensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13437944688837628074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7428297250920103479.post-19042671206356702272011-06-20T19:56:00.000-07:002011-06-20T19:56:17.077-07:00MicroSolar Defined<i><b>MicroSolar</b></i> is an approach to solar energy that is geared to the scale of individual and family needs. It is the other end of the spectrum from the growing push to create large scale multi-megawatt solar fields in the desert. It means new ways of meeting traditional needs -- the light, the cookstove, the message. <br />
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<b>The Basic Principle</b><br />
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The basic principle is: <b><i>More with Less</i></b>. In one sense, it's about that simple. <br />
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Replacing fossil fuels with solar energy is necessarily a shift from consuming materials to transforming natural flows -- from burning up irreplaceable solids (coal), liquids (oil) and gases (natural gas) to re-learning how to use perpetual water flow (hydroelectric), air flow (wind generators, <a href="http://www.kiteship.com/" target="_blank" title="Kiteship.com">kiteships</a>) and solar radiation (<a href="http://www.electroroof.com/" target="_blank" title="ElectroRoof">photovoltaics</a>). It also means creating new artifacts to deliver the services that are built into modern civilization -- getting rid of internal combustion engines (~ 20-30% efficient) by substituting electric motors (~ 90% efficient), eliminating incandescent light bulbs (~ 10% efficient, which at only 65 watts will burn through a barrel of oil equivalent per year of steady operation) by installing solar tubes (delivering natural light into windowless areas) and LED lights (~ 40% efficient). <br />
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<b>Integrated Supply and Demand Innovation</b><br />
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The critically important conceptual shift is to integrate innovations in solar generation ("<i><b>supply</b></i>") with innovations in ultra-efficient consumption ("<i><b>demand</b></i>"). It is absurd to connect a <i><b>MicroSolar</b></i> system to a "Macro" fancy modern refrigerator (which typically consumes at least the equivalent of a barrel of oil per year) -- or an <a href="http://otherpower.com/otherpower_lighting.html" target="_blank" title="Efficient Lighting">incandescent light bulb</a>.<br />
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It is equally absurd to use solar energy to produce a liquid fuel to be wasted in an inefficient internal combustion engine in the same profligate way that petroleum has been wasted for a century. <b><i>MicroSolar</i></b> principles enable us to embrace altogether new forms of transportation. Our forebears were liberated from designing within the limitations of the horse. (Imagine a parking lot at the Mall, filled with unattended horses and buggies!) Now urban design can be liberated from the limitations of the automobile.<br />
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<b>Integrating Solar into Building Design</b><br />
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As people become more concerned about the environment, they may ask their architect to add a solar energy system to their new building -- to make it more "green". But if the building orientation has already been decided by the layout of the street or the view, or the architect has specified a lot of cute gingerbread for the roofline, it can be quite difficult and costly to integrate solar features. The sun appears in the sky in a well-understood arc which we are not going to change, so our buildings must be oriented to that arc. It's not hard: <a href="http://www.awindowsouth.com/" target="_blank" title="Face windows south for costless winter warmth!">Windows South </a>(in the northern hemisphere), roof ridge-lines running east-west, and so forth. Furthermore, the heat from solar energy captured by windows in the wintertime -- or shaded from entering windows in the summertime -- is as important as solar panels on the roof. <br />
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<b>Methodology</b><br />
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Even though the benefits of <b><i>MicroSolar</i></b> are profound, it can be very difficult for people to adapt to new ways of thinking and acting. New <b><i>methodologies</i></b> are also needed. <br />
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One such methodology is very straightforward: youth doing exploratory design science. <br />
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It is easy to see the consequences of consuming fossil fuels: when the tank is empty, it has to be refilled. But it is hard to see air flowing and you can't use a bucket to quantify solar radiation. Electricity is invisible, so these <i>MicroSolar</i> energy flows require a metering tool, an <a href="http://www.rmeter.com/" title="rMeter, the Energy Awarenes Engine">energy awareness engine</a>. <br />
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With such tools, a group of students, from Middle School level to University level, can take on the challenge of structuring a <a href="http://www.solarnations.com/" target="_blank" title="SolarQuest">Solar Nations Initiative</a> to find appropriate solutions.<br />
