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- 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
- Why Nuclear Power can’t replace fossil fuels
- Energy, Water, & Climate Change are interdependent
- Why fusion power is Forever Away
- Climate Change dominates news coverage at expense of other existential planetary boundaries
- Excerpt from “The Geopolitics of Resource Wars”
- Homes & Buildings
- Book Review “The Outlawed Ocean” by Ian Urbina
- Underestimating the Challenges of Avoiding a Ghastly Future
- Motherboards: too complicated to make after oil
- “More and More and More” one of the best books on energy ever written
- The staggering destruction of knowledge by Christians in the Roman Empire
- Why the R/P Reserves to Production ratio does not show when oil will run out
- Catton on Collapse “Bottleneck: Humanity’s Impending Impasse”
Category Archives: Blackouts
Natural Gas & Coal essential for energy storage
Preface. The U.S. Department of energy has stated a renewable grid is not possible without long-duration energy storage (Colthorpe 2022). Another report explains why around-the-clock renewables and decarbonization will not be possible without it (McKinsey 2022). This post explains why … Continue reading
What is the plan for an electric grid outage that lasts for months?
Preface. There are three posts on Ted Koppel’s book “Lights out”: Book review of Lights Out. A Cyberattack. A Nation Unprepared. Surviving the Aftermath What is the plan for an electric grid outage that lasts for months? Want to survive … Continue reading
Posted in Blackouts, Electric Grid & EMP Electromagnetic Pulse, Energy Books, Politics
Tagged cyberattack, electric grid, emergency, EMP, FEMA, homeland security, military, preparation
1 Comment
Want to survive Peak Everything? Become a Mormon
Source: Salt Lake Tribune. For Latter-day Saint families, preparing for emergencies is the norm Preface. Ted Koppel’s book “Lights Out” highlights the many risks to the grid from cyber and physical attacks, electromagnetic pulses from weapons or solar flares, large … Continue reading
Posted in Blackouts, Electric Grid & EMP Electromagnetic Pulse, Energy Books, Where to Be or Not to Be
Tagged Black out, grid crash, LDS, Mormon, survival
1 Comment
Skyscrapers: A bad idea as energy declines
Preface. One reason Paris is such a lovely city is that it was built to human scale, with buildings of five stories or less, because that was about as high as people were willing to climb, so not surprisingly, rents … Continue reading
Posted in Blackouts, Concrete, Earthquakes, Hurricanes, Infrastructure & Collapse, Infrastructure & Fast Crash, North Korea
Tagged concrete, electric grid, elevator, high-rise, North Korea, peak oil, skyscraper
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Why wind and solar will cause more blackouts
Preface. Clearly fossil fuel plants need to be replaced with energy storage — batteries, pumped hydro, or compressed air. Many hours of backup power will be needed since, unfortunately, over two-thirds of total wind power in the U.S. happens outside … Continue reading
Posted in Blackouts, Grid instability, National Super Grid
Tagged blackouts, electric grid, energy storage, solar
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Pentagon report: collapse within 20 years from climate change
Preface. The report that the article by Ahmed below is based on is: Brosig, M., et al. 2019. Implications of climate change for the U.S. Army. United States Army War College. It was written in 2019, before covid-19 and so … Continue reading
Posted in Arctic, Blackouts, Climate Change, Infrastructure & Fast Crash, Military, Over Oil
Tagged climate change, collapse, military
2 Comments
The electromagnetic pulse EMP Threat: House of Representatives hearing 2005
[ Related articles: Russian hackers suspected in attack that blacked out parts of Ukraine How the weapon works (pdf): CRASHOVERRIDE Analyzing the Threat to Electric Grid Operations The EMP Commission estimates a nationwide blackout lasting one year could kill up … Continue reading
Coal power plants depend on railroads to deliver coal
[ The extract of a Senate hearing below is mostly spent on testimony by utilities bashing the railroads for not delivering enough coal due to a disaster in the Powder River Basin, Wyoming area, where coal dust infiltrated the stone … Continue reading
Posted in Blackouts, Coal, Interdependencies, Railroads, Transportation Infrastructure
Tagged climate change, coal, CTL, electric grid, interdependency, railroad, transportation
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The electric grid, critical interdependencies, vulnerabilities: U.S. House hearing 2003
Preface. Of course, this website explains why the grid can’t stay up without fossil fuels, so by 2050 the grid will only be up in a few places, perhaps China, the Middle East, and Russia if war hasn’t brought on … Continue reading
Posted in Blackouts, Cascading Failure, Congressional Record U.S., CyberAttacks, Interdependencies
Tagged blackout, electric grid, electromagnetic pulse, EMP, interdependency, terrorism
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