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Recent Posts
- 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”
- Book Review of Grain Brain: Extraordinary claim not backed up by evidence
Category Archives: Energy
California could hit the solar wall
[ According to a Stanford University article below this introduction (followed by excerpts from two California Energy Commission reports), if California uses mainly solar power to meet a 50% Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), on sunny days, for most of the … Continue reading
Posted in Photovoltaic Solar, Renewable Integration
Tagged alternative energy, renewable integration, solar, solar wall
4 Comments
Scientific American: Peak oil and coal may keep catastrophic climate change in check
[ Since conventional oil, 90% of supply, peaked in 2005-6 we’ve been on a plateau. Since the rate of conventional oil decline exponentially decreasing, and population is still exponentially increasing, it is unlikely unconventional oil like shale “fracked” oil, tar … Continue reading
Posted in But not from climate change: Peak Fossil Fuels, Peak Coal, Peak Oil
Tagged climate change, IPCC, peak coal, peak oil
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Over and under-cooked oil — tar sands, “fracked” tight oil & gas
This article discusses why it’s so hard and expensive to extract difficult oils like fracked shale oil, Venezuelan and Canadian oil sands. These are at the bottom of the resource pyramid, so there may be a lot of it, but … Continue reading
Posted in Oil & Gas Fracked, Oil Shale, Tar Sands (Oil Sands)
Tagged Canada, fracking, oil sands, oil shale, tar sands, tight oil, Venezuela
2 Comments
Promoting soil health in agriculture at U.S. House hearing 2014
Preface. At last, many years after I first published “Peak soil: Why biofuels destroy ecosystems and civilizations” in 2007, Congress had a hearing to educate House members on why preserving topsoil is so essential for food production for future generations. … Continue reading
Posted in Biomass, Peak Topsoil, Pesticides, Soil, U.S. Congress Infrastructure, Water Pollution
Tagged agriculture, cover crop, erosion, no-till, peak soil, soil health, U.S. House of representatives
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California oil EROI dropped from 6.5 to 3.5 by 2005
Brandt, A. R. October 12, 2011. Oil Depletion and the Energy Efficiency of Oil Production: The Case of California. Sustainability 2011, 3, 1833-1854 [ Brandt estimates the energy return on investment (EROI) dropped from ~6.5 in 1955 to ~3.5 fifty … Continue reading
Posted in EROEI Energy Returned on Energy Invested
Tagged california, EROEI, EROI, net energy, oil
1 Comment
Hall and Lambert: EROI of different fuels and the implications for society
[ Excerpts from the Hall, Lambert, and Balogh EROI paper. You may want to read the original paper here since I’ve left out charts, figures, and text. In my opinion, EROI is important because it is due diligence – society ought to … Continue reading
The Hidden Costs of Oil. U.S. Senate hearing 2006.
[ This post has excerpts from the 2006 U.S. Senate hearing “The Hidden Cost of Oil”. It is a timely reminder, now that gasoline prices are low and peak oil off the radar, that we are nowhere near the American … Continue reading
Posted in Caused by Scarce Resources, Military, Peak Oil, U.S. Congress Energy Dependence, U.S. Congress Energy Policy
Tagged energy policy, oil dependence, peak oil, war
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Energy return of ultra-deepwater Gulf of Mexico oil and gas
Moerschbaecher, M., John W. Day Jr. October 21, 2011. Ultra-Deepwater Gulf of Mexico Oil and Gas: Energy Return on Financial Investment and a Preliminary Assessment of Energy Return on Energy. Sustainability 2011, 3, 2009-2026 [Excerpts from this 18 page paper … Continue reading
Posted in EROEI Energy Returned on Energy Invested, Threats to oil supply
Tagged deepwater, EROEI, EROFI, EROI, natural gas, oil
1 Comment
Tar sand EROI 2013 Poisson and Hall
Alexandre Poisson, Charles A. S. Hall. 2013. Time Series EROI for Canadian Oil and Gas. Energies 2013, 6, 5940-5959 [ This is an extract from this 20-page paper. Tar sands are the hope offered by techno-optimists that a great deal … Continue reading
Posted in Charles A. S. Hall, EROEI Energy Returned on Energy Invested, Tar Sands (Oil Sands)
Tagged EROI, Hall, oil sand, tar sand
1 Comment
How much net energy return required to prevent collapse?
Preface. Charles Hall, one of the founders of EROI methodology, initially thought an EROI of 3 was enough to run modern civilization, which is like investing $1 and getting $3 back. But after decades of research, Hall concluded an EROI … Continue reading
Posted in Charles A. S. Hall, EROEI Energy Returned on Energy Invested
Tagged energy return on investement, EROEI, EROI, net energy cliff
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