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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: Transportation
Wind turbines hit limits to growth before 50% wind power penetration
Material requirements of 50% wind power in the USA hit limits to growth Also see: Davidsson, S., et al. 2014. Growth curves and sustained commissioning modelling of renewable energy Investigating resource constraints for wind energy. Energy Policy. Fizaine, F., et … Continue reading
Posted in Electrification, Limits To Growth, Renewable Integration, Wind
Tagged cement, concrete, copper, dysprosium, expoxy, fiberglass, iron, limits to growth, neodymium, steel, turbines, wind
2 Comments
Wind’s dirty secret: it goes on vacation in the summer and year-round in the South East
Figure 1. Summer wind across the USA is barely to not economically viable Class 3 (light blue), or not at all economically viable Class 2 (orange) and class 1 (blank) (NREL), with very limited darker blue (class 4) and … Continue reading
Posted in Electric Grid & EMP Electromagnetic Pulse, Electrification, Seasonal, Wind
Tagged monthly, seasonal, wind resource maps, wind speed
Comments Off on Wind’s dirty secret: it goes on vacation in the summer and year-round in the South East
Electricity, fuel, and other interdependencies
Freight trucks, trains, ships, airplanes all stop when the electricity is out because the pumps depend on it. Related: Why you should love trucks and When Trucks Stop CR. September 4 & 23, 2003. Implications of power blackouts for the … Continue reading
Posted in Automobiles, Fuel Distribution, Interdependencies, Trucks
Tagged blackout, diesel, electricity, fuel, gas, generator, interdependency, telecommunications
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Why You Should Love Trains
Why You Should Love Trains by Alice Friedemann November 13, 2014 Trains rock! Trains are over 4 times more fuel efficient than trucks. On average it takes just 1 gallon to move a ton 473 miles, using just 2% of … Continue reading
Posted in Rail, Railroads, Transportation Infrastructure
Tagged efficiency, energy, infrastructure, railroad, transportation
2 Comments
Trains Rock! Trucks suck: 4x less efficient. Shift freight from truck to rail
A proposed National System of Interstate and Defense RAILROADS, as an infrastructure project for the next fifty years by J. William Vigrass To the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission, USDOT Bldg., L’Enfant Plaza, 400 7th St. N.W. … Continue reading
Posted in Railroads, Transportation What To Do
Tagged efficiency, energy, freight, rail, train, truck
3 Comments
Almost half of Rail Freight is Energy, increasingly Crude Oil
Source: American Association of Railroads. 46% of all tonnage hauled by freight trains is Energy: In 2014, crude oil will likely be 650,000 carloads — 2% of all carloads, 2.2% of tonnage. In addition 2.6% of rail tonnage was refined … Continue reading