Category Archives: Energy

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

Thorium nuclear bombs and reactors have too many challenges

Preface. The energyskeptic website and my books explain why we can’t run transportation, mining, agriculture, concrete, blast furnace steel and other essential sectors that are highly dependent on fossil fuels with electricity, biofuels, hydrogen, coal-to-liquids or anything else. So a … Continue reading

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Who Killed the Electric Car & more importantly, the Electric Truck?

Preface. Who cares about electric cars? Civilization ends when trucks stop running. Trucks can’t run on batteries because they’re too heavy, with 63 times less energy density than diesel. If all U.S. transportation were to be electrified, the existing electric … Continue reading

Posted in Automobiles, Batteries, Critical Thinking, Electric & Hydrogen trucks impossible, Electrification, Transportation, Transportation Infrastructure | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Who Killed the Electric Car & more importantly, the Electric Truck?

Why towns have a hard time adding EV, solar, heat pumps

Preface.  This article from IEEE does a good job of explaining how and why it is incredibly expensive for cities to cope with with L2 chargers, EV, solar, and heat pumps by zeroing in on Palo Alto, where there are … Continue reading

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Building a national super grid in America

Preface. Renewables are not evenly distributed.  Just 10 states have 80% of hydropower (Homeland Security 2011), 10 states produce 75% of wind power (EIA 2017), and 10 states produce 79% of solar power (CE 2020). With a national grid, instead … Continue reading

Posted in Blackouts Electric Grid, Electric Grid, Electric Grid & EMP Electromagnetic Pulse, Electricity Infrastructure, National Super Grid, Solar, Vaclav Smil, Wind | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

The deep sea is a desperate place to drill for more

Preface. Peak crude oil is on a plateau that is likely to peak soon, but when it happens we won’t be out of oil, just halfway through.  Giant fields continue to be found, but in the deep ocean or arctic … Continue reading

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Book review of “Livewired. The inside story of the ever-changing brain”

Preface. This book conveys a sense of wonderment and awe about our brains work and how we become who we are.  I think if you read the excerpts below you will understand why Artificial Intelligence will probably never come close … Continue reading

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Battery Energy storage batteries (BESS) too complex to ever be commercial

Source: RWE connects its first utility-scale battery storage project to the California grid Preface.  In 2024 if all of the BESS battery storage time were added up, they could store 8 of the 8,760 hours of annual electricity generated in … Continue reading

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Net Energy Cliff & the Collapse of Civilization

figure 1. 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 … Continue reading

Posted in 2) Overshoot, An Overview, Energy, EROEI Energy Returned on Energy Invested, Peak Oil, Stages of | Tagged , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Giant oil field decline rates, peak oil, & reserves

Preface. Of the roughly 47,500 oil fields in the world, 507 of them, about 1%, are giant oil fields holding nearly two-thirds of all the oil that has ever been, or ever will be produced, with the largest 100 giants, … Continue reading

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Hydrogen. The dumbest renewable

Preface. This post originally appeared in Skeptic Magazine in 2008 as “The Hydrogen Economy. Savior of Humanity or an Economic Black Hole?” I’ve updated it quite a bit since then. Hydrogen is the stupidest, most ridiculous, and most impossible energy … Continue reading

Posted in Alternative Energy, Electric & Hydrogen trucks impossible, Energy, Hydrogen, Pipeline, Ships and Barges, Trucks | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments