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Monthly Archives: June 2020
Distribution – why it is so hard to add E15 or E85 at a gas station
Preface. One of the huge hurdles to shifting from oil to “something else” is the chicken-or-egg problem of no one buying a new-fuel vehicle with few places to get it, so few are made, so service stations don’t add the … Continue reading
Posted in Biofuels
Tagged distribution, ethanol, service station
Comments Off on Distribution – why it is so hard to add E15 or E85 at a gas station
Can Geothermal power make up for declining fossil fuels?
Preface. Geothermal power plants are cost justified only in places where volcanic or tectonic activity brings heat close to the surface, mainly in “ring of fire” nations and volcanic hot spots like Hawaii. Even then drilling can only be done … Continue reading
Posted in Alternative Energy, Energy, Geothermal
Tagged geothermal
Comments Off on Can Geothermal power make up for declining fossil fuels?
Global oil discovered 7.7 times less than consumption in 2019
Source: Rystad Energy (2020) in “Global oil and gas discoveries reach four-year high in 2019, boosted by ExxonMobil’s Guyana success“. Preface. The global conventional discovery chart above lists natural gas and oil discoveries since 2013. The fossil fuel that really … Continue reading
The U.S. May Soon Have the World’s Oldest Nuclear Power Plants
Preface. This is nuts. Sea level rise threatens many nuclear power plants and drought has shut plants down since they need cooling to operate. As nuclear reactor age, they require more intensive monitoring and preventive maintenance to operate safely. But … Continue reading
Posted in Nuclear Power
Tagged aging, nuclear, safety
Comments Off on The U.S. May Soon Have the World’s Oldest Nuclear Power Plants
High-level nuclear waste storage degrades faster than thought
Preface. Burying nuclear waste ought to be a top priority, now that it appears peak oil may have happened in November of 2018 (Patterson 2019) and perhaps even sooner if covid-19 crashes the world economy (Tverberg 2020). It won’t happen … Continue reading
Concentrated Solar Power is dying out in the U.S.
Preface. Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) contributes only 0.06 % of U.S. electricity, mainly in California (64 %) and Arizona (24 %) because extremely dry areas with no humidity, haze, or pollutants are required. Of the 1861 MW power they can … Continue reading
Human over-consumption causes far more biodiversity loss than climate change
Preface. Human ancestors began reducing biodiversity 4 million years ago, when large carnivores in Africa began disappearing, probably due to our ancestors stealing food predators had caught, starving them to death and eventually driving some of them extinct (Faurby, S., … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiversity Loss, Climate Change, Extinction
Tagged biodiversity, climate change, extinction, overconsumption
1 Comment
Oil consumption of containerships
Preface. Since 90% of international goods move by ships, I was curious about how much fuel they burned. It’s a lot: The very large container ship CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin above, which can carry 18,000 20-foot containers, carries approximately 4.5 … Continue reading
Posted in Energy Efficiency
2 Comments
Building a national super grid in America
Preface. Renewables are not evenly distributed. Just 10 states have 80% of hydropower (Homeland Security 2011), 10 states produce 75% of wind power (EIA 2017), and 10 states produce 79% of solar power (CE 2020). With a national grid, instead … Continue reading
Posted in Blackouts, Electric Grid, Electric Grid, Electricity, National Super Grid, Solar, Vaclav Smil, Wind
3 Comments