Author Archives: energyskeptic

The difference between depletion and decline rate in oil fields

Notes from 26 page: Höök, M., Davidsson, S., Johansson, S., Tang, X. 2014. Decline and depletion rates of oil production: a comprehensive investigation. Philosophical Transactions. Series A: Mathematical, physical, and engineering science, 372 Depletion rate is the rate that the … Continue reading

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Energy generation water consumption

[ Notice how much water biofuels use, especially soybeans for biodiesel Alice Friedemann   www.energyskeptic.com  author of “When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation”, 2015, Springer] Notes from “Working Document of the NPC Future Transportation Fuels Study. Topic … Continue reading

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Hirsch, R.L. Mitigation of maximum world oil production: shortage scenarios

Notes from: Hirsch, R.L., 2008. Mitigation of maximum world oil production: Shortage scenarios. Energy Policy, 36(2): 881–889.  World GDP Growth & World Oil Production Growth Have Tracked For Decades:   A 1% change in current world oil production equates to … Continue reading

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Coal-to-liquids (CTL) can not compensate for declining oil & natural gas production

Notes from 23 page: Höök, M. & Aleklett, K. 2010. A review on coal-to-liquid fuels & its coal consumption. International journal of energy research Vol. 34 10:848-864 Annual decline in existing crude oil production is around 4-8%, equivalent to an … Continue reading

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Critique of LCA & EROI Wind research

[This paper criticizes  LCA and EROI wind studies] Notes from 22 page: Davidsson, S., Höök, M., Wall, G. 2012. A review of life cycle assessments on wind energy systems. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment.         … Continue reading

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Would Tesla, SolarCity or SpaceX exist without $4.9 billion in government subsidies?

[ Tesla has made no new battery breakthroughs. Batteries aren’t much better today than they were 200 years ago.  All Tesla did was build a better battery management system (BMS) by stringing tiny batteries together — thousands of them.  But … Continue reading

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How different nations have coped with oil shortages

Preface. In this article, Friedrichs shows how differently Cuba, North Korea, and Japan coped after a sudden loss of most of their oil.  I first became aware of how essential oil was for nations when I read Daniel Yergin’s 1991 … Continue reading

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Hydrocarbon liquids, drop-in fuels, oil refining, oil distribution, GTL, CTL

Notes from 41 page: National Petroleum Council. 2012. Chapter 11: Hydrocarbon Liquids.                        Hydrocarbon liquids have properties that make them high-quality transportation fuels and allow the supply chain to operate … Continue reading

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Turlock AB 2514 California Energy Storage

Notes from 29 page: Turlock Irrigation district Energy Storage Study. 2014. Willie G. Manuel 9/17/2014 Recommendation. The analysis performed shows that the benefits of deploying various types of storage systems fall short of the capital cost of such systems. Furthermore, … Continue reading

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Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology roadmap 2013 IEA

Notes from 63 page: IEA. 2013. Technology Roadmap Carbon capture and storage (CCS). International Energy Agency. A total cumulative mass of approximately 120 Gt CO2 would need to be captured and stored between 2015 and 2050, across all regions of … Continue reading

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