I'd really love to have a pod about canada's climate context -- we just got rid of the consumer carbon tax and it's hard to know how much of an effect it will have, and there is a new high speed rail iniative
I've heard a bit about rewording federal funding requests to "fit the frame" of this admin's priorities. Are there energy descriptions or framings that seem within the realm of possibility?
I would put this as a Mailbag question but I actually already emailed David about it...
I was listening to the recent pod about the Blatchford development in Edmonton, AB, and there was a bit where they were discussing distributed solar, and I had the thought, maybe in winter they'd do better with some kind of distributed wind? Over the years I have looked around online at small-scale wind turbines, and in the last few years, I have started seeing products that are shockingly cheap for their claimed peak power output. (For instance: https://tesup.com/row/products/tesup-vertical-wind-turbines-for-homes ) But I'm not sure if these are mostly vaporware. Like, they don't really produce nearly what they claim, or they'll break down in a year, or whatever.
The street my home is on is something of a wind tunnel. Like when people post political signs, if they don't zip-tie the frame to a street sign or similar, the sign will almost immediately blow away. In theory it seems like it should be possible to capture some of that energy, and it would be super useful since the winter depression in our solar production is exactly when the wind gets most consistent.
The Department of Energy _had_ some stuff about small-scale wind systems on their site -- presumably it's no longer up because of some MAGA purge.
I was pretty excited about the product from Aeromine Technologies, Inc. But, I don't hear much news.
Seems like David has a good filter for this stuff. I get excited about a lot of things where more diligent people do the math and find it doesn't work.
I'm very much inspired by (and indebted to) Volts. But I wanted to create a resource that's a little more accessible -- something that starts from first principles, written specifically for the energy transition newbies.
If you're reading this, my guess is you're already more advanced than my target audience. But if you've got friends and family who never know what you're talking about when you ramble on about heat pumps and advanced geothermal -- I hope you'll consider sending them my way.
Hi all! I am a student at Duke working with some other clean-energy minded folks on a campaign called Students for American Jobs. Check out our website here (https://www.studentsforamericanjobs.org) and would love to be connected to folks who are interested in helping out and spreading the word!
I liked “Abundance” by Klein and Thompson. We have tried, especially on climate, to solve problems without a pro-building/innovation agenda and have got basically nowhere. The only tries successes in housing and climate have come from abundance-type movements and projects. I think what they lack in the book is how to synthesize abundance with democracy and ensure its benefits don’t accumulate with the rich and powerful. I wrote a deeper review here:
Tbh when it comes to the idea of energy abundance I think all the average person cares about are two things: first, does the power go out? (this is largely a distribution infrastructure problem not a generation or transmission problem) and second, how high are my rates? I think for most people who aren't already into climate/energy, the most important thing is "don't have a rate increase"
The Clean Energy Resource Teams (CERTs) is a funky education/state/nonprofit partnership working in the clean energy mines for 21 years. See our stories --all in Creative Commons, so feel free to use!-- here: https://www.cleanenergyresourceteams.org/stories
tl;dr: Nuclear energy conference on May 22 in Berlin, Germany. Please tell your German friends.
The conference theme is the restart of Germany's nuclear power plants, based on the report by Radiant Energy Group, who are co-hosting the conference along with Nuklearia, Germany's pro-nuclear grassroots advocacy group.
Conference languages are German and English. Confirmed speakers include former Minister Dr. Kristina Schröder, historian Dr. Anna Veronika Wendland, and nuclear influencer Isabelle Boemeke.
Thank you for spreading the word, and go to https://Anschalt-Konferenz.de for tickets. Early bird €80 ends on April 27.
Would David have Quico Toro on Volts to talk about “ocean photosynthesis”? I know it’s not about renewable energy per se, but it’s quite relevant to the effort to combat climate change.
Hey, how about switching book links from Amazon to a non Broligarch book sales site? I always love your work. And let's all think about where every dollar goes- it can go into the hands of the Authoritarian oligarchs or if possible-
In response to David's #3 about more international progress on renewables, I wonder if he could do pods on renewables growth in India and Mongolia (as a former Peace Corps Volunteer in Mongolia, it has a soft spot for me!). I thought the Pakistan episode to be one of his best to date and can imagine similar things happening in India and Mongolia (lots of cheap Chinese panels, abundant sunlight, poor air quality in major cities that needs to be dealt with, etc.). Thank you, love the pod!
In trying to talking to people about kitchen table issues, one that would appear to be fairly visceral is that it appears fossil fuels contribute to 1 in 5 deaths worldwide. This is much larger than I had thought, but it also probably has some nuances and caveats that are important, and then understanding the localization of who this is and how they would be helped by all the stuff you talk about would be great. Physicians from the Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility show up at energy code meetings and talk about air pollution's effect especially on children and general population as one example. https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/537978-study-fossil-fuel-air-pollution-linked-to-1-in-5-deaths-worldwide/
--- CLIMATE JOBS & OPPORTUNITIES ---
https://www.cleanenergyresourceteams.org/job-board Minnesota wants YOU!!! This job board is updated weekly, sometimes more than once!
--- MAILBAG QUESTIONS ---
I'd really love to have a pod about canada's climate context -- we just got rid of the consumer carbon tax and it's hard to know how much of an effect it will have, and there is a new high speed rail iniative
I've heard a bit about rewording federal funding requests to "fit the frame" of this admin's priorities. Are there energy descriptions or framings that seem within the realm of possibility?
“What’s the deal with carbon credits?” is a pod I’d like to hear to get a better understanding on thinks like additionality and greenwashing.
--- SHARE WORK, ASK FOR HELP, FIND COLLABORATORS ---
I would put this as a Mailbag question but I actually already emailed David about it...
I was listening to the recent pod about the Blatchford development in Edmonton, AB, and there was a bit where they were discussing distributed solar, and I had the thought, maybe in winter they'd do better with some kind of distributed wind? Over the years I have looked around online at small-scale wind turbines, and in the last few years, I have started seeing products that are shockingly cheap for their claimed peak power output. (For instance: https://tesup.com/row/products/tesup-vertical-wind-turbines-for-homes ) But I'm not sure if these are mostly vaporware. Like, they don't really produce nearly what they claim, or they'll break down in a year, or whatever.
The street my home is on is something of a wind tunnel. Like when people post political signs, if they don't zip-tie the frame to a street sign or similar, the sign will almost immediately blow away. In theory it seems like it should be possible to capture some of that energy, and it would be super useful since the winter depression in our solar production is exactly when the wind gets most consistent.
The Department of Energy _had_ some stuff about small-scale wind systems on their site -- presumably it's no longer up because of some MAGA purge.
https://web.archive.org/web/20240627180524/https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/installing-and-maintaining-small-wind-electric-system
Anyways I asked David if he's looked into this topic, potentially for an episode, and he said he has the impression that this mostly _is_ vaporware.
I wondered if anyone else in the community has some deep expertise on this, or any experience installing something with good results?
I was pretty excited about the product from Aeromine Technologies, Inc. But, I don't hear much news.
Seems like David has a good filter for this stuff. I get excited about a lot of things where more diligent people do the math and find it doesn't work.
Hey folks, I just launched a weekly newsletter about clean energy technology. It's called Green Juice -- I hope you'll check it out :)
www.greenjuice.wtf
I'm very much inspired by (and indebted to) Volts. But I wanted to create a resource that's a little more accessible -- something that starts from first principles, written specifically for the energy transition newbies.
If you're reading this, my guess is you're already more advanced than my target audience. But if you've got friends and family who never know what you're talking about when you ramble on about heat pumps and advanced geothermal -- I hope you'll consider sending them my way.
Hi all! I am a student at Duke working with some other clean-energy minded folks on a campaign called Students for American Jobs. Check out our website here (https://www.studentsforamericanjobs.org) and would love to be connected to folks who are interested in helping out and spreading the word!
--- EVERYTHING ELSE ---
I liked “Abundance” by Klein and Thompson. We have tried, especially on climate, to solve problems without a pro-building/innovation agenda and have got basically nowhere. The only tries successes in housing and climate have come from abundance-type movements and projects. I think what they lack in the book is how to synthesize abundance with democracy and ensure its benefits don’t accumulate with the rich and powerful. I wrote a deeper review here:
https://open.substack.com/pub/scetchesinthedirt/p/on-abundance?r=4shey&utm_medium=ios
Tbh when it comes to the idea of energy abundance I think all the average person cares about are two things: first, does the power go out? (this is largely a distribution infrastructure problem not a generation or transmission problem) and second, how high are my rates? I think for most people who aren't already into climate/energy, the most important thing is "don't have a rate increase"
I find it interesting that Elon Musk has also been talking about abundance as well.
3. 🌎What other countries are you curious about?
I would love to hear about Germany and Spain.
Maybe also India and Hungary would be interesting.
The Clean Energy Resource Teams (CERTs) is a funky education/state/nonprofit partnership working in the clean energy mines for 21 years. See our stories --all in Creative Commons, so feel free to use!-- here: https://www.cleanenergyresourceteams.org/stories
--- CLIMATE EVENTS & MEETUPS ---
https://Anschalt-Konferenz.de
tl;dr: Nuclear energy conference on May 22 in Berlin, Germany. Please tell your German friends.
The conference theme is the restart of Germany's nuclear power plants, based on the report by Radiant Energy Group, who are co-hosting the conference along with Nuklearia, Germany's pro-nuclear grassroots advocacy group.
Conference languages are German and English. Confirmed speakers include former Minister Dr. Kristina Schröder, historian Dr. Anna Veronika Wendland, and nuclear influencer Isabelle Boemeke.
Thank you for spreading the word, and go to https://Anschalt-Konferenz.de for tickets. Early bird €80 ends on April 27.
Report: https://www.radiantenergygroup.com/reports/restarting-germanys-reactors-feasibility-and-schedule
Welp, Minnesota specific, but I'm on a roll sending you stuff, so: https://www.cleanenergyresourceteams.org/events
Would David have Quico Toro on Volts to talk about “ocean photosynthesis”? I know it’s not about renewable energy per se, but it’s quite relevant to the effort to combat climate change.
Hey, how about switching book links from Amazon to a non Broligarch book sales site? I always love your work. And let's all think about where every dollar goes- it can go into the hands of the Authoritarian oligarchs or if possible-
somewhere else!
Even giving a bookshop.org link in addition to the zon would be great!
In response to David's #3 about more international progress on renewables, I wonder if he could do pods on renewables growth in India and Mongolia (as a former Peace Corps Volunteer in Mongolia, it has a soft spot for me!). I thought the Pakistan episode to be one of his best to date and can imagine similar things happening in India and Mongolia (lots of cheap Chinese panels, abundant sunlight, poor air quality in major cities that needs to be dealt with, etc.). Thank you, love the pod!
In trying to talking to people about kitchen table issues, one that would appear to be fairly visceral is that it appears fossil fuels contribute to 1 in 5 deaths worldwide. This is much larger than I had thought, but it also probably has some nuances and caveats that are important, and then understanding the localization of who this is and how they would be helped by all the stuff you talk about would be great. Physicians from the Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility show up at energy code meetings and talk about air pollution's effect especially on children and general population as one example. https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/537978-study-fossil-fuel-air-pollution-linked-to-1-in-5-deaths-worldwide/