Author Archives: energyskeptic

Utility scale energy storage doesn’t scale up: limits to minerals and geography

Posted on March 2, 2021 by energyskeptic

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. And … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternative Energy, Batteries, Battery - Utility Scale, CAES Compressed Air, Mining, Peak Critical Elements, Pumped Hydro Storage (PHS) | Tagged battery, CAES, energy storage, NaS, pumped hydropower, scale, sodium sulfur, solar power | 18 Comments

Lifespan of infrastructure, transportation, and buildings

Posted on February 27, 2021 by energyskeptic

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 Infrastructure, Energy Infrastructure, Limits To Growth, Manufacturing & Industrial Heat, Oil & Gas, Transportation Infrastructure, Trucks | Tagged buildings, cement, dams, infrastructure, lifespan, steel, transportation | 5 Comments

Far Out power #6: Stale beer, crayfish shells, and burning metal powder

Posted on February 24, 2021 by energyskeptic

Preface. Unfortunately, turning beer into biogas requires a pandemic so that it isn’t drunk at pubs instead. Scientists assure us there will be more pandemics as we mow down (rain)forests for shopping malls and come into contact with new viruses, … Continue reading →

Posted in Biofuels, Far Out | Tagged beer, biogas, renewable power | Comments Off

Not enough rare metals to scale up solar power

Posted on February 21, 2021 by energyskeptic

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 … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternative Energy, Mining, Peak Critical Elements, Peak Rare Earth Elements, Photovoltaic Solar, Recycle, Recycling | Tagged gallium, indium, photovoltaic, PV, rare earth, Ruthenium, solar, tellurium | 5 Comments

Why rare and valuable metals are not recycled

Posted on February 18, 2021 by energyskeptic

Preface. This is a post about why rare and critical metals aren’t recycled at all or at best, just a small percent. Basically it is still cheaper to mine them from scratch than to try to separate them out from … Continue reading →

Posted in Peak Critical Elements, Peak Platinum Group Elements, Peak Precious Elements, Peak Rare Earth Elements, Recycle, Recycling, Ugo Bardi | Tagged downcycling, limits to growth, material limits, rare earth metal, recycle, recycling, solar CSP, solar PV, windmill | 5 Comments

What are rare earth metals and how are they used?

Posted on February 15, 2021 by energyskeptic

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, Mining, Peak Rare Earth Elements | Tagged gallium, indium, mining, rare earth, solar | Comments Off

Toasters are Toast

Posted on February 12, 2021 by energyskeptic

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 collapse, toasters | 7 Comments

Even Pencils will be hard to make

Posted on February 9, 2021 by energyskeptic

Preface. Most of us are unaware of how complex our society is, how things are made, how food is grown, how stuff is delivered, and the people, energy, transportation, and kinds and sources of materials in every day objects. This … Continue reading →

Posted in EROEI Energy Returned on Energy Invested, Localization, Supply Chains | Tagged collapse, EROEI, manufacturing, peak oil, pencil | 2 Comments

The Fragility of Microchips

Posted on February 6, 2021 by energyskeptic

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 mostly from the textbooks of Quirk (2001) and Van Zant (2004). … Continue reading →

Posted in 2) Collapse, An Index of Best Energyskeptic Posts, Infrastructure & Fast Crash, Interdependencies, Localization, Manufacturing & Industrial Heat, Microchips and computers, Supply Chains | Tagged collapse, computer chip, fragility, microprocessor, precision, preservation of knowledge | 8 Comments

Autos need finite rare earth, critical, & precious metals

Posted on February 3, 2021 by energyskeptic

An electric car uses five times as many minerals as a conventional car (IEA 2020): IEA, Minerals used in selected power generation technologies, IEA, Paris https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/charts/minerals-used-in-selected-power-generation-technologies There are 17 rare earth elements (REE) that China controls up to 97% of … Continue reading →

Posted in Automobiles, Peak Rare Earth Elements | Tagged Cerium, china, dysprosium, Europium, lanthanum, neodymium, Praseodymium, rare earth, terbium, Yttrium | 1 Comment