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Recent Posts
- Peak Menhaden
- Hemp for paper, textiles, the war on drugs, and more
- Why towns have a hard time adding EV, solar, heat pumps
- Building a national super grid in America
- The Mayflower from the book The Barbarous Years
- Deep Sea Oil
- Book review of “Livewired. The inside story of the ever-changing brain”
- The conveyor belt may be slowing down — Yikes!
- Battery Energy storage batteries (BESS) too complex to ever be commercial
- New war and energy alliances over next resource wars
- Book review of “Siege: Trump Under fire”
- Why do people vote for Trump?
- Book review of “Pandemic Politics: The Deadly Toll of Partisanship in the Age of COVID”
- The evolution of the Republican party from 1960 to 2024: from moderate democracy to extreme authoritarianism
- Why some people are conservative and others liberal
Category Archives: Electricity Infrastructure
Concentrated Solar Power can only exist in deserts and use too much water
What follows is my summary of: Bracken, N., et al. 2015. Concentrating solar power and water issues in the U.S. Southwest. U.S. department of energy, National renewable energy lab. Alice Friedemann www.energyskeptic.com author of “When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and … Continue reading →
Posted in Concentrated Solar Power, Electricity Infrastructure
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Tagged aquifer, concentrated solar power, CSP, desert
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1 Comment
Utility scale energy storage has a long way to go to make renewables possible
What follows comes from my book “When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation” , which is also where you’ll find the references backing up what I’ve written below. I often get letters from people about energy breakthroughs … Continue reading →
Book Review about why the electric grid is fragile and falling apart
Preface. This is a book review of Munson’s “The Business of Power and what it means for the future of electricity”. Although it was written in 2008 and some efforts have been made in some places to improve the grid, … Continue reading →
Posted in Alternative Energy, Blackouts Electric Grid, Books, Electricity Infrastructure, Energy Books
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Tagged electric grid, electricity, transmission, utilities
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2 Comments
21 scientists explain why Jacobson’s renewable schemes are a delusional fantasy
Preface. Seldom have I seen such a vitriolic fight among scientists. Though I think Clack and the other 20 scientists (2017) miss the main problems with trying to create a 100% renewable energy system(Friedemann 2015c). Many authors have been writing … Continue reading →
How is California’s AB2514 experiment with utility scale battery storage coming along?
[ This is an excellent article by Tod Kiefer about tests of sodium-sulfur batteries, which are the only kind of battery for which there is enough material on earth to make. Battery electric storage is meant to “replace nimble, fast-ramping … Continue reading →
Posted in Batteries, Battery - Utility Scale, Electricity Infrastructure
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Tagged AB2514, battery, energy storage, lithium, NaS, utility
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1 Comment
Terrorism and the Electric Power Delivery System. National Academy of Sciences.
Much of what follows is from the National Academy of Science 2012 (for the Department of Homeland Security): “Terrorism and the Electric Power Delivery System” & 2013 “The Resilience of the Electric Power Delivery System in Response to Terrorism and … Continue reading →
Cascading failure + Liebig’s Law + Supply Chain Breakdown = Collapse of civilization
Declining supplies of high-quality, easy-to-get fossil fuels with no alternatives ready to replace them — ever — is the #1 issue. As long as we have oil, all problems can be solved, unless oil lasts long enough to deplete every … Continue reading →