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Tag Archives: solar
Challenges to the Integration of Renewable Resources at High System Penetration
Preface. This overview of challenges for wind and solar written in 2010 is still true today. We are far from being able to reach even a 50% renewable grid (excluding hydropower from the total) given the lack of storage, the … Continue reading
Posted in Electric Grid, Solar, Wind
Tagged electric grid, energy storage, forecasting, intermittence, smart grid, solar, wind
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Wind, solar, and natural gas are driving nuclear power out of business
Preface. I’m no fan of nuclear power because we may already be at peak uranium, there’s nowhere to store nuclear waste, and a spent nuclear pool fire could harm millions of people. But renewable wind and solar and natural gas … Continue reading
Vaclav Smil: from wood to coal to oil, energy transitions take a long time
Preface. This post has a shortened, reworded, and heavily commented on article from Scientific American in 2014. You can also see two much longer articles about energy transitions by Smil from n 2008 and 2010 here: Vaclav Smil: Our transition … Continue reading
Posted in Alternative Energy, Coal, Dependence on Oil, Energy, Vaclav Smil
Tagged coal, gas, oil, renewables, solar, transition, vaclav smil, wind, wood
2 Comments
Solar PV requires too much land to replace fossils
Preface. This is a brief summary of the Capellan-Perez paper that calculates the land needed to use solar to replace electricity as well as the land needed if solar were to replace all of societies use of energy (i.e. transportation, … Continue reading
Book review of Vaclav Smil’s “Energy Transitions: History, Requirements, Prospects”
Preface. In my extract of the 178 pages in the book below, Smil explains why renewables can’t possibly replace fossil fuels, and appears to be exasperated that people believe this can be done when he writes “Common expectations of energy … Continue reading
Posted in Alternative Energy, Energy, Vaclav Smil
Tagged biofuels, coal, energy, geothermal, hydropower, kinetic, LNG, muscle power, nuclear, solar, vaclav smil, wind
14 Comments
Renewable EROI must include storage, low capacity factor, wide boundaries
[ Trainer argues that when you consider how the capacity factor of wind and solar are to fossil plants, seasonality of wind and solar the number of facilities is quite large to deal with the intermittency problem. Therefore the storage … Continue reading
Richard Heinberg: Paul Krugman’s Errors and Omissions
[ This article by Richard Heinberg at Postcarbon refutes a column by Paul Krugmen called “Errors and Emissions Could Fighting Global Warming Be Cheap and Free?” here. Most of my friends and family think I’m nuts because articles like this … Continue reading
Posted in EROEI Energy Returned on Energy Invested, Richard Heinberg, Solar, Wind
Tagged climate change, end of growth, EROEI, paul krugman, richard heinberg, solar, wind
8 Comments
If we really cared about CO2, we’d reduce car size and weight, not make electric cars
Preface. Since my book “When trucks stop running: Energy and the future of transportation makes the case that it’s trucks that need to be electrified to keep civilization going, since biofuels don’t scale up, natural gas and liquefied coal are … Continue reading
Why is nearly all solar power built where subsidies are the highest?
If solar net energy return is as high as some solar advocates claim, why does solar need any subsidies? And not just U.S. subsidies, it’s subsidies on top of subsidies when you add in that we’re buying Chinese government subsidized … Continue reading
Posted in Concentrated Solar Power, Energy Policy, Photovoltaic Solar, Solar EROI
Tagged fossil fuels, intermittent, natural gas, power, solar, subsidies, subsidy
9 Comments
Wind and solar need natural gas to balance intermittent, variable, and seasonal power
[ The highest wind states are getting to be enormously dependent on natural gas to balance wind and solar as this EIA article about California below shows. Yet conventional natural gas has peaked — half our natural gas– and is … Continue reading
Posted in Natural Gas, Solar, Wind
Tagged energy storage, intermittent, natural gas, solar, wind
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