Comments on: Global Norming

By: Lynn Lanier

Lynn Lanier — Mon, 04 May 2009 18:20:32 +0000

Global Norming is indeed a very good concept.

I’ve had direct experience with a similar concept and can confirm that it works. I’m a chemical engineer who worked for Monsanto. Around 1980 our corporate management tasked us to reduce emissions from our chemical plants to 10% that measured in 1980 within 10 years. My job was to develop new processes and process improvements. Projects that contained environmental elements were bumped to the top of the list for approval and required much lower return on investment. Engineers wanted to obtain approval for projects, and subsequently we became environmentally creative. We achieved the emissions goal.

Monsanto was one of the chemical companies with emissions that required costly cleanups including Superfund. If the eventual costs of cleanup and potential lawsuits were line items on our cost streams when we developed the original projects, then we would have developed more environmentally friendly projects to begin with.

I agree that it’s essential that we have energy cost stabilization, and that the costs of fossil fuels include their long term damage to the environment. We should also include the reduced future cost of alternates as we progress down the experience curve. I estimate that the resulting analysis favors alternate energy.

Lynn Lanier

By: Some Coal Numbers from Bill Gross « Solar Mauritius

Some Coal Numbers from Bill Gross « Solar Mauritius — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 04:07:34 +0000

[...] is about 1.2 cents per kwhr, on the low end, and 7.8 cents per kwhr on the high end.” read more [...]

By: Tommy

Tommy — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 02:41:48 +0000

You’ve made some great points here! Can anyone say letter writing campaign?

By: Carrie2

Carrie2 — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 02:05:07 +0000

I am always impressed by the generous contribution of people like yourself to the industry. Thank You

By: JOE

JOE — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 17:14:07 +0000

Great content. Just note ExxonMobil’s add in the Wash Post Dec 12,08 pages 12 & 13 which states that it would like our enery goal to be”Energy security not Engery independence.” It will very difficult to implement any program that has the best interest of our county, with such a large and well financed Corporation pushing to keep us in the Stone Age.

By: Jesse Smith

Jesse Smith — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 01:13:27 +0000

While individuals are finding they cannot afford to invest in alternative energy this will not be the case if the government takes the first several baby-steps in doing so. The lack of long-term stability in Congressional Bills regarding alternative electricity, most notably wind power, prevents long-term investment because capital investors can’t make safe investments.

I disagree with the commentator, Tom Colbert, when it comes to the Energy Grid. Wind, solar and other intermittent energy sources can be converted to a centralized grid-system if the grid is completely overhauled from its current state. The grid, wind, solar, other alternatives, and PHEVs must all come together to restore our energy independence AND our economy.

By: Ted Parkman

Ted Parkman — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 18:39:15 +0000

Truer words never spoken! We’re finding a lot of people simply can’t afford to invest in renewable energy right now.

I wanted to hear your thoughts about leased solar, do you think it makes fiscal sense?

By: Tom Colbert

Tom Colbert — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 06:09:48 +0000

A sound solution, but the operative words of “if we immediately taxed coal plants” make this an impossibility. Our company is the sole renewable energy business in Kentucky, a state driven by coal with the U.S. Senate’s minority leader at its helm leadiing the charge. Mitch McConnell is alternative energy’s biggest obstacle to Global Norming. But Freidman, B Pickens, and most politicians are missing the real opportunity, which is, to divorce ourselves from a grid system of delivering electricity and moving to a distributed solution, just as Bill Gates changed computing from mainframes to PC’s. That is, to produce electricity at the point of use, by solar, wind, geothermal, ??? This is where we have funded our R&D efforts. Unfortunately the national attention is on centralized production of energy, and that is where the resources have gone. Global Norming thru taxation or point of use electricty production, both are long putts!

By: Traffic Generation Tips

Traffic Generation Tips — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 04:15:31 +0000

Excellent content…keep up the good work!

By: Michael Rebibo

Michael Rebibo — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 18:17:58 +0000

Nicely done! I would add that we need to replace our existing power grid. It was created in the first half of the last century and is an antiquated patchwork of unrelated systems with a one way communication to your home and office. As Thomas L. Freidman states in his book, Hot, Flat and Crowded, the next administration needs to create “a Green New Deal” on the energy front. Part of this “New Deal” would be to replace our legacy Power Grid with a “Smart Grid”. This new grid could communicate not only with other power stations around the nation but with the appliances in your home and office. In addition to slowing down global warming, the annual savings could be in the 100’s of billions of dollars. It would be a huge undertaking but might be the very thing to get out of our current mess.