Categories
-
Recent Posts
- ‘The oil we eat’. Following the food chain back to iraq
- Vanishing open spaces: population growth and sprawl in America
- Admiral Rickover 1957: Energy Resources & Our Future
- The Green New Deal is not a solution for the real problem: Overshoot
- A transition from fossil fuels to renewables could take a century – if it ever happens
- 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
Category Archives: Renewables
Material and other limits to scaling wind up to 24 GW by 2050
Preface. Here are just a few of the many important points made in this excellent paper: Research showing no constraints on the materials needed to build wind turbines “dismiss potential physical constraints and issues with natural resource supply, and do … Continue reading
Diesel is finite. Trucks are the bedrock of civilization. So where are the battery electric trucks?
Last updated: 2023-1-21 Preface. Heavy-duty diesel-engine trucks (agricultural, mining, logging, construction, garbage, cement, 18-wheelers, and more) are essential for doing the actual work of our fossil-fueled civilization. Without them, no goods would be delivered, no food grown, nothing manufactured, no … Continue reading
Posted in Batteries, Electric & Hydrogen trucks impossible, Trucks: Electric
Tagged battery, BEV, drayage, e-truck, electric truck, heavy-duty, HHD, Nikola, tesla, truck
11 Comments
Aging nuclear power plants should be shut down
Preface. Below are my notes from the Greenpeace 146-page “Lifetime extension of ageing nuclear power plants”. Even if you don’t understand all the terms, read on anyhow, since it certainly conveys why nuclear plants grow more dangerous with age. Imagine … Continue reading
Posted in Energy Infrastructure, Nuclear Power Energy
Tagged corrosion, degradation, embrittlement, lifetime extension, nuclear power
Comments Off on Aging nuclear power plants should be shut down
The Next Big Thing: Distributed Generation & Microgrids
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
The orbiting solar power fantasy
Preface. This 2020 article “Solar Power Beamed Down To Earth From Space Moves Forward” will leave you all warm, fuzzy, and unworried about the future. The Scientists Will Come Up With Something. But that’s because you know little to nothing … Continue reading
Negative energy return of solar PV in Northern Europe
Preface. I once yanked this paper after huge blow back, almost as bad as nuclear proponents, but in the past few years, I have no reason to doubt Ferroni and Hopkirks methods, boundaries, or conclusions, so I’m putting this post … Continue reading
Posted in Photovoltaic Solar, Solar EROI
Tagged energy return, EROEI, photovoltaic, solar
Comments Off on Negative energy return of solar PV in Northern Europe
Why we aren’t mining methane hydrates now — or perhaps ever
Preface. Methane hydrates are far from being commercial, and probably always will be. Scientists and companies have been trying to exploit them since the first energy crisis in 1973 to no avail. Nor are they likely to trigger a runaway … Continue reading
Posted in Alternative Energy, Global Warming, Methane Hydrates
Tagged clathrate, climate change, gas hydrate, global warming, greenhouse, hothouse, methane apocalypse, methane hydrate
Comments Off on Why we aren’t mining methane hydrates now — or perhaps ever
Updates to Life After Fossil Fuels: A Reality Check on Alternative Energy
Updates to “Life After Fossil Fuels” Last updated 28 April 2024. Other posts related to this book here. My book is about our many dependencies on fossil fuels, quickly depicted in these very short videos: Life without Petroleum A Day … Continue reading
Compressed air energy storage (CAES)
Preface. Besides pumped hydro storage (PHS), which provides 99% of energy storage today, CAES is the only other commercially proven energy storage technology that can provide large-scale (over 100 MW) energy storage. But there are just two CAES plants in … Continue reading
Posted in CAES Compressed Air
Tagged aquifer, bedded salt, bulk energy storage, CAES, compressed air energy storage
Comments Off on Compressed air energy storage (CAES)
Tree planting is not a simple solution but sure beats Carbon Capture!
Preface. The article from Science below lists both negative and positive outcomes depending on where trees are planted. The unintended negative effects could be a reduced water supply, the destruction of native grasslands and spread of invasive tree species, or … Continue reading
Posted in Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS), Plant Trees
Tagged carbon capture and storage, CCS, forests
4 Comments