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<ul><li>identify a need, </li>
<li>specify minimal requirements,</li>
<li>investigate marketplace solutions, </li>
<li>identify good designs and product prospects, </li>
<li>test and compare product performance, </li>
<li>recommend solutions,</li>
<li>conduct a pilot project,</li>
<li>develop a training campaign,</li>
<li>guide implementation on a large scale. </li>
</ul>As an example, consider the cookstove: <br />
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<ul><li>identify a need: to cook without biomass or fossil fuels under varying sun conditions (sunny/cloudy, day/night)</li>
<li>specify minimal requirements: temperature, volume, heat storage, time to completion</li>
<li>investigate marketplace solutions: locate various vendors and/or invent new products </li>
<li>identify good designs and product prospects: acquire samples from numerous vendors</li>
<li>test and compare product performance: test under rigorous conditions and determine best solutions</li>
<li>recommend solutions: recommend product(s) to stakeholders</li>
<li>conduct a pilot project: test in real conditions with numerous families to verify performance </li>
<li>develop a training campaign: bring teams together from numerous communities to learn new techniques </li>
<li>guide implementation on a large scale: marketing and sales on a large scale. </li>
</ul><b>Key Elements of <i>MicroSolar</i> ("Legs of the Stool")</b><br />
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<i><b>MicroSolar</b></i> principles (<i>more with less</i>) can be applied in all domains of living. In each of these domains, a research project can be established to identify, test and then implement <b><i>MicroSolar</i></b> solutions. <br />
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<ul><li><b>AGRICULTURE</b>, FOOD PROCESSING, COOKING</li>
<li><b>EDUCATION</b></li>
<li><b>HEALTH CARE</b></li>
<li><b>ENERGY</b> GENERATION, ENERGY EFFICIENCY</li>
<li>SHELTER, BIOCLIMATIC DESIGN</li>
<li>TRANSPORTATION</li>
<li>COMMUNITY INFRASTRUCTURE </li>
<li>TELECOMMUNICATIONS</li>
</ul><b> Agriculture / </b><b>Food Processing </b><b>/ Cooking</b><br />
<ul><li>Solar water pumping</li>
<li>Solar tractors</li>
<li>Food drying</li>
<li>Solar box cooker</li>
<li>Solar concentrating lens for high temperature cooking (invented by Prof Guasumba of Ecuador)</li>
<li>Solar bakery at the village scale</li>
<li>Complete <a href="http://www.solkitchen.com/" target="_blank" title="Solar Kitchens">solar kitchens</a></li>
</ul><br />
<b>Education</b><br />
<b> </b><br />
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Please refer to the section on <b>Methodology</b>, above. <br />
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<b>Health Care </b><br />
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<ul><li>Solar powered refrigeration for medicines</li>
<li>High temperature solar equipment sanitization</li>
<li>Solar electric for remote clinics </li>
<li>Telemedicine (internet access to medical information and remote healthcare consulting)</li>
</ul><b>Energy Generation and Energy Efficiency</b><br />
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<ul><li><i><b>MicroSolar</b></i> devices</li>
<li>MicroAppliances</li>
<li>MicroGrids. Once individual solutions are in place, microgrids can be established in a village or neighborhood. Each microgrid is semi-autonomous and can function independently of larger systems. </li>
<li>MiniGrids. Once MicroGrids are in place, they in turn can be linked together into larger scale minigrid units, which in turn can also function independently as necessary. </li>
<li>Electrical Distribution Systems</li>
<li><a href="http://www.geni.org/" target="_blank" title="Global Electricity Grid Linking Renewable Energy Resources Around the World">Global Electricity Grid</a></li>
</ul><b>Shelter, Bioclimatic Design</b><br />
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<ul><li>Energy audits with small sensors</li>
<li>Bake off between model solar home and regular home (based on the <a href="http://www.solardecathlon.org/" target="_blank" title="Solar Decathlon">Solar Decathlon</a>)</li>
</ul><b>Transportation </b><br />
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<ul><li><a href="http://www.solarevolution.com/usvep/" title="Utility Solar Vehicle Education Program">Utility Solar Vehicle</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://www.solarevolution.com/prt/" target="_blank" title="Solar Powered Personal Rapid Transit">Solar Powered podcars</a></li>
</ul><b>Community Infrastructure</b> <br />
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<ul><li>Waste management</li>
</ul><b>Telecommunications</b><br />
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<ul><li>Remote telecenters</li>
<li>Wireless networks</li>
<li>Upgrading cell phones</li>
<li>Downsizing microcomputers</li>
</ul><b>Finance</b><br />
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Solar solutions have now become sufficiently sophisticated that the consumer can purchase very small devices, or modular components that can be expanded at will, working within family budgets. In cases where solar devices offset other costs over time, microloans can be created.<br />
