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- The history of rope making
- What will future societies be like after fossil fuels are gone?
- Phosphate: All hopes for food and LFP batteries rest on Morocco with up to 85% of remaining reserves
- Floating Solar Farms add plastic, metal, PFAS & cut off light and oxygen to life below
- Peak Lithium
- Trump eliminates birth control abroad
- In a world without people, how long would NYC last?
- Network States to replace democratic governments with billionaire Silicon Valley CEO dictators & Republicans
- Why the kerogen in oil shale will never fill up your tank
- ‘The oil we eat’. Following the food chain back to iraq
- Vanishing open spaces: population growth and sprawl in America
- Admiral Rickover 1957: Energy Resources & Our Future
- The Green New Deal is not a solution for the real problem: Overshoot
- A transition from fossil fuels to renewables could take a century – if it ever happens
- Electrifying freight trains in the U.S. is a bad idea
Author Archives: energyskeptic
Energy abundance depends entirely on the RATE of energy flow
Preface. Below are excerpts from two articles on why the FLOW RATE of oil is what matters for our fossil-fueled civilization. It’s like how, when filling up a bathtub, you want to turn the faucet on as high as it … Continue reading
Posted in Flow Rate, How Much Left, Peak Oil
Tagged oil, peak oil, petroleum, rate of flow
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Diesel is finite. Trucks are the bedrock of civilization. So where are the battery electric trucks?
Last updated: 2023-1-21 Preface. Heavy-duty diesel-engine trucks (agricultural, mining, logging, construction, garbage, cement, 18-wheelers, and more) are essential for doing the actual work of our fossil-fueled civilization. Without them, no goods would be delivered, no food grown, nothing manufactured, no … Continue reading
Posted in Batteries, Electric & Hydrogen trucks impossible, Trucks: Electric
Tagged battery, BEV, drayage, e-truck, electric truck, heavy-duty, HHD, Nikola, tesla, truck
11 Comments
Book review: The Bottlenecks of the 21st Century
Preface. Nate Hagens and DJ White’s book is the kind of book I’d like to write someday. Like them, I’d publish only in paper to preserve knowledge because the electric grid will come down some day since it can’t outlast … Continue reading
We’re Running out of Antibiotics
Preface. A collection of articles I’ve run across about potential antibiotic shortages some day. By no means definitive, and maybe the Scientists Will Come Up With Something. Alice Friedemann www.energyskeptic.com author of “Life After Fossil Fuels: A Reality Check on … Continue reading
Aging nuclear power plants should be shut down
Preface. Below are my notes from the Greenpeace 146-page “Lifetime extension of ageing nuclear power plants”. Even if you don’t understand all the terms, read on anyhow, since it certainly conveys why nuclear plants grow more dangerous with age. Imagine … Continue reading
Posted in Energy Infrastructure, Nuclear Power Energy
Tagged corrosion, degradation, embrittlement, lifetime extension, nuclear power
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945 U.S. Superfund sites vulnerable to climate change
Preface. The energy crisis is likely to strike soon since global peak oil production was reached in November 2018 (EIA 2020). Let’s use energy to clean up these Superfund sites and nuclear waste, rather than wasting energy on wind turbines … Continue reading
Trucks running on CNG or LNG
Preface. My books “When Trucks stop running” and “Life After Fossil Fuels” explain why trucks can’t run on electricity — batteries simply don’t scale up, they are too heavy leaving little if any room for cargo. A catenary system has … Continue reading
Posted in Natural Gas Vehicles, Trucks
Tagged CNG, LNG, stranded natural gas, trucks
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Was the fall of the Roman Empire due to plagues & climate change?
Preface. Harper (2017) shows the brutal effects of plagues and climate change on the Roman Empire. McConnell (2020) proposes that a huge volcanic eruption in Alaska was a factor in bringing the Roman Empire and Cleopatra’s Egypt down. In addition, … Continue reading
Posted in Pandemic, Roman Empire
Tagged climate change, collapse, pandemic, plague, roman empire
1 Comment
Biogas from cow manure is not a solution for the energy crisis
Preface. Smil’s article about biogas sums up why it won’t contribute to energy shortages as fossils decline. Biogass doesn’t scale and is easy to muck up. Hayes (2015) also makes this case, pointing out that even if every ounce of … Continue reading
Posted in Biofuels, Biomass EROI, Peak Biofuels, Pollution
Tagged bacteria, biofuel, biogas, cow manure, EROI, pollution
2 Comments
The Next Big Thing: Distributed Generation & Microgrids
Preface. Last updated 2022-9-5 The first article below explains what microgrids will look like in the future. But first a brief look at what a microgrid is, as Angwin explains in her book “Shorting the Grid. The Hidden Fragility … Continue reading