Category Archives: Energy

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

Book Review about why the electric grid is fragile and falling apart

Posted on September 18, 2018 by

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 | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Peak Oil, Coal and Natural gas in China

Posted on July 31, 2018 by

Preface. Below are excerpts from 2 articles.  You may want to read Tverberg’s article here since I left out the charts and included just a few excerpts. Some key points: The world needs growing energy supply to support the world … Continue reading →

Posted in EROEI Energy Returned on Energy Invested, Peak Coal, Peak Natural Gas, Peak Oil | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Peak Oil, Coal and Natural gas in China

Robert Rapier: Oil demand is growing, not shrinking. There is no peak oil demand in sight.

Posted on July 4, 2018 by

[ Yes, this article was published 10 months ago, but with all the attention to fake news today, I thought it would be worthwhile pointing out that peak demand is propaganda, not based on facts. Since the goal of fake … Continue reading →

Posted in Dependence on Oil, Electric Vehicles, Other Experts, Peak Oil, Transportation | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Renewable EROI must include storage, low capacity factor, wide boundaries

Posted on June 25, 2018 by

[ Trainer argues that when you consider how the capacity factor of wind and solar are to fossil plants, seasonality of wind and solar the number of facilities is quite large to deal with the intermittency problem.  Therefore the storage … Continue reading →

Posted in Solar, Solar EROI, Wind, Wind EROI | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Energy from cow flatulence

Posted on June 16, 2018 by

[ Other “energy alternatives” in the Far Out category of menu item Energy include escaping to Mars, liposuction fat, whirlwinds, playground power, garbage, tornadoes, and turning seawater into fuel.    Alice Friedemann   www.energyskeptic.com  author of “When Trucks Stop Running: Energy … Continue reading →

Posted in Far Out | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Challenges & opportunities for alternative transportation fuels and vehicles. U.S. House hearing, 2011

Posted on June 10, 2018 by

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 , , , , , | Comments Off on Challenges & opportunities for alternative transportation fuels and vehicles. U.S. House hearing, 2011

Royal Society on peak oil and how much oil is left

Posted on June 1, 2018 by

[ This is a great introduction to the whole topic of oil, reserves, resources, and so on. It’s very long so I’ve only excerpted bits of it and reworded some of it.  I can’t say there’s anything new in here … Continue reading →

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BBC: Fusion energy pushed back beyond 2050

Posted on May 25, 2018 by

Cartlidge, E. July 11, 2017. Fusion energy pushed back beyond 2050. BBC. We will have to wait until the second half of the century for fusion reactors to start generating electricity, experts have announced. A new version of a European … Continue reading →

Posted in Fusion | Tagged | 7 Comments

One of the biggest risks to the world’s financial system is the $3 trillion of debt owed by oil and gas firms

Posted on May 24, 2018 by

[ Yet another “crash coming soon” post, if it hasn’t happened already (I scheduled this article and others to appear a year or more later, since crashes always take longer to happen than you expect. Alice Friedemann   www.energyskeptic.com  author of … Continue reading →

Posted in Bond Market, Crash Coming Soon, Debt, Oil & Gas Fracked | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Power density of biomass, wind, & solar take too much land to replace fossil fuels

Posted on May 7, 2018 by

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 , , , , , , , | 1 Comment