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<b>Conclusion</b><br />
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In the world of electricity, the concept of <i><b>MicroSolar </b></i>has not yet been applied on a national scale to serve 100% of a country's population. This elegant use of solar energy is only now truly available, as robust solar systems and reliable components are finally reaching the marketplace. Rather than being seen as "underdeveloped" or handicapped, the rural nation that employs <i><b>MicroSolar</b></i> principles will leap ahead of those other countries which are trying to modernize by mimicking industrialized countries with fragile transmission lines and overbuilt, high-energy-consuming appliances. The <i><b>MicroSolar</b></i> nation may even leap ahead of those industrialized nations which have become excessively dependent upon complex unstable energy infrastructure. With their unwieldy long supply lines, these industrialized nations are more vulnerable to economic chaos as their access to fossil fuels inevitably goes into decline. <br />
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For developing countries with large deep rural populations, <i><b>MicroSolar</b></i> is a first step towards modernization that does not require centralized power management which inevitably has to deal with transmission line failures that leave everyone on the line stranded without basic services. <i><b>MicroSolar</b></i> offers the most resiliency and equity -- if there is a component failure in one household, help is next door where a neighbor's system is still functioning. Basic energy services can be priced within the means of rural people -- first with small affordable devices, and then expanded in a modular, brick-by-brick fashion, to add more solar equipment each year, always within a family's budget.Ron Swensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13437944688837628074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7428297250920103479.post-7686998991092951822011-06-07T13:34:00.000-07:002011-06-25T07:59:03.886-07:00Solar Energy Myths and ChallengesThe peak oil community owes a debt of gratitude to King Hubbert, Colin Campbell, Jean Laherrere, Buz Ivanhoe and others in the petroleum industry who brought to light the challenge which humanity faces. And of course it is only logical that they were among the first to ask, "What next?!" It is also logical that when all you know is a geologist's pick, you respond by swinging that pick. The first solution that comes to mind is: find more oil. Trouble with that, of course, is that eventually this algorithm fizzles out, and another has to take its place. Since petroleum industry folks don't necessarily consider themselves to be in the energy business, it is not surprising that most of them would have little knowledge or appreciation for the potential of solar energy solutions. <br />
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In fact, it would not be surprising if petroleum people were to bring prejudices to the party and find fault with renewables:<br />
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Solar (wind) is intermittent. <br />
<ul><li>Good point. I guess we will need to hire intermittency engineers.</li>
<li>Better than exhaustible.</li>
</ul>Solar is diffuse. <br />
<ul><li>Same as highly distributed. Lots of people (countries) got cheated out of oil, but everybody gets enough sun, even the penguins.</li>
<li>Okay, so match your energy conversion device to the conditions: Thin is in. (Go hire diffusivity engineers.) </li>
</ul>Solar isn't efficient enough. <br />
<ul><li>As I pointed out before, your car is < 1% efficient, even after 100 years of refinement. </li>
<li>Solar panels are 20% efficient and getting better. Sounds like the pot calling the kettle black!</li>
</ul>Solar can never match the energy density of gasoline. <br />
<ul><li>Gasoline is a dangerously flammable liquid. Solar energy is a flux. I can make <i><b>better</b></i> devices that run with flux than you can with liquids. There is no comparison. </li>
<li>I grant you that oil is pretty magical stuff but using it for energy is like burning the furniture to keep warm on a cold winter night. </li>
<li>So we had better keep as much of our oil as possible.</li>
<li>In a pinch we can make solids, liquids and gases from sunlight (e.g., for airplanes and rockets). </li>
</ul>Bottom line, if you are designing an energy-something that has never been built and you aren't a solar engineer, I recommend you hire one. <br />
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And it might also be time to start asking some questions. <br />
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Since we use most of our oil for transportation, the first question might be, "How do we engineer a transportation system based 100% on renewable energy (that isn't compound stupid)?"<br />
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Now at least we have a definition of what we need to do next. If instead of building more energy-efficient cars, we get busy designing and building solar transportation, it might take fifty years, but we won't be wasting our children's inheritance.Ron Swensonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13437944688837628074noreply@blogger.com0