Yearly Archives: 2016

California could hit the solar wall

[ According to a Stanford University article below this introduction (followed by excerpts from two California Energy Commission reports), if California uses mainly solar power to meet a 50% Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), on sunny days, for most of the … Continue reading

Posted in Photovoltaic Solar, Renewable Integration | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Scientific American: Peak oil and coal may keep catastrophic climate change in check

[ Since conventional oil, 90% of supply, peaked in 2005-6 we’ve been on a plateau.  Since the rate of conventional oil decline exponentially decreasing, and population is still exponentially increasing, it is unlikely unconventional oil like shale “fracked” oil, tar … Continue reading

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Ecological cost of new roads in Africa

[ What follows are excerpts from the January 8 2014 issue of Newscientist’s “Africa’s road-building frenzy will transform continent” by Andy Coghlan.  ] China is funding most of the new roads to get the minerals they’ve mined, and transport food … Continue reading

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Why the world is headed the way of Easter island

Petros Sekeris. 19 November 2014. Violence ahead as tragedies of the commons spread. NewScientist. The world risks heading the way of Easter Island – a spiral into conflict as depleted natural resources are plundered. There is a growing feeling that … Continue reading

Posted in ! PEAK EVERYTHING | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Ted Trainer criticizes Hatfield-Dodds CSIRO study in Nature that denies “Limits to Growth”

[This study denies “Limits To Growth”, and I’ve posted Ted Trainer’s objections below.  It is alarming Nature would publish such claptrap.  Has Rupert Murdoch secretly purchased them? Alice Friedemann www.energyskeptic.com] Ted Trainer.  November 2015. A brief critical response to the … Continue reading

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M. G. Salameh on oil wars in the past and future

[ Salameh explains why we will inevitably have oil wars in the future, perhaps wars over Iran’s nuclear program, between the U.S. and china, Iraq and Kurdistan, the UK and Argentina over the Falkland islands oil reserves,  and/or over the … Continue reading

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Taxpayers are paying for a concentrated solar project — Ivanpah– that doesn’t work

Ivanpah in the news: Dvorsky, G. May 21, 2016. The World’s Largest Solar Plant Just Torched Itself. Gizmodo (Australia). Misaligned mirrors are being blamed for a fire that broke out yesterday at the world’s largest solar power plant, leaving the … Continue reading

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Booklist: Limits to Growth, Overpopulation, Collapse, War, Extinction

 More booklists Limits to Growth Donella Meadows. 2004. The Limits to Growth: The 30 year update       V Smil. Enriching the Earth: Fritz Haber, Carl Bosch, and the Transformation of World Food Production. K Gever. Beyond Oil: The threat to food … Continue reading

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Over and under-cooked oil — tar sands, “fracked” tight oil & gas

This article discusses why it’s so hard and expensive to extract difficult oils like fracked shale oil, Venezuelan and Canadian oil sands. These are at the bottom of the resource pyramid, so there may be a lot of it, but … Continue reading

Posted in Oil & Gas Fracked, Oil Shale, Tar Sands (Oil Sands) | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Net metering and the death of US rooftop solar

April 22, 2016 by Roger Andrews at euanmearns.com “Net metering” allows anyone with a solar installation to sell surplus solar power to the grid when the sun is shining and to purchase power back from the grid when it isn’t. … Continue reading

Posted in Other Experts, Photovoltaic Solar | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments