Author Archives: energyskeptic

Far out power #2: Soap, Raindrops, Hyperloops, and Fitness Centers

Posted on July 12, 2020 by

Preface. Anything goes at a time when the energy crisis hasn’t even hit. Alice Friedemann   www.energyskeptic.com  author of “When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation”, 2015, Springer, Barriers to Making Algal Biofuels, and “Crunch! Whole Grain Artisan … Continue reading →

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Sewage Treatment

Posted on July 9, 2020 by

Preface. Before sewage treatment, cities were hell-holes of foul smells from rotting human waste, industrial effluent, and garbage.  Few people lived beyond 50 because of the many waterborne diseases.  In fact, sewage and water treatment systems are the main reason … Continue reading →

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Climate change impacts on agriculture

Posted on July 6, 2020 by

Preface. There are three articles below on this topic.  Plus these articles in the news: Nakagawa T et al (2021) The spatio-temporal structure of the Lateglacial to early Holocene transition reconstructed from the pollen record of Lake Suigetsu and its … Continue reading →

Posted in BioInvasion, Drought & Collapse, Extreme Weather, Food production, Heat, Peak Topsoil, Soil, Water, Where to Be or Not to Be | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Climate change impacts on agriculture

Nuclear powered airplanes, cars, and tanks

Posted on July 3, 2020 by

Preface. If trucks, tractors, ships, locomotives, and airplanes can’t run on electricity or the electric grid stay up without natural gas to balance wind & solar (see When Trucks Stop Running), if cement and steel and other products requiring the … Continue reading →

Posted in Airplanes, Automobiles, Far Out, Nuclear Power Energy | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Distribution – why it is so hard to add E15 or E85 at a gas station

Posted on June 30, 2020 by

Preface. One of the huge hurdles to shifting from oil to “something else” is the chicken-or-egg problem of no one buying a new-fuel vehicle with few places to get it, so few are made, so service stations don’t add the … Continue reading →

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Global oil discovered 7.7 times less than consumption in 2019

Posted on June 24, 2020 by

Source: Rystad Energy (2020) in “Global oil and gas discoveries reach four-year high in 2019, boosted by ExxonMobil’s Guyana success“. Preface.  The global conventional discovery chart above lists natural gas and oil discoveries since 2013.  The fossil fuel that really … Continue reading →

Posted in How Much Left, Peak Oil | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Ugo Bardi: Collapse. Where can we find a safe refuge?

Posted on June 21, 2020 by

Preface. This is from the excellent blog Cassandralegacy.blogspot.com of Ugo Bardi’s posted here. I agree that a small town or city might be best, but only if near agriculture, most towns in the desert SouthWest of the U.S. are not … Continue reading →

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The U.S. May Soon Have the World’s Oldest Nuclear Power Plants

Posted on June 18, 2020 by

Preface. This is nuts. Sea level rise threatens many nuclear power plants and drought has shut plants down since they need cooling to operate. As nuclear reactor age, they require more intensive monitoring and preventive maintenance to operate safely. But … Continue reading →

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High-level nuclear waste storage degrades faster than thought

Posted on June 15, 2020 by

Preface. Burying nuclear waste ought to be a top priority, now that it appears peak oil may have happened in November of 2018 (Patterson 2019) and perhaps even sooner if covid-19 crashes the world economy (Tverberg 2020). It won’t happen … Continue reading →

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Concentrated Solar Power is dying out in the U.S.

Posted on June 12, 2020 by

Preface.  Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) contributes only 0.06 % of U.S. electricity, mainly in California (64 %) and Arizona (24 %) because extremely dry areas with no humidity, haze, or pollutants are required. Of the 1861 MW power they can … Continue reading →

Posted in Concentrated Solar Power, CSP with thermal energy storage, Grid instability, Seasonal Variation | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment