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Dec 05
Love58
Image of broken mirror with text that reads '24-7 carbon-free energy hall of mirrors'

24-7 Carbon-Free Energy Hall of Mirrors

By Energy Rant No Comments
The ESG cabal seems to be drawing up another hall of mirrors to persuade credulous stakeholders and bystanders that they are siphoning only carbon-free energy (CFE) from the electric grid. The Electric Power Research Institute calls it 24-7 carbon-free energy, oddly enough. “Large companies from Starbucks to eBay have pledged 100% renewable energy targets to offset greenhouse gas emissions from their electricity use. Recently, several large companies, including Google, Microsoft, and others, have started procuring something called carbon-free energy that more closely matches their corporate electricity load on a 24/7 hourly basis. This is known as 24/7 carbon-free energy.” Unquestionably,…
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Jul 09
Love0

Utilities v Big Tech Google and Facebook

By Energy Rant No Comments
“Don’t be evil.” That was the tagline for Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the founders of Google, er Alphabet. Hahahaha! For some reason, they ditched this motto three years ago. They also used the name change fig leaf to paint over their sins. When you make an audacious statement like that and demonstrably act in ignorance of it, putting the best of spins on it, I do not forget. I’m reminded of it every time I see headlines like, “Tech’s Dirty Secret; The App Developers Sifting through your Gmail” or “How to Keep Google from Owning Your Online Life.” These…
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Dec 04
Love0

Rooftop Units – Yesteryear’s Pool Brat Punks

By Energy Rant One Comment
Last week several of us at Michaels bemoaned the hazards of operations and maintenance (O&M), controls, and behavioral programs. The specific discussion was about the ubiquitous rooftop unit, like those shown on the box-store roof below. The discussion could have been about anything other than light bulbs. Measures in a portfolio come with a spectrum of savings risk from baselines, to hours of use, to risks associated with operation once deployed. Next week I think I’ll analyze an entire portfolio of risks and give those risks relative scores. For instance, many measures depend on the baseline – not necessarily the…
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Feb 11
Love0

Holy Mother of Bovine Batman!

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant No Comments
It’s been a long time since I’ve written about compact fluorescent light bulbs, so I think I’ll keep it that way. This rant is brought to you by our friends at E Source.  Actually, as I was scrounging around for some information on their site, I came across this article on electric vehicles, or EVs, which left me mentally agape.  I am going to guess the author, Jay Stein, lives and breathes EVs and has for years. It appears he has worked tirelessly to bring the EV from the Frivolous Novelty to gas-electric hybrid stature and beyond, but jeezo, allow me to…
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Apr 30
Love0

Better than Doritos

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant, Investments, Tax Stuff No Comments
Last week we looked at the financial benefits of energy efficiency as compared to the stock market.  I’m going to take this a few steps further, as forewarned last week.In both cases we start with the $39,000 investment and the stock market simply grows at its long-term average of 7.5% (Dow Jones Industrials).  Obviously, a smooth appreciation of your investment is not the case and if you don’t have a strong stomach, you should avoid equities.  Why is it called the Dow Jones Industrial Average anyway?  It’s full of service companies, banks, and retailers.  It includes Microsoft, but not Apple,…
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Apr 26
Love0

Cabbage Patch iPad

By Energy Efficiency, Government, Renewable Energy, Sustainability No Comments
The thing that pushed me over the edge this week was a fine blog  post by Elisa Wood.  My comment was that Gavin Newsom’s list of jobs created by resources including coal, nuclear, wind, solar, and EE, does not include return on investment.  Only EE has return on investment for the end user.  All other sources cost the end user, not save the end user money.  But this is not the topic of the day. I am not a tech geek.  I just want things that are stable, reliable, and relatively fast and snappy.  I will pay for it.  I…
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Apr 27
Love0

Greenpeace – Don’t Let Facts Get in the Way

By Energy Efficiency, Energy Rant, Renewable Energy, Sustainability No Comments
Back in the day when I was in the nuclear Navy, Greenpeace was not so infrequently pulling stunts like running their zodiacs up on the top of submarine hulls to make their unfounded statements of radiation releases to the environment.  Since 9/11, you can bet they stopped this practice.  Even back in the early 1990s the hatch was guarded by a burly guy sporting a short barrel shotgun with the largest shell chamber I’ve ever seen.  Stopping power.  The fact is, the US Navy runs the cleanest nuclear plants in the world with thousands of operating reactor YEARS and not…
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All things energy. That’s our jam.

We talk a lot about energy – from the serious to the satirical.

All things energy. That’s our jam.

We talk a lot about energy – from the serious to the satirical.

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