Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
I think <bruces> knows him pretty well...
  

    
Yes, I've believe I've met him. Tall and skinny and wears a cowboy
hat.

Well, I'm wondering what happened to Sir Tinkerman. Haven't heard from
him in a while. Perhaps marriage is pre-occupying him.

And Phred. Where are you? 

Some good news in the California wind power department. Apparently as
much as 1,500 Mw of new wind power may be in the works -- according to
Jim Caldwell, a consultant for the American Wind Energy Association. I
won't beleive it until I see them in the ground....

I'm working on a new report for the Union of Concerned Scientists that
builds the case for doulbing California's renewable energy production
by 2010. I'm also moving to Stinson Beach, but that's another story....
  

    
Gonna be able to sell it?
  

    
Sell the report? I believe it will be free.

I may, however, sell my new song, Rolling Blackouts, which was
recorded by Space Debris yesterday and will be sent out to some radio
stations within the next few weeks.

Here are the lyrics:

Rolling Blackouts

Can’t make sense of the violence
To my bank account – I was innocent
Sky-high prices for dirty power
Hitting us nearly every damn hour

Powerless in this great big mess?
Yes, yes, yes, this is a test

Rolling Blackouts, let them roll
God knows how much they stole
Rolling Blackouts, Where did they go?
Time for We the People to take control

Deregulation – masochistic vibrations
No more monopoly blues
Don’t you wish those Texans were in our shoes?
Campaign contributions
Smoke filled rooms, handshakes
Open up the grid
Correct past mistakes

Powerless in this great big mess?
Yes, yes, yes, this is a test

Rolling Blackouts, let them roll
God knows how much they stole
Rolling Blackouts, Where did they go?
Time for We the People to take control

Prices going up, economy going down
What about this sweet earth
That keeps spinning ‘round?
Wake up populations
This is your only nation
Power comes in many forms
There is light after storms

Powerless in this great big mess?
Yes, yes, yes, this is a test

Rolling Blackouts, let them roll
Can Bush take the heat?
Can Davis come in from the cold?
Rolling Blackouts, let them roll
Power to the people
Who are tired of being bought and sold


Copyright June 2001 by Peter Asmus
  

    
Still have not heard from Sir Randy....oh, yes, marriage. It does
indeed transform us....

I will be performing my "Rolling Blackouts" and "Clean Power -- Right
Now" songs at the big rally in Sacramento this Sunday, Sept. 9th. the
event begins at 2 and I go on around 2:30.

Also having a party at my new Stinson Beach digs on Saturday, Sept.
22nd......all grovvy energy activists are invited. Details will be
posted on the new website: www.spacedebrismusic.com.

Whatever happened to those rolling blackouts? And what do folks think
of our dear Governor, as he takes credit for "solving" the energy
crisis.

By the way, much of the conversdation taht occured here with Randy and
I last spring was just published in a new publication called "The
Thresher." Very cool. For more info, contact: david@filmmag.com.
  

    
Also includes my piece on the Viridian Design movement: _Hacking
Environmental Awareness_. (Shameless plug.)
  

    
Howdy folks and Merry X-mas --

It is a bit nostalgic to review what was said this past spring and
summer about the energy crisis. Prices have dropped, Enron has gone
under, and a new political campaign season has begun.

The fall of Enron does have a major impact on the wind industry. It
seems the last US manufacturer will likely be bought by UBS Warburg's
private equity arm. What this means is that the US, which jumpstarted
an industry that is now the fastest growing power source inthe world,
will have no US-based wind turbine manufacturers!

I recently updated information on wind power for the California Energy
Commission. What I found out is that the wind industry now considers
California to be one of the worst places to do business in the country.
The see-saw between pseudo-dereg and then the state taking over power
purchases, and then the new Power Authotity soliciting bids and then
backtracking, shows that the chaos of California on energy is not
serving the interests of consumers, the environment, or the advancement
of new clean technology.

What is the solution? Less or more regulation? Public power?
Distributed generation? Hyper-cars?

any ideas?

A side note: I have a new website: www.pedrothepathfinder.com
  

    

>the US, which jumpstarted an industry that is now the fastest growing power
>source inthe world, will have no US-based wind turbine manufacturers!

What a travesty.
  

    
http://www.viridiandesign.org/notes/251-300/00285_enron_wind.html
  

    
Interestingly, Enron Wind bought German manufacturer Tacke a few years
back, stopped making their own turbine, and now markets the European
design everywhere.  At the Offshore Windpower conference in Brussels
last week, i saw a mock-up of the new Enron (Tacke) 3.2 MW turbine
designed specifically for the North Sea shallow water sites.

