Category Archives: Manufacturing & Industrial Heat

Utility scale energy storage limited by minerals and geography

Posted on March 2, 2021 by

Preface. Natural gas is finite, but aside from (pumped) hydropower, natural gas is the main way wind and solar are balanced now. Therefore, a tremendous amount of energy storage will be needed in the future as natural gas declines. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternative Energy, Batteries, Battery - Utility Scale, CAES Compressed Air, Elements: Critical, Mining, Pumped Hydro Storage (PHS) | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Lifespan of infrastructure, transportation, and buildings

Posted on February 27, 2021 by

Preface. What follows is from the International Energy Agency 2020 report “Energy technology perspectives” on how to transition to net zero emissions by 2050. This might require the replacement of just about everything, since power plants, steel blast furnaces, cement … Continue reading →

Posted in Airplanes, Automobiles, Concrete, Dams, Electricity, Energy, Limits To Growth, Manufacturing & Industrial Heat, Oil & Gas, Transportation, Trucks | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Not enough rare metals to scale up solar power

Posted on February 21, 2021 by

Preface. Sunshine may be free, but the materials to make solar contraptions sure aren’t.  Since sunshine arrives in a diluted form, vast expanses of solar photovoltaic panels will be needed to produce the world’s 24,000 Terawatt hours of electrical power … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternative Energy, Elements: Critical, Elements: Rare Earth, Mining, Photovoltaic Solar, Recycle | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

What are rare earth metals and how are they used?

Posted on February 15, 2021 by

Preface.  After oil, the main feature of new products will be drastic simplification. The re-use of existing stuff. Lack of precision machine tools as they rust away. Back to basics: wood, iron, and clay. Yet every high-tech object depends on … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternative Energy, Elements: Rare Earth, Mining | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Toasters are Toast

Posted on February 12, 2021 by

Preface. Thomas Thwaites’ book, “The Toaster Project” illustrates why it will be so hard, if not impossible, to bounce back from collapse in the future to anything like what we take for granted today.  Thwaites set about trying to make … Continue reading →

Posted in Manufacturing & Industrial Heat, Peak Resources | Tagged , | 7 Comments

The Fragility of Microchips

Posted on February 6, 2021 by

Preface. This is an introduction to how microchips are made to give you an idea of how difficult and amazing they are.  This is a very high-level overview gathered from two textbooks full of mind-boggling processes and complexity.  Microchips are … Continue reading →

Posted in 2) Collapse, Localization, Microchips and computers, Supply Chains | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments

How are microchips made?

Posted on January 31, 2021 by

Preface. Computer chip fabrication plants need to run continuously for weeks to accomplish the thousands of steps needed to make microchips. A half-hour power outage at Samsung’s Pyeongtaek chip plant caused losses of over $43 million dollars (Reuters 2019). Chip … Continue reading →

Posted in Chemicals, Microchips and computers | Tagged , | 16 Comments

Motherboards: too complicated to make after oil

Posted on January 28, 2021 by

Preface. The wood-based world of the future simply won’t have the energy and minerals required not just to make electronic devices, but the precision machine tools to make them.  As diesel fuel grows scarce and the economy fails, supply chains … Continue reading →

Posted in Microchips and computers | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Many steps using fossil fuels to make cans & potato chips

Posted on January 25, 2021 by

Preface.  I am gobsmacked by how much energy goes into making beverage cans and potato chips, look at all the steps, each one using energy!  Why haven’t we run of oil yet? Especially when you look at everything else out … Continue reading →

Posted in EROEI Energy Returned on Energy Invested, Manufacturing & Industrial Heat | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

Ugo Bardi’s The Universal Mining Machine

Posted on January 19, 2021 by

Preface. Below I’ve excerpted some of Ugo Bardi’s “The Universal Mining Machine” (24 January 2008 europe.theoildrum), but I’ve left a great deal out of this excellent article, I encourage you to read all of it if you have time. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Elements: Critical, Mining, Ugo Bardi | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments