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- Thorium nuclear bombs and reactors have too many challenges
- Who Killed the Electric Car & more importantly, the Electric Truck?
- President Carter’s energy solutions 1977
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- The Mayflower from the book The Barbarous Years
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- The conveyor belt may be slowing down — Yikes!
- Battery Energy storage batteries (BESS) too complex to ever be commercial
Category Archives: Alternative Energy
Challenges & opportunities for alternative transportation fuels and vehicles. U.S. House hearing, 2011
Preface. Congress is aware that an energy crisis looms, though they seldom acknowledge or deal with it. Here are a few excerpts from this U.S. House hearing (2011) The American energy initiative part 6: Challenges & opportunities for alternative transportation … Continue reading
Posted in Alternative Energy, U.S. Congress Energy Policy, U.S. Congress Transportation
Tagged biodiesel, biofuel, cellulose, energy crisis, energy dependence, natural gas
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Power density of biomass, wind, & solar take too much land to replace fossil fuels
Volumetric versus specific energy density for selected energy carriers. Source: Palmer, G. 2020. Energy storage & civilization: a systems approach. Springer. Preface. Vaclav Smil writes “The fact that wind, solar, and biomass have incredibly low energy density per square meter … Continue reading
Posted in Alternative Energy, Biomass, Coal, Hydropower, Natural Gas, Oil
Tagged alternative energy, biodiesel, biomass, coal, ethanol, natural gas, oil, renewable energy
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Why it is futile to think that Wind could ever make a significant contribution to energy supplies
Matt Ridley. May 15, 2017. Wind turbines are neither clean nor green and they provide zero global energy. Even after 30 years of huge subsidies, it provides about zero energy. The Spectator. The Global Wind Energy Council recently released its … Continue reading
Posted in Alternative Energy, Wind
Tagged alternative energy, energy, wind
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Peak soil: Industrial agriculture destroys ecosystems and civilizations: Biofuels make it worse
Preface. In 2018 I thought it was time to reorganize this post, as it grew more and more bloated and disorganized with new information. Eventually it turned into my 2021 book Life After Fossil Fuels: A Reality Check on Alternative … Continue reading
Posted in Alternative Energy, Biofuels, Biomass, Energy, Peak Biofuels, Peak Topsoil, Soil
Tagged aquifer depletion, biodiesel, biofuel, climate change, EROEI, EROI, erosion, ethanol, fertilizer, hunger, peak soil, pollution, topsoil
2 Comments
Alternative Energy Booklist: Biofuels, Batteries, Solar, Wind, Nuclear, Hydropower, Hydrogen, Fusion, Geothermal, Wind & tidal, Muscle power, Far out
Why Alternative Energy can’t replace fossil fuels More booklists Alice Friedemann www.energyskeptic.com Author of Life After Fossil Fuels: A Reality Check on Alternative Energy; When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation”, Barriers to Making Algal Biofuels, & … Continue reading
Posted in Alternative Energy, Book List
Tagged fusion, geothermal, hydrogen, solar, wave, wind
1 Comment
Why Nuclear Power can’t replace fossil fuels
Last updated August 2022. Preface. Economic reasons are the main hurdle to new nuclear plants now, with capital costs so high it’s almost impossible to get a loan, especially when natural gas is so much cheaper and less risky. But … Continue reading
Posted in Alternative Energy, Energy, Nuclear Power Energy, Renewable Integration
Tagged breeder, nuclear
14 Comments
Alternative fuels to replace transportation oil. U.S. House hearing 2012
House 112–159. July 10, 2012. The American energy initiative part 23: A focus on Alternative Fuels and vehicles. House of Representatives. [ Excerpts from this 210 page transcript follow ] MIKE BREEN, Vice President of the Truman National Security Project. … Continue reading
Posted in Alternative Energy, Natural Gas Vehicles, Transportation, U.S. Congress Transportation
Tagged alternative fuel, FFV, Flex-fuel, transportation
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Tilting at Windmills, Spain’s disastrous attempt to replace fossil fuels with Solar PV, Part 1
Book review by Alice Friedemann at energyskeptic of “Spain’s Photovoltaic Revolution. The Energy Return on Investment”, by Pedro Prieto and Charles A.S. Hall. 2013. Springer. Conclusion: the EROI of solar photovoltaic is only 2.45, very low despite Spain’s ideal sunny … Continue reading
Renewable subsidies in Spain, Germany, Italy, and the UK
HRG. 113-623. 2014-7-22. U.S. Security implications of international energy and climate policies and issues. U.S. Senate 113th congress MARY HUTZLER, Distinguished senior fellow, Institute for Energy Research, Berlin, MD RENEWABLE SUBSIDIES IN EUROPE Spain (Also see Spain’s Photovoltaic Revolution) In … Continue reading
Posted in Subsidies
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