http://blocksindicator.com Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:12:49 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en by Ray Block I have never been as excited in alternative energy technologies, such as wind and solar, as I am about fuel cells, now powering hydrogen fuelled vehicles. My interest here is in small stationary fuel cells, a segment of the market, which is starting to take off in a ... http://blocksindicator.com/2010/03/bloom-energy-and-fuel-cells/  by Ray Block  It’s great to see the substantial growth in wind energy installations in 2009, as the international economy struggles to get out of recession. But what is disturbing is that if the rate of growth in new wind energy capacity continues to grow at its existing pace, China the ... http://blocksindicator.com/2010/02/china-stealing-leadership-in-global-wind-market/ by Ray Block Global warming sceptics believe that temperatures have fallen in the last 10 years. The evidence is quite to the contrary. NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) says that in terms of global temperature, “2009 was the second warmest year (after 2005) in the modern record.” In the Southern ... http://blocksindicator.com/2010/02/2009-the-second-warmest-year-on-record/ by Ray Block Climategate in November 2009 is the name global warming sceptics gave to the theft of 61 megabytes of material from the University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK. The cache contained hundreds of files, code and documents from the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Centre, which Russian or ... http://blocksindicator.com/2010/02/first-climategate-then-glaciergate-and-now-treegate/ by Ray Block It’s becoming readily accepted in the community that energy efficiency is important. But it isn’t really understood that the No1 priority on the road to a low carbon economy is achieving energy savings. Investment in energy savings in buildings, industry and transportation ranks above investment in new energy sources ... http://blocksindicator.com/2010/02/energy-savings-offer-biggest-scope-for-carbon-abatement/ by Ray Block When Arthur J Goldman, the founder of Luz abandoned the parabolic trough for his new start up BrightSource Energy, the dominant feature is a 143-metre central power tower. On top of the tower, 1600 double tracking heliostats (small mirrors) reflect sunlight on to a boiler to produce high temperature ... http://blocksindicator.com/2010/01/concentrating-solar-more-cost-competitivepart-2/  by Ray Block The accepted view is that wind energy electricity per kWh is almost competitive with natural gas and coal, but solar energy is much more expensive. In turn, concentrating solar (CSP) in utility scale plants, is cheaper than solar PV However, there is a concerted effort among CSP producers to bring ... http://blocksindicator.com/2010/01/concentrating-solar-more-cost-competitive-part-1/ by Ray Block Being a movie actor must have something about it to qualify as a politician. Ronald Reagan, the one time movie actor changed overnight from liberal to conservative, and having become the darling of the Right, became the successful 40th President of the US. Arnold Schwarzenegger, another movie actor and ... http://blocksindicator.com/2010/01/is-schwarzeneggers-renewable-energy-targets-at-risk/ by Ray Block Renewable energy- wind, solar, biomass, geothermal, hydropower are rarely located near major population and large manufacturing centres. In the case of wind energy, the resource is variable, it may be strongest in night time, when electricity usage is lower. For solar,, solar power can be used at night, ... http://blocksindicator.com/2010/01/transmission-and-storage-for-renewable-energy/ by Ray Block Despite the global recession, solar PV (photovoltaics) continued to grow in calendar 2009, increasing by an estimated 5 per cent. However, it largely took to the fourth quarter before the market became revitalised. Global market estimates from forecaster Solarbuzz, is for an expected 6.37 GW PV in calendar 2009, with ... http://blocksindicator.com/2010/01/update-on-solar-pv-market/