Tom Barefoot
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Posts by Tom Barefoot
Photovoltaics Come of Age
Jul 26th
Good News from the ALT Energy Front
| July/August 2010 |
Photovoltaics Come of AgeSolar panels are cheap enough to become a major component of green energy. By Ken Zweibel The United States has supported research into photovoltaics for almost 40 years, recently with a 30 percent investment tax credit. Japan instituted incentives in the 1990s, when photovoltaics cost at least five times as much as residential electricity. In the new millennium, Germany instituted incentives an order of magnitude larger. Thanks to these efforts, the cost of photovoltaic modules has dropped 40 percent in the last 18 months. Photovoltaic electricity now costs about 15 cents per kilowatt-hour in the best sunlight. That’s only twice the cost of wholesale electricity and wind. Costs are expected to continue decreasing, and electricity is worth more during the daytime than at night. That means this technology is finally cheap enough to become a significant element in plans to combat climate change and oil dependence (see “Solar’s Great Leap Forward“). The advantages of solar panels are clear. They need no fuel or water, and sunlight is nearly limitless. With 100 times the energy potential of wind, sunlight is sufficient to meet all our energy needs. Photovoltaic panels are also unique for their long, low-cost operating life–now 30 to 40 years, someday perhaps 100. And unlike energy sources that require a constant input of fuel, photovoltaic electricity is almost free once its initial capital cost is recovered. In 2008, when the U.S. Department of Energy drafted a report looking at the potential for “20 percent wind energy by 2030,” the plan called for only 5 percent of the country’s energy to come from solar power. Soon, the department will publish a new “solar vision” examining the potential for a plan incorporating 10 percent solar photovoltaics, 10 percent solar thermal, and 10 percent wind by the same year. Meanwhile, further DOE work will look at a goal of deriving 80 percent of our energy from renewable sources in 2050. The European Climate Foundation has released a study with McKinsey showing that renewables could produce 100 percent of European electricity by that date. The reports maintain that reaching these targets will have minimal impact on electricity prices. The ingredients for a fully green solution to climate change and oil dependence are in our grasp. They include electricity from wind and solar photovoltaics; electric vehicles to get us off gasoline; smart grid and transmission technologies to distribute solar and wind power and to balance supply with demand; and domestic natural gas to fill in the gaps. We don’t have to turn Earth’s crust into a carbon-sequestration experiment, increase our risks with nuclear, or convert arable land to energy farming. We are on track to deploy safe, renewable technologies to stabilize the price of oil and dial down carbon dioxide emissions as much as we want. Confirming photovoltaics’ place among these technologies is a big step in the right direction. Ken Zweibel is director of the GW Solar Institute at George Washington University. There are several other interesting articles on the growth of solar technology and deployment in the July/August issue of The MIT Technology Review. |
Who cheats more – bankers or politicians?
Jul 26th
Research shows…. Here is a 2 minute video with the answer from Dan Airely’s blog. Dan is the Predictably Irrational guy.
Watch the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSTizvMHfGY
Go to his website here for more info on his research: http://danariely.com/2010/07/25/who-cheats-more/
Sex, Lies and Global Economics
Jul 24th
Who’s Counting?
Marilyn Waring on Sex, Lies and Global Economics
Marilyn Waring demystifies global economics from a feminist perspective. With persistence and wit she has succeeded in drawing attention to the fact that GDP has no negative side to its accounts–such as damage to the environment–and completely ignores the unpaid work of women. “Why is the market economy all that counts?” Ms. Waring asks.
Link to 94 minute video online http://www.nfb.ca/film/whos_counting/
link to leader guide PDF http://gnhusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/whoguide.pdf
Jeremy Rifkin-Empathic Civilization
Jul 21st
Jeremy Rifkin, on the second link below specifically speaks about how the Science of Hedonics is crucial to create a sustainable society.
