Category Archives: Energy

the posts in this category used to be in “Energy in A Nutshell” at my former web site.

Distribution – why it is so hard to add E15 or E85 at a gas station

Preface. One of the huge hurdles to shifting from oil to “something else” is the chicken-or-egg problem of no one buying a new-fuel vehicle with few places to get it, so few are made, so service stations don’t add the … Continue reading

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Global oil discovered 7.7 times less than consumption in 2019

Source: Rystad Energy (2020) in “Global oil and gas discoveries reach four-year high in 2019, boosted by ExxonMobil’s Guyana success“. Preface.  The global conventional discovery chart above lists natural gas and oil discoveries since 2013.  The fossil fuel that really … Continue reading

Posted in How Much Left, Peak Oil | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Concentrated Solar Power is dying out in the U.S.

Preface.  Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) contributes only 0.06 % of U.S. electricity, mainly in California (64 %) and Arizona (24 %) because extremely dry areas with no humidity, haze, or pollutants are required. Of the 1861 MW power they can … Continue reading

Posted in Concentrated Solar Power, CSP with thermal energy storage, Grid instability, Seasonal Variation | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Half of U.S. Coal runs out in 30 years, not 250

Preface. The USGS did a survey of coal in the U.S. in 1974 and announced that America had 250 years of coal left.  In 2007, the National Research Council wrote a report suggesting 100 years was more likely due to … Continue reading

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Movie review of Michael Moore’s “Planet of the Humans”

Preface. This documentary was made by Jeff Gibbs, a writer and environmentalist, with Michael Moore as the executive producer. This movie is worth watching, and an entertaining and quick way to understand why rebuildable “renewables” are neither green or a … Continue reading

Posted in Alternative Energy, Biomass, Coal, Natural Gas, Solar, Wind | Tagged , , , , , | 15 Comments

Far out power #1: human fat, playgrounds, solar wind towers, perpetual motion, thermal depolymerization

Preface. Plans for hydrogen, wind, solar, wave and all the other re-buildable contraptions that use fossil fuels in every single step of their short 15-25 year life cycle and hence are non-renewable, are just as silly as the ideas below,  … Continue reading

Posted in Far Out | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

A 1-year blackout could kill 90% of Americans

Preface. What follows is the 30-page testimony of Dr. Pry at a 2015 U.S. House of Representatives session that I’ve summarized. One of the ways that an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) could be generated is by a solar flare. During the … Continue reading

Posted in Electric Grid | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Energy Slaves: Every American has 200 to 8,000 or more

Preface.  The range of 200 to 8,000 comes from the articles below. Perhaps even more. Former Navy Admiral Rickover wrote in 1957 that it takes at least 2,000 men to push an automobile along the road, a locomotive engineer controls … Continue reading

Posted in Energy Slaves | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Antonio Turiel: Explaining Peak Oil the Easy Way

Preface. Turiel writes an excellent blog “The oil crash” at http://crashoil.blogspot.com. Turiel explains eloquently why the amount of oil will decline even though there are vast pools of oil left underground. If you read my book “When trucks stop running”, … Continue reading

Posted in Flow Rate, Peak Oil | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Shale gas is only good for plastics, not transportation fuels

Preface. The oil industry is making more plastic because electric cars have cut gasoline use, but because shale “fracked” gas is so light plastic is about the only use. It is not a transportation fuel that can save us from … Continue reading

Posted in Natural Gas | Tagged | 2 Comments