Category Archives: Energy

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

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

[ 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

[ 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

[ 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

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

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Royal Society on peak oil and how much oil is left

[ 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

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

[ 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

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

World’s first multi-million dollar carbon-capture plant does work of just $17,640 worth of trees

Preface. This is a shortened and reworded version of the original article.  Obviously, since we’re at the peak of global fossil fuel production, when the plateau ends sometime between now and 2025 and production declines exponentially, greenhouse gas emissions will … Continue reading

Posted in Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS), Climate Change | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Can the lights be kept on with distributed generation? 2015 U.S. House hearing on a reliable electric system

Preface.  Corporate speakers testify mainly, rather than less biased researchers from universities or national laboratories. Corporations are selling a product, and likely to exaggerate what their product can do. The most interesting testimony is from Dean Kamen, who is “selling” … Continue reading

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