Category Archives: Electric Grid & Fast Collapse

The grid powers the pumps at service stations, the financial system, lighting, and more which we’ve grown as dependent on as fossil fuels. It can’t stay up without natural gas, which is finite (see posts in Energy Storage for details on that)

Wanted: Math geniuses and power engineers to make a renewable grid possible

Posted on November 1, 2021 by

Figure 1. OPF solution of original seven-bus system with generator at bus 4 Preface. The U.S. electric grid produced 64% of electricity in 2019 with finite fossil fuels, and another 20% from nuclear power. Since fossil fuels and uranium are … Continue reading →

Posted in Electric Grid & Fast Collapse, Grid instability, Renewable Integration, Smart Grid | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Wanted: Math geniuses and power engineers to make a renewable grid possible

The Next Big Thing: Distributed Generation & Microgrids

Posted on July 14, 2021 by

  Preface. Last updated 2022-9-5   The first article below explains what microgrids will look like in the future.  But first a brief look at what a microgrid is, as Angwin explains in her book  “Shorting the Grid. The Hidden Fragility … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternative Energy, Blackouts Electric Grid, Distributed Generation, Electric Grid & Fast Collapse, Grid instability, Photovoltaic Solar, Wind | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Microchip fabrication plants need electricity 24 x 7 for four months

Posted on June 25, 2021 by

Preface. I explain in both of my books, When Trucks Stop Running and Life After Fossil Fuels, why heavy duty transportation and manufacturing can’t be electrified, as well as why the electric grid can’t stay up without natural gas to … Continue reading →

Posted in Blackouts, Electric Grid & Fast Collapse, Electricity Infrastructure, Interdependencies, Microchips and computers, Preservation of Knowledge | Tagged , , , , | 27 Comments

Renewable costs don’t include transmission & energy storage backup from Nat Gas & Coal plants

Posted on November 23, 2020 by

Preface. Wind and solar advocates don’t include transmission and backup costs in their net energy and cost calculations. But without fossil backup, the electric grid will come down due to lack of storage. There is almost nowhere left to put … Continue reading →

Posted in Electric Grid & Fast Collapse, Energy Storage, Solar, Solar EROI, Wind, Wind EROI | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Nuclear Power problems

Posted on April 17, 2020 by

Preface.  There are half a dozen articles below. Although safety and disposal of nuclear waste ought to be the main reasons why no more plants should be built, what actually stops them today are the high costs: it can take … Continue reading →

Posted in Electric Grid & Fast Collapse, Nuclear Power Collapse, Nuclear Power Energy | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Utility scale energy storage has a long way to go to make renewables possible

Posted on May 15, 2019 by

What follows comes from my book “When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation” , which is also where you’ll find the references backing up what I’ve written below. I often get letters from people about energy breakthroughs … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternative Energy, Batteries, Battery - Utility Scale, Critical Thinking, Electric Grid & Fast Collapse, Electricity Infrastructure, Renewable Integration | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

One less worry: the magnetic field flipping between north and south poles is not the end of the world

Posted on November 28, 2018 by

Preface.  The geomagnetic field reversal of polarity has occurred thousands of times in the geological past. We are overdue for another. Indeed, Earth’s dipole has decreased in strength by nearly 10% since it was first measured in 1840. It could … Continue reading →

Posted in Electric Grid & Fast Collapse, EMP Electromagnetic Pulse | Tagged , | Comments Off on One less worry: the magnetic field flipping between north and south poles is not the end of the world

Germany’s wind energy mess: As subsidies expire, thousands Of turbines to close

Posted on November 16, 2018 by

Preface. This means that the talk about renewables being so much cheaper than anything else isn’t necessarily true.  If wind were profitable, more turbines would be built to replace the old ones  without subsidies needed. Unless they can be dumped … Continue reading →

Posted in Electric Grid & Fast Collapse, Energy Infrastructure, Wind | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

Underground pumped hydro storage is the only technology capable of massive storage for renewable electricity

Posted on September 27, 2017 by

[ Picard concludes that “None of the candidate technologies for massive-scale renewable and sustainable generation of ‘‘green’’ electricity deliver it in a form suitable for high-efficiency storage. None of the prospectively-massive storage modes for transformed electricity is at present well … Continue reading →

Posted in Electric Grid & Fast Collapse, Energy Storage, Grid instability, Hydropower, Renewable Integration | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Transportation: How long can we adapt before we fall off the Net Energy Cliff?

Posted on August 27, 2017 by

Preface. There are too many factors besides geological depletion to predict a future timeline of collapse. Plus each region will be more or less affected by each factor, sooner or later as well. This is a unique crash – there … Continue reading →

Posted in Cascading Failure, Electric Grid & Fast Collapse, Energy Infrastructure, Exponential Growth, Exports decline to ZERO, Infrastructure & Fast Crash, Net Energy Cliff, Transportation, Transportation Infrastructure | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments