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- A Nuclear spent fuel pool fire could force millions to evacuate & cost $2 trillion
- A Mega Storm in California might cost $1 trillion & destroy a third of America’s food
- Sodium Batteries
- Book review: Atomic Days. The Untold Story of the Most Toxic Place in America
- Bill Gates Gen IV sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) in Wyoming
- Want to survive Peak Everything? Become a Mormon
- Book review of No friends but the Mountains. Dispatches from the worlds violent highlands
- Why tight fracked oil and gas is mostly extracted in the US
- Fusion: Book review of “Sun in a Bottle”
- Book Cobalt: The Making of a Mining Superpower
- EV charging not possible when restricted or grid down
- The Impact of Climate Change on California: 8th Largest Economy, 40% of U.S. Shipping
- Fusion at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
- Fusion: Tokamak Obstacles
- Opposition to mining will prevent a green transition to renewables
Category Archives: EROEI Energy Returned on Energy Invested
David Fridley, LBNL scientist, on why alternative energy won’t save us
Preface. I’ve sought out David Fridley’s insights since I first met him in the Oakland Peak Oil group that formed in 2004. That group eventually dissolved, but David’s expertise is still sought out by many of us following energy decline. … Continue reading
Posted in Alternative Energy, An Overview, EROEI Energy Returned on Energy Invested, Net Energy Cliff
Tagged alternative energy, David Fridley, EROI, renewables
Comments Off on David Fridley, LBNL scientist, on why alternative energy won’t save us
Dozens of reasons why solar power can’t replace fossil fuels
Preface. Last update 2022-9-2. All solar (and wind) do is add to the giant bonfire of burning fossil fuels — which still provide two-thirds of the power for the electric grid. Electricity is just a fraction of how we use … Continue reading
Posted in Alternative Energy, CSP with thermal energy storage, Photovoltaic Solar, Recycle, Recycling, Solar, Solar EROI
Tagged china, EROI, fossil fuels, greenhouse gases, orbiting solar, PV, solar, toxic chemicals
Comments Off on Dozens of reasons why solar power can’t replace fossil fuels
Concentrated Solar Power is unreliable, full of glitches, & has a low energy return
Preface. Concentrating solar power (CSP) projects usually sprawl in a circle over several square miles and can cost over a billion dollars. They use mirrors and lenses to capture the high temperatures needed to efficiently produce or store electricity. Almost … Continue reading
Posted in Concentrated Solar Power, Solar EROI
Tagged capacity factor, concentrated solar power, CSP, EROI
2 Comments
Biogas from cow manure is not a solution for the energy crisis
Preface. Smil’s article about biogas sums up why it won’t contribute to energy shortages as fossils decline. Biogass doesn’t scale and is easy to muck up. Hayes (2015) also makes this case, pointing out that even if every ounce of … Continue reading
Posted in Biofuels, Biomass EROI, Peak Biofuels, Pollution
Tagged bacteria, biofuel, biogas, cow manure, EROI, pollution
2 Comments
Negative energy return of solar PV in Northern Europe
Preface. I once yanked this paper after huge blow back, but in the past few years, I have no reason to doubt Ferroni and Hopkirks methods, boundaries, or conclusions, so I’m putting this post back. If you automatically dismiss this … Continue reading
Posted in Photovoltaic Solar, Solar EROI
Tagged energy return, EROEI, photovoltaic, solar
Comments Off on Negative energy return of solar PV in Northern Europe
Even Pencils will be hard to make
Preface. Most of us are unaware of how complex our society is, how things are made, how food is grown, how stuff is delivered, and the people, energy, transportation, and kinds and sources of materials in every day objects. This … Continue reading
Posted in EROEI Energy Returned on Energy Invested, Localization, Supply Chains
Tagged collapse, EROEI, manufacturing, peak oil, pencil
2 Comments
Many steps using fossil fuels to make cans & potato chips
Preface. I am gobsmacked by how much energy goes into making beverage cans and potato chips, look at all the steps, each one using energy! Why haven’t we run of oil yet? Especially when you look at everything else out … Continue reading
Renewable costs don’t include transmission & energy storage backup from Nat Gas & Coal plants
Preface. Wind and solar advocates don’t include transmission and backup costs in their net energy and cost calculations. But without fossil backup, the electric grid will come down due to lack of storage. There is almost nowhere left to put … Continue reading
Posted in Electric Grid & Fast Collapse, Energy Storage, Solar, Solar EROI, Wind, Wind EROI
Tagged energy storage, fossil fuel backup, renewable, solar, wind
2 Comments
The Invisible oiliness of everything
Preface. Even a simple object like a pencil takes hundreds of actions and objects requiring fossil energy to do and make. Not electricity. This is on of many reasons why wind, solar, or other contraption that make electricity can’t replace … Continue reading
Net Energy Cliff Will Lead to Collapse of Civilization
The remaining oil is poor quality, and the energy to get this often remote oil so great that more and more energy (blue) goes into oil production itself, leaving far less — the grey area — available to fuel the … Continue reading