Monthly Archives: March 2015

EROI negative for Coal-to-Liquids (CTL) at Shenuha Direct Coal Liquefaction plant

Kong, Z. et al. 23 January 2015. EROI Analysis for Direct Coal Liquefaction without and with CCS: The Case of the Shenhua DCL Project in China. Energies 8(2): 786-807.   Many nations see coal-to-liquids (CTL) as a way to avoid … Continue reading

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Kurt Cobb Cheap oil, complexity and counter-intuitive conclusions

Kurt Cobb. March 22, 2015.   Cheap oil, complexity and counterintuitive conclusions. Resource Insights. It is a staple of oil industry apologists to say that the recent swift decline in the price of oil is indicative of long-term abundance. This … Continue reading

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All About Coal

Preface. Below are my notes, statistics, and so on about coal from many publications. Way more fun to look at and understand the coal used to make steel (a different kind is used to generate electricity) is this site: 2022 … Continue reading

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Richard Heinberg: Only less will do

Richard Heinberg. March 16, 2015. Only Less Will Do. Post Carbon Institute. [portions of this article were cut, reworded, and rearranged] Almost nobody likes to hear about the role of scale in our global environmental crisis, because if growth is … Continue reading

Posted in Birth Control, By People, Climate Change, Overpopulation, Richard Heinberg | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Hydropower has a very low energy density

To store the energy contained in 1 gallon of gasoline requires over 55,000 gallons to be pumped up 726 feet (CCST 2012). As a thought experiment look at what it would take generate all of America’s 4,058 TWh electricity, where … Continue reading

Posted in Energy Storage, Hydropower, Pumped Hydro Storage (PHS) | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Gail Tverberg The oil glut and low prices reflect an affordability problem

Tverberg, G. March 9, 2015. The oil glut and low prices reflect an affordability problem. ourfiniteworld.com For a long time, there has been a belief that the decline in oil supply will come by way of high oil prices. Demand … Continue reading

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Jared Diamond Why Societies Collapse

[ Whoops, Diamond left out peak oil: Book review of “In order to live: A North Korean girl’s journey to freedom” by Yeonmi Park Inside North Korea’s Environmental Collapse Who Lives, Who dies in a never-ending energy crisis. Book review … Continue reading

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The Empire of the United States, Roman Empire, War, etc.

[Several articles and comments from energy groups follow] Steven Strauss. December 31, 2012. 8 Striking Parallels Between the U.S. and the Roman Empire. Is our republic coming to an unceremonious end? History may not be on America’s side. Lawrence Lessig’s … Continue reading

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CSP Barriers and Obstacles

Location must be in the desert Southwest Unlike solar PV, CSP can’t cope with humidity or cloud cover, so it is limited to the southwest were the solar irradiation is high and there is no dust, haze, or smog.  Solar … Continue reading

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Concentrated Solar Power: Water Constraints

“Concentrating solar power plants that use wet cooling could significantly increase water demand, consuming up to twice as much water per unit of electricity produced as traditional fossil fuel power plants. Concerns with concentrating solar power plants are particularly acute … Continue reading

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