Alternative Energy Blues

My little credit village was already poor and miserable when that marauding motor cycle banker gang, The Laughing Hyenas, invaded.  They pillaged and burned until there was nothing left.  Nothing except for a single board that  they put up themselves.  On it they spray painted a warning to strike fear and dread in the hearts of all.  In day glow orange were three words:  Low FICA Scores. So the guy who reviewed our house electricity usage said that half of our power, a 14 kw solar panel system, would cost just $46,000.  With a 30% tax credit the panels would pay for themselves in a little over ten years. Then he asked the stumper question:  How ya' gonna pay for it? Short and simple to y'all is that we don't have the money.  My entire family's finances were shot and left for dead a long time ago. I refuse to waste any one's time.  Getting the cost of the solar panels is part of doing the larger energy project.  The money will...

As a newly single(ish) man with cash in hand, someone else cooking and cleaning, with a full tank of gas in a late model fast, sleek car; what am I doing?  I'm studying wood gas! In a former life I had a home of my own and a paying roommate who was also a best friend.  I was always reading about alternative energy, so he nicknamed me Captain Wood Gas. Then I got a second roommate who also paid but he wasn't around at all because he was staying with his girlfriend.  Finally, I got a fourth roommate who put lots of her money into repairing the house and eventually married me. Then she ran off the best friend, the other, non-present roommate disappeared entirely and no longer paid rent, the the wife ran out of money.  My savings began looking small and puny so I replaced them with large and robust debt. And now I'm over here helping my parents.  It's been several years.  I'm back where I started, studying biomass to energy, biosolids to energy, and yes...

In the movie Chinatown (1974 staring Faye Dunaway and Jack Nicholson) the ex-cop, Jake Gites is told by a former cop buddy "Forget it, Jake.  It's Chinatown."  Part of the meaning of the statement is that bad stuff is always happening in this particular neighborhood.  Other meaning mean you can't stop the wheels of injustice from grinding us all down.  The bad guys are all too big, rich, powerful, dangerous and corrupting to stop. An additional interpretation is that the big boys can come have their fun in our neighborhood, engaging in all sorts of illegal, immoral, unethical activities and the law looks the other way.  Boys will be boys.  Look at how criminal the people treat each other in in that neighborhood.  Why care about a few more criminal acts? Well, we all know Chinatown is fiction, right?  The movie is a deliberate lie.  But like Pablo Picasso said, "Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth." I live in Southwest Houston, ...

Back home with mom and dad.  Am I taking care of them or are they taking care of me?  I'm getting the bills paid, I'm getting the house cleaned, the lawn maintained, and mom and dad physically taken care of.  They have cash in their pockets and full tanks of gas. Still, they buy dinner for me and awaken me to go to work in the morning.  The dinner is a generous gift which I have difficulty saying no to.  The latter is a necessity that helps me keep my job.  I'd be healthier not eating a bunch late in the evening and I'd rather be vegan instead of eating the fried fish and chicken mom and dad buy for all three of us.  I wish I felt energetic in the mornings as opposed to the evenings, then I wouldn't need my parents or spouse to wake me up. Back to alternative energy: New/One Trip 20' Shipping Containers can carry approximately 24 tons New/One Trip 20' Shipping Containers can cost $2,480 to $2850 What works in US government sponsored testing of...

No response from th guy with the Department of Energy, yet.  Tuesday, October 13, 2015 could be the lucky day.  Monday is Columbus Day, so most US Federal employees will be off work.  This gives me an opportunity to put down some of my compiled research and get errands done. Lots of small time computr scams come from foreign countries outside of the United States.  (Big time computer scams come from inside the United States.  Gawd bless America!)    A computer scam I tripped accross from Nigeria for Nigerians outlined how to strike it rich exporting charcoal by the ton.  The writers of the article had verifiable, up to date information:  Charcoal costs approximately $273/ton once it's delivered to the US.  Given lots of additional costs, it would be more like $300 on arrival according to the non-profit Charcoal Project based in Brooklyn New York, USA.  The latter group has the right ideas in relation to charcoal.  It can make...

I've started a search for alternative engy which causes less polution and can be shared more fairly amongst people.  The game is up in regards to frack gas.  The bubble has burst on that one.   The rubes have all been fleeced.   The savvy investors who imagined they they could get out of the market with a bunch of cash, before the music stopped in the game of stocks and bonds musical chairs, have for the most part left the game with a little less money than they came in with.  The new bubble is frack oil. So, criminal finance is covering up the continuing crash in conventional oil production.  What can we do for ourselves?  How can we help each other? I see the short term solutions in the forms of solar power, wind power, geothermal, and turning biomass and biosolids into power. I don't like to talk abot the thing that actually works more effectively, efficiently, and fairly than any of the above:  Plain , old conservation.  Weatherize, ...