Category Archives: Renewables

Non-fossil energy contraptions

Sacramento SMUD AB 2514 Energy storage report

Posted on June 4, 2015 by

[The state of California has realized that it’s unlikely a larger or national transmission grid will be built to share and balance variable renewable power, and is going to Plan B, energy storage. The problem is, all of the utilities … Continue reading →

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Wind and Solar diurnal and seasonal variations require energy storage

Posted on June 4, 2015 by

Preface. Currently energy storage is accomplished with the 67% of fossil fuels (natural gas and coal) used to generate electricity, especially natural gas which can kick in within microseconds to make up for failing wind, or run all the time … Continue reading →

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Eastern Wind Integration & Transmission study 2011 National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Posted on June 4, 2015 by

Excerpts from the 242 page Eastern Wind Integration & Transmission study, 2011, EnerNex corporation for National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Key Findings Building transmission capacity takes much longer than installing wind plants. It is already starting to limit wind growth in … Continue reading →

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Can wind power be scaled up to 24 TW by 2050?

Posted on June 3, 2015 by

[Below are excerpts from this 22 page paper. Alice Friedemann] Davidsson, S., et al. (2014) Growth curves and sustained commissioning modelling of renewable energy: Investigating resource constraints for wind energy. Energy Policy. Although the wind itself is a type of … Continue reading →

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Jacobson and Delucchi energy dreams are irresponsible fairy tales

Posted on June 2, 2015 by

Jacobson and Delucchi energy dreams are irresponsible fairy tales by Alice Friedemann Jacobson & Delucchi are like religious preachers who tell people what they want to hear.  Energyskeptic has hundreds of articles from peer-reviewed sources that explain why their ideas … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternative Energy, Vaclav Smil | 3 Comments

DOE 2014 Wind vision a new era for wind power in the United States

Posted on May 15, 2015 by

DOE 2014 Wind vision a new era for wind power in the United States Many potential sites with high quality wind energy resources have minimal or no access to electrical transmission facilities. From the perspective of planning reserves, wind power’s … Continue reading →

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All Electric Trucks. Probably not going to happen. Ever. Why not?

Posted on April 14, 2015 by

There are “forms of transport that cannot be electrified — heavy-duty trucks and planes… Even if the electricity problem can be solved, it won’t address the needs of planes, trucks, ships and some industrial heating that cannot be electrified” (Long). … Continue reading →

Posted in Batteries, Lithium-ion, Trucks | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

A third of Nuclear Reactors are going to die of old age in the next 10-20 years

Posted on April 3, 2015 by

70% of reactors are over 25 years old, 23% are over 35 years old, so within 10 to 20 years about a third will have to be decommissioned, far more than the 63 under construction.  Some are bound to fail … Continue reading →

Posted in ! PEAK EVERYTHING, Nuclear Power Energy | Tagged , | 7 Comments

Hydropower has a very low energy density

Posted on March 17, 2015 by

To store the energy contained in 1 gallon of gasoline requires over 55,000 gallons to be pumped up 726 feet (CCST 2012). As a thought experiment look at what it would take generate all of America’s 4,058 TWh electricity, where … Continue reading →

Posted in Energy Storage, Hydropower, Pumped Hydro Storage (PHS) | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

CSP Barriers and Obstacles

Posted on March 9, 2015 by

Location must be in the desert Southwest Unlike solar PV, CSP can’t cope with humidity or cloud cover, so it is limited to the southwest were the solar irradiation is high and there is no dust, haze, or smog.  Solar … Continue reading →

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