I'm posting this from my new home in Deutschland, a land about the
size of texas, but now with more than twice the installed windpower
capacity as america, 7000 MW.  Europe is much more land constrained
than america, so the windpower industry is moving to the shallow North,
Irish and Baltic Seas.

The Danish Energy Agency and the IEA CADDET Renewble Energy Program,
ETSU, Harwell UK estimate the total European resource in water depths
of less than 40 meters and with a dis;tance to the coast of less than
30 km (excluding Norway, Finland and Sweden) and accounting for major
but not local constraints, to be 3000 TWh/yr.  This is greater than
total European electricity consumption of some 2700 TWh/yr. 
Greenpeace, also included in the official European Commission (EU)
report, estimates the potential from the North Sea areas of Belgium,
The Netherlands, Denmark, the UK, and Germany as a maximum of 1900
TWh/yr, almost twice the annual consumption of those five countries.

Additionally, European companies have a huge lead in establishing many
of the technologies which will give birth to a near term hydrogen
future.

xxxxx

Peter, in reference to your comments about the California business
climeate for renewables, i experienced the same last year.  Executives
from FPL, a utility subsidiary (whose parent led the charge against
solar power for twenty years... in Florida of all places) constantly
told me they couldn't do business in California, and put their approx.
100 MW repowering of the Altamont Pass (1st phase)on hold.  They even
sent the turbines earmarked for Altamont to Kansas, where Dorothy
disappeared.

Only last month did i learn that FPL has a 1500 MW gas plant in the
pipeline... to feed into Altamont's Tesla substation, the largest in
the West!  So much for the benefits to utility ownership of windpower.
  

    
Some interesting nuggets...

Shell have installed two 2MW turbines in the Irish Sea, and advertise
them on european television.

Greenpeace NL staged an action last summer, sinking a monopile into
the depths of the North Sea right where construction was to start on a
new offshore gas platform.  Installed on the monopile foundation was a
small wind turbine powering a computer which sent out pro-wind emails
to all the Dutch politicians.  (A court order forced Greenpeace to
remove the turbine shortly thereafter.)
  

    
That's certainly a creative Greenpeace action.
  

    
Here's some amazing photos of the action:

<http://www.greenpeace.org/~climate/climatecountdown/photos.htm>

<http://www.greenpeace.nl/ams/keGreenblades.shtml>

<http://www.greenpeace.nl/ams/kefotosGreenblades.shtml>

<http://www.greenpeace.nl/ams/kewindmolenverwijderd.shtml>

<http://www.greenpeace.nl/ams/windmolenverwijfoto.shtml>
  

    
hey Randy -- 

So good to hear from you. Shoot, if I would have known you would move
to Germany, I would have been there to see you off! Oh well, I'm
planning a trip to Europe in 2002 and hope to hook up!

I can hardly speak German anymore, but am considering checking out the
wind power conference scheduled for 2002. The contrast between
California, a state that was once the world leader, and Germany, the
currend leader, is so depressing. I keep looking for a silver lining.
I'm still hoping the terrorist threat can be used to build more support
for renewables, particularly distributed solar, wind and feul cells. 

Well, Happy New Year! Randy, how is married life? Will you ever come
back to the states?
  

    
Though i'm still in Deutschland, i haven't moved yet.  Still sorting
out the opportunities for Protium in Europe, but the response from the
Offshore Windpower conference in Brussels was more than encouraging. 
In fact, i was quite surprised to discover that i'm still considered
something of a pioneer in Europe, and the level of respect given me was
due in no small part to Peter's book.  i still feel marginalized in
the US, probably because i've spoken out on some important or
controversial issues which the utility owned wind companies and
manufacturers don't want to see addressed.  But Europe for me was quite
the opposite.

The plan is to spend a few more weeks sorting out the current state of
the industry, visiting friends, and evaluating a move.

As for married life, you'll have to wait for email, Peter.  heh.
  

    
Randy -- I want all of the details...heh....
  

    

Borrowed from elsewhere in the WELL:



 california heroes:
 "
 ....
 But SMUD has done much more than encourage the introduction of
 electric-drive vehicles.  The public utility is also a pacesetter in
 the installation of solar-electric and wind power technologies. It
 currently operates or is planning to install some 18MW of photovoltaic
 panels and 50MW of wind energy. It also has over 680 MW of
 hydroelectric capacity in the Sierra Nevada mountains to the east of
 the city.  At present, 30% of the districts electric energy is
 generated from renewable sources.
 You can listen to DiStacios presentation in its entirety by clicking
 on the audio link at the top of the right-hand column.
 ....
 "
 http://evworld.com/databases/storybuilder.cfm?storyid=310
  

    
boozled by right-wing disinformation campaigns that are well-f