Grid Storage and the Holy Grail

Thursday, October 8, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

The world has long sought economical electric grid storage, but without success. The quest has been likened to the futile search for the Holy Grail. Recently, Elon Musk announced that Tesla will supply a cheap Lithium grid battery that will solve climate change. Just how serious is his claim?

For our next meeting, we will look at current efforts to supply grid storage, particularly batteries from Tesla and other serous contenders. Here are the videos that will be used for background:

• The state of grid storage just three years ago
• Al Gore anticipating the grid battery boom
• Elon Musk announcing the PowerWall and PowerPack
• Al Jazeera reports the start of the grid battery race
• The liquid metal battery by Donald Sadoway
• The Aquion battery by Jay Whitacre
• The vanadium flow battery by Pacific Northwest National Labs

Voting Rights

Thursday, October 1, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

For the next meeting, we will explore the issue of voting rights and related issues like gerrymandering. Here are the videos that we will use for background:

• A historical perspective on voting rights
• Obama speaks on voting
• Laws that make it harder to vote
• Voter ID
• Mandatory voting
• Gerrymandering

------------------------------------------ Updated 10/1/15 ------------------------------------------

Here are the additional videos shown at the meeting:

• George Carlin - if you vote you have no right to complain
• Obama suggests mandatory voting
• Thom Hartmann on SCOTUS ruling on redistricting
• John Oliver on voting in US territories

Focus on Solar

Thursday, September 24, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

The recent dramatic drop it the price of PV solar has made it the primary technology for the US to reduce carbon emissions by 32% by 2030. While it is still questionable if renewables alone can get to the 100% carbon free energy that we need, 32% is still impressive. We will examine how solar, particularly rooftop solar, will play the major role in meeting our short term goals. Here is list of videos to be shown at the meeting:

• Al Gore on the rise of PV Solar
• What rooftop solar has meant to Bangladesh
• A collage I made on net metering from several videos
• The utilities wanting to change the rules on rooftop solar
• The backlash against the utilities
• The story of First Solar

CHALLENGE: In the first video, Al Gore talks about a Minnesota judge who picked solar over natural gas to provide additional electrical capacity. What is going on here? Why is a judge picking an energy source? Doesn't he know that the sun does not shine at night? Why did this happen first in a Northern state instead of a sunnier state down south?

You have a chance to practice your Googling to find out the real story here. Everything Gore said was true, but he left out important details. The true nature of this story is key to understanding the real value of solar to meet our energy goals.

Immigration by Trump

Thursday, September 17, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

We already covered the immigration issue last year and it is still very much a problem as it was then. But, thanks to Donald Trump, the issue has reemerged as possibly the defining issue on the Republican side. For our next meeting, we will reexamine the immigration, including birth right citizenship. Here are some of the videos we will use for background material:

• PBS NewsHour - Should citizenship be a birthright?
• Obama - Fixing America's Broken Immigration System
• Bill Gates - Immigration laws hurt smart talent
• Stephen Colbert - Congressional Testimony

---------------------------------------------------- 9/17/15 ------------------------------------------------

Other videos shown at the meeting:

• President George W. Bush calls for comprehensive immigration
• The Onion U.S. Border Patrol
• Steven Colbert answers Lamar Smith and Judy Chu

The Renewable Energy Challenge

Thursday, September 10, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

To meet the EPA carbon targets of 32% by 2030, we are going to need a lot more than energy efficiency. The few new nuclear plants will just compensate for the closing of older nuclear plants. We will need to rely on renewable energy, mostly wind and solar, to replace the energy from closing coal plant. Obama is betting that renewable energy is up to the task. But optimists and pessimists paint very different pictures, especially for the further carbon reductions that we need after 2030. Some say renewables can take us to 100%, other say that we will need advance nuclear plants to provide the baseload electricity missing from renewables. We will take a closer look at the challenges to renewable energy to get a fair assessment. We will use material from the following videos:

• Al Gore on the reason of hope from renewables
• Thorium Energy to fight Climate Change by Gordon McDowell
• Obama at the Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas
• CASEnergy & IEER Debate Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 & 7
• Amory Lovins - A 40-year plan for energy (link corrected 9/10/15) 
• Jonathan Lesser on Intermittent Power
• Bill Gates Talks About the Future of Energy (link corrected 9/10/15)

Note that many of these videos have information about nuclear energy, but we will will only look at the parts that pertain to renewable energy.

---------------------------------- Updated 9/10/15 ------------------------------------

Here are the links to the video that were shown at the meeting, but were not listed above:

• Chuck Grassley The Wind Energy Production Tax Credit
• Lamar Alexander Let Wind Power Stand on Its Own in the Marketplace
• Arizona PBS Expediting Electrical Transmission Lines

Student Loan Debt

Thursday, September 3, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Student loan debt now exceeds 1.2 trillion dollars. Is has been a problem for a number of years and is a major issue for the 2016 presidential race, at least on the Democrat side. However, main stream media continues to focus on the "horse race", so the issues get lost. We can do better.

For our next meeting, we will examine the full scope of the problem, and some of the incremental solutions that have been implemented by Obama, mostly by executive order. Our discussion will use the following videos for background:

• PBS report on the student debt problem
• Obama's last year's executive actions on student loans
• Senator Warren on student debt held by the elderly
• TED Talk on using technology to lower college cost
• Obama announces Student Aid Bill of Rights
• John Oliver on for profit colleges

Energy Efficiency

Thursday, August 27, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

Energy efficiency is expected to play a large role in the EPA Clean Power Plan, see our previous meeting. Maryland has plans to shut down some of it coal fired electric plants to meet its EPA mandated carbon reductions. Unless we find ways to use our electricity more efficiently, our rates will surely go up.

Of all the carbon reduction actions, efficiency is the one that we will have the most personal experience with. While we don't know yet what Maryland plans to do, we can talk about how energy efficiency affects us globally and personally.

Al Gore explains how global energy efficiency can contribute to stop climate change. Alex Laskey tells us how to use psychology to make us conserve more. Catherine Mohr shares her over-the-top energy accounting.

There are also some down sides. The Conundrum is a book which claims that energy efficiency will just let us consume more. Aim High, by Thorium advocate Robert Hargraves, explains what is really needed to reverse climate change, (warning this is a long talk and only a small part will be shown at the meeting).

---------------------------------------------- 8/27/15 update -----------------------------------------------------

Here link to videos shown at the meeting not listed above:

• Amory Lovins on energy and efficiency
• Hans Rosling story of The Magic Washing Machine
• James Hansen on nuclear and coal