Video Links
http://fora.tv/2010/05/06/Jeremy_Rifkin_The_Empathic_Civilization_Animated
Why we are so passionate
Jul 14th
This morning on NPR’s Morning Edition I heard a report that the June numbers for consumer spending were low from a decline in spending on automobiles and gasoline. The reporter’s tone of voice indicated concern about this and implied that it was bad. The myth of “bigger is better” and growth is what we want are well entrenched in our discourse and our ideas of how the world should be. We need to educate the media, the legislatures, the policy people, the farmers, citizens and especially youth to see things through another lens. Seen from a perspective of sustainability and a Happy Planet, decrease in spending on cars and gasoline are a good thing, the way of the future. So we have our work cut out for us. I took a vow to talk to 10 friends about this problem of changing to a well-being way of looking at the world instead of just “bigger is better”. Join me?
New Conference Videos
Jul 14th
We have now posted 3 new videos from Day 3 of the GNHUSA 2010 conference including leading environmentalist Bill McKibben’s Keynote on “Building a Movement”, the Morning Panel on “How can Vermont Measure Success and Progress” and NY Times Best Seller, Vicki Robin’s Plenary Session on “Enough”.
Comments from Hazel Henderson
Jun 28th
Comments on John de Graaf’s post on the Gross National Happiness Conference by Hazel Henderson and others from the CSR Blog. Deep comments on the long-running effort to move away from GDP and why it hasn’t happened despite decades of work to gain adoption for more comprehensive progress measures. Read the comments.
Pursuing Happiness in Hard Times
Jun 17th
SPROUT: Pursuing Happiness in Hard Times
Carl Etnier
Relocalizing Vermont Productions
Distributed by Pacifica
A report from the GNHUSA 2010 Conference in Burlington, Vermont with clips from former Harvard President Derek Bok and Fed Chair Ben Bernanke added.
Beyond GDP
Jun 14th
Harvard Business Review – The Conversation
8:49 AM Monday June 14, 2010
by Lisa Napoli |
Quality of life researcher Talita Greyline, an economist at the University of Johannesberg, was simultaneously hopeful and skeptical when she traveled from South Africa to Burlington, Vermont, for the Gross National Happiness USA conference. Being from a place with unemployment of 45% and, as she said, “not that much happiness,” she was eager to learn how she might help change the lives of people in her country. But, she said, “From an economist’s point of view, it’s very funny, because happiness is not objectively measurable.”
There’s a new movement around the world among social scientists, economists and community leaders to measure quality of life — and to factor it into the metrics used to gauge the health of the economy. Disenchantment with the Gross Domestic Product, a widely used figure that calculates all the goods and services an economy produces, is fueling the shift. Its detractors say GDP paints an incomplete picture. Read whole article.
Progressive Politics of Happiness
Jun 14th
Published on Thursday, June 10, 2010 by CommonDreams.org
by John de Graaf
The following is adapted from a speech John de Graaf delivered to the annual gala of the Northwest Progressive Institute on Mercer Island, Washington, June 9, 2010.
You may have noticed that the subject of happiness is hot right now. In the past year and a half, more than 27,000 books and articles have been written on the subject. But the interest in happiness is not entirely new.
Once upon a time, in a far-off land of green valleys and soaring mountains, a boy of 16 was crowned King—and began in a quiet way to change the world. The year was 1972—not so long ago. The faraway land was a tiny Himalayan Kingdom called Bhutan, thought of by many as the model for Shangri-La. And the 16-year-old king was Jigme Wangchuck, who, when asked what he would do to increase Bhutan’s Gross National Product, replied that, as far as he was concerned, “Gross National Happiness is more important than Gross National Product.” And Gross National Happiness would be the goal of his reign.
Now if any leader, young or old, had made those remarks here in the United States, he or she would have received a few polite chuckles perhaps, then a collective yawn, and an exhortation to get real and get back to making money. But the people of Bhutan take their kings very seriously, and slowly over the next 38 years, they began to put a little meat on the concept of Gross National Happiness. They wanted to figure out how to measure it, how to enhance it through government and social policies, and how to educate themselves about the behaviors that lead to greater joy. So they invited leading “happiness scientists” to their once isolated land—psychologists and economists and ecologists and philosophers and sociologists and experts in health and in the creation of scientific surveys.
Read the whole post and extensive comments at CommonDreams.org.