Category Archives: Energy

Surge In Solar Energy Technology

It appears that demand for rooftop solar panels is, ahem, heating up.  Even in Minnesota, hardly a, ahem, hotbed of solar innovation, the industry is seeing significant activity.

High demand for rooftop solar electric panels, especially for commercial buildings, has exhausted Xcel Energy’s Solar Rewards subsidy program for the year, shutting out other customers, solar industry officials said Monday.

“People are really excited about solar,” said Rebecca Lundberg, CEO of Powerfully Green.

Sounds great.  Right?

Maybe not.

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Drill Baby Drill

Three words. Two if you don’t count ’em twice.

But they’re pretty powerful.

On each side, Left and Right, those words elicit emotion. On one, it brings to mind an independence. On an ability to depend on one’s self for the requisite needs.

On the other, it brings to mind ugly environmental dangers, global warming and corporate greed.

But the biggest argument against increasing our domestic output of oil is that it simply won’t impact the price of a gallon of gas. The incremental gains that we would see will take years to realize. And even then they won’t amount to any meaningful impact on the global supply of oil.

I have a thought experiment.

If the addition of oil to the market won’t lower the price, then the reduction of oil to the market shouldn’t raise the price.

Right?

Wrong.

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Light Rail: Seattle, WA

Light-rail and high-speed trains have long been the darling of the Left.  If some local or state government can come up with a plan to build trains, the Left is only TOO anxious to deliver the money.

Rail corridor between Raleigh and DC? Done!

Charlotte and Atlanta?  Done!

Roanoke and Durham. Done!

I admit that I’m flummoxed by this fixation.  But let’s take a look:

The idea is based on two angles:

  1. If we can move more people from here to there on a train, we’ll decrease the amount of fossil fuel burned.
  2. It creates jobs.

How much of this is true?  And to the extent that it IS true, what price are people willing to pay?

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How To Impact The Price Of Oil

The price of oil fell yesterday.  In fact, it fell to a recent low after losing about 6% of its price in a single day.

A single day.

A new find?  A long term commitment from OPEC to increase production?  An announcement from Venezuela that it would end its gasoline subsidies in that country to ease demand and therefore apply downward pressure on prices?

Nope.

None of that.  In fact, it was a simple single one day event.

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Green Energy: Biodiesel And The Free Market

We’ve seen copper prices go through the roof.  And we’ve seen copper thieves thrive.

We’ve seen gasoline prices go through the roof.  And we’ve seen gasoline thieves thrive.

We see the same thing everywhere we look.  The price of a thing goes up, the market [even black] reacts.

Perhaps it’s a coming of age for the biodiesel industry.  But it turns out that as the prices traditional energy sources climbs, the market for alternative energy sources expands.  And in some cases, that actually means there is a black market for those alternative sources.

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Peak Oil? We’ll Never Burn Our Last Drop Of Oil

Long before we get to the very last drop of oil, we;ll have identified another form of fuel for our society.  It may be another form of fossil fuel, it may be solar or it may be wave.  In any event, the idea that the work will run out of oil and the implication that our society will wither and fade away is ridiculous.

As people who make money on oil begin to realize that were close to running out of oil, they’ll raise the price of said oil.  And when THAT happens, that new fuel will be found.

Fortunately, we may already have taken a step in that direction:

Sanford, N.C. — Geologists have wrapped up research on natural gas deposits in central North Carolina and are awaiting an assessment from the U.S. Geological Survey in July.

North Carolina Geological Survey chief Kenneth Taylor says his assessment shows that Lee, Chatham and Moore counties could produce enough natural gas to power the whole state for 40 years.

40 years.

Of power.

No oil.

What could prevent this awesome resource from being utilized?

Government:

But state law would have to change to allow horizontal drilling and a process known as fracturing that uses chemicals and water to force natural gas from shale.

Figures.

Price of Gas and the Daily Commute

I’m a big BIG advocate of the market.

I tend to think that people, in search of their selfish self interests, will signal to the market what is and what isn’t, important.

Commutes are no different.

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We Need A State Law To Prevent Cheap Gas?

A new gas station opened up in a North Carolina town recently.  As it turns out, that gas station is interested in attracting customers AND selling things other than gas.

It would seem that station owners would or should be able to adjust the price of their gas at whatever levels they see fit.  Higher prices would generate more money per gallon to be sure, but lower prices would generate more gallons.

Discretion of the station owner, right?

Wrong.

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Making It Real

This kinda changes everything:

RALEIGH, N.C. — Utilities in North and South Carolina have reported trace amounts of radiation from a nuclear reactor in Japan that was damaged by an earthquake and tsunami.

I’m not sayin’ – just sayin’.

Every Light In The House Will Be On

This Saturday is the day of the year when we are supposed to observe Earth Hour.

At 8:30 PM on Saturday 26th March 2011, lights will switch off around the globe for Earth Hour and people will commit to actions that go beyond the hour.

We are supposed to turn off all of our lights in order to demonstrate that we love our world; our earth.

Me?

Every light in the house will be on.

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