Archive for September, 2007
September 30, 2007 at 9:49 pm
· Filed under AES, Concentrating Solar Power, Ethanol, Hydrogen, PV, Technology, biofuels, csp, photovoltaics, solar energy, solar thermal
Permalink
September 30, 2007 at 9:03 pm
· Filed under Economics, Energy efficiency
Permalink
September 16, 2007 at 4:59 pm
· Filed under Investing information, PHEV, energy storage, investing
I’m bullish about the battery industry, because I fee that rising oil prices and consumer awareness will lead to accellerating adoption of hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and electric vehicles over the next decade. So I’ve been researching the battery industry, and trying to look for companies that can benefit without being tied to a single battery chemistry, since I doubt the conventional wisdom that some company will perfect the Lithium-Ion battery, and that will be the solution for all mobile energy storage.
I just did a write up on one company that I think not only has technology that is applicable to a wide variety of chemistries, but it’s also selling for less than what I think its assets are worth.
The company is Electro Energy Inc. (EEEI), and you can read more by clicking here.
Permalink
September 15, 2007 at 4:16 pm
· Filed under Energy efficiency, Home Improvement
I’ve accepted an offer to write an investment column for Smart Energy Living, a quarterly magazine put out by the Colorado Energy Science Center, which focuses on clean enrgy solutions for homowners.
I’ve been a subscriber since I arrived in Colorado in 2005, and I find them an excellent resource for home imporvement. They have plans to go national with the next issue, and recruiting me to write for them is part of that move.
The column will tentatively be called “Greener Money” and will focus on helping small investors green their portfolios.
You can sign up for a free copy here. If you read my blogs, there probably won’t be a lot that you’ll learn from my columns, but if you’re interested in energy efficienct home imporvement, it’s well worth getting for the other articles.
Permalink
September 7, 2007 at 10:41 am
· Filed under Colorado, Denver Metro, Energy efficiency, Events, Home Improvement, Nonprofits, PV, Renewable Energy, photovoltaics, solar energy, solar thermal
Preview the Denver Tour of Solar Homes Online
The Denver area Tour of Solar Homes takes place in less than a month, and this year you can preview some of the buildings involved online.
Check out the Sneak Preview on the right-hand side of the
Tour of Solar Homes page on the CRES Web site
.
The 2007 Tour of Solar Homes will take place on Saturday, October 6 in Denver and most locations around the state. However, some of the activities are slightly different.
The Boulder tour will take place on Saturday, September 30.
And the tour in Pueblo will span two days: October 6 – 7.
See a complete listing of solar home tours in Colorado on the American Solar Energy Society Web site.
National Solar Tour
Outside of Colorado, people you can find tour in your own community by visiting the National Solar Home Tour website.
Volunteers Needed for the Tour of Solar Homes October 6
CRES needs volunteers to help with the Denver Metro-Area Tour of Solar Homes on Saturday, October 6. If you step forward, you will assist homeowner with visitors.
There are two shifts: morning from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and afternoon from noon to 4 p.m.
Volunteers are welcome to spend the half-day they are not working touring homes themselves. Volunteers are also invited to attend a workshop free of charge from 6 – 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 4 titled "Solar Photovoltaics and Xcel Energy’s Solar Rewards Program" and presented by Jeff Scott of SolSource and Juliea Gauthier of Xcel Energy. The
workshops take place at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Visitor’s Center at 15013 Denver West Parkway in Golden, which is two blocks west of the Denver West Marriott at I-70 and Denver West.
Following the workshop, veteran volunteer John Avenson will give a brief orientation for volunteers about the duties the day of the
Tour of Solar Homes. To volunteer, contact Patty Roberts via email at: patty at pacificmillimeter dot com
Permalink
September 5, 2007 at 8:48 pm
· Filed under Denver Metro, Home Improvement, Hybrid Cars
Want to roll a Prius into your mortgage?
The fallout from the subprime mess has come to my neighborhood. This ad appeared in the community paper put out by the developer:
Now, you can get a free Prius with the standard solar you get on Harvard Communities’ (massively overpriced) Architect Collection homes. From an economic perspective, it makes a lot of sense for the builder to install solar; it costs them a lot less to do it than people who have to retrofit. But what’s the logic in having the builder fill your garage?
These developers (especially the high end ones- these’ll set you back $800K) will do anything to avoid having to lower their price. Personally, I think they’re smart, people are more interested in buying things for status than practicality.
The world is crazy, but I shouldn’t complain. It may just get some people out of SUVs and into Hybrids.
But it does bother me that the most important energy efficiency things Harvard Communities is doing are quite cheap (good insulation, sealing the house well, using efficienct appliances) but it’s the splashy expensive stuff like a free car and PV that gets all the press. It makes people think that you have to spend a lot of money to be energy efficient. You don’t, but it’s a belief that is liable to keep coming back to haunt us for a long time.
Permalink
