Author Archives: energyskeptic

Updates to Life After Fossil Fuels: A Reality Check on Alternative Energy

Posted on May 14, 2021 by

Updates to “Life After Fossil Fuels” Last updated 28 April 2024. Other posts related to this book here. My book is about our many dependencies on fossil fuels, quickly depicted in these very short videos:  Life without Petroleum  A Day … Continue reading →

Posted in Biofuels, Fusion, Groundwater, How Much Left, Hydrogen, Life After Fossil Fuels, Peak Water | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Why fusion power is Forever Away

Posted on May 13, 2021 by

Preface. When my husband Jeffery Kahn was a science writer at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, we became friends with several astrophysicists who used to joke about how fusion was 30 years away and always would be. If world peak oil … Continue reading →

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Compressed air energy storage (CAES)

Posted on May 11, 2021 by

Preface. Besides pumped hydro storage (PHS), which provides 99% of energy storage today, CAES is the only other commercially proven energy storage technology that can provide large-scale (over 100 MW) energy storage. But there are just two CAES plants in … Continue reading →

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Heinberg on what to do at home to conserve energy

Posted on May 8, 2021 by

Preface. A quick summary. Best investment: insulate exterior walls, ceiling, and floors for energy savings. Other good changes were to plant a garden and fruit-and-nut orchard, and buy solar hot water heater, solar food dryer, solar cooker, chickens, energy-efficient appliances … Continue reading →

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Life After Fossil Fuels: manufacturing will be less precise

Posted on May 5, 2021 by

Preface. This is a book review and excerpts of Winchester’s “The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers created the modern world”. The book describes how the industrial revolution was made possible with ever more precision.  First came the steam engine, possible to … Continue reading →

Posted in Infrastructure & Collapse, Jobs and Skills, Life After Fossil Fuels, Manufacturing & Industrial Heat | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Life After Fossil Fuels: manufacturing will be less precise

Rationing. Book review of “Any way you slice it” by Stan Cox

Posted on May 5, 2021 by

Preface. I can’t imagine that there’s a better book on rationing out there, but of course I can’t be sure, I don’t feel the need to find others on this topic after reading this book. As usual, I had to … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Rationing | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Peak oil in the news 2023

Posted on May 2, 2021 by

Preface. Conventional crude oil production may have already peaked in 2008 at 69.5 million barrels per day (mb/d) according to Europe’s International Energy Agency (IEA 2018 p45). The U.S. Energy Information Agency shows global peak crude oil production at a … Continue reading →

Posted in Oil & Gas Fracked, Peak Oil | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Forests make the wind that carries the rain across continents

Posted on April 29, 2021 by

Preface. This is a controversial theory that if true, “could help explain why, despite their distance from the oceans, the remote interiors of forested continents receive as much rain as the coasts—and why the interiors of unforested continents tend to … Continue reading →

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How to make biomass last longer

Posted on April 26, 2021 by

Preface. Before fossil fuels, societies were able to make their forests last longer than today. Felling tall trees and killing them was rare except for special needs such as making bridges or ships. For firewood and other needs, trees were … Continue reading →

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Book Review: The Age of Wood: Our Most Useful Material & the Construction of Civilization

Posted on April 23, 2021 by

Preface. This is a book review, mainly with excerpts, of Ennos’s book “The Age of Wood. Our Most Useful Material and the Construction of Civilization”. If you know anything about woodworking, you will enjoy the detailed descriptions of how and … Continue reading →

Posted in Energy Books, Jobs and Skills, Life After Fossil Fuels, Wood | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment