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- 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: Renewables
1688 Tons of material to build just 1 windmill
Preface. There must be many high wind locations that wind turbine blades can’t be transported to, limiting how many could be built even with a trillion dollar budget. Clearly wind turbines aren’t renewable when you consider the vast amounts of … Continue reading
Wind, solar, and natural gas are driving nuclear power out of business
Preface. I’m no fan of nuclear power because we may already be at peak uranium, there’s nowhere to store nuclear waste, and a spent nuclear pool fire could harm millions of people. But renewable wind and solar and natural gas … Continue reading
MIT: Why the electric-car revolution may take a lot longer than expected
Preface. This study from MIT explains why price parity of electric and gasoline vehicles is likely to take a lot longer than 5 years, and perhaps never if cars continue to depend on lithium-ion batteries. Deeper cost declines beyond 2030 … Continue reading
Foreign Policy: The limits of clean energy
Preface. This article appeared in the magazine Foreign Policy. Some key points: Renewables to power the world would require 34 million metric tons of copper, 40 million tons of lead, 50 million tons of zinc, 162 million tons of aluminum, … Continue reading
Boston Globe: the false promise of nuclear power
Last Updated August 2021. Preface. This article raises many objections to nuclear power. Theoretically it could be cheaper, but the exact opposite has happened, it keeps getting more expensive. For example the only new reactors being built in the U.S. … Continue reading
Posted in Nuclear Power Energy
Tagged accidents, climate change, Fukushima, nuclear power, nuclear weapons, waste
5 Comments
How safe are utility-scale energy storage batteries?
This 2 MW battery, installed by the Arizona Public Service electric company, exploded in April 2019 and sent eight firefighters and a policeman to the hospital (Cooper 2019). At least 23 South Korean lithium-ion facilities caught fire in a series … Continue reading
Posted in Batteries, Lithium-ion, Safety
Tagged battery, failure, fluoride gas, hazardous, hydrogen fluoride, phosphoryl fluoride, toxic gas
Comments Off on How safe are utility-scale energy storage batteries?
Gravity energy storage
Preface. This is interesting, but not commercial. And as my book “When trucks stop running” explains, trucks are the basis of civilization, and can’t run on electric batteries or overhead wires. Even if they could, I explained why a 100% … Continue reading
Pumped Hydro Storage (PHS)
Preface. This is the only commercial way to store energy now (CAES hardly counts with just one plant and salt domes to put more in existing in only 5 states). Though of course hydropower is only in a few states … Continue reading
Posted in Dams, Energy Production, Hydropower, Pumped Hydro Storage (PHS)
Tagged dams, energy storage, hydroelectric, NIMBY, PHS, Pumped hydro storage
15 Comments
Can concentrated solar power be used to generate industrial process heat?
Preface. The bright future of solar thermal powered factories, makes some important points about using concentrated solar power to generate heat: “…A large share of energy consumed worldwide is by heat. Cooking, space heating and water heating dominate domestic energy … Continue reading
Concentrated Solar Power can only exist in deserts and use too much water
What follows is my summary of: Bracken, N., et al. 2015. Concentrating solar power and water issues in the U.S. Southwest. U.S. department of energy, National renewable energy lab. Alice Friedemann www.energyskeptic.com author of “When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and … Continue reading
Posted in Concentrated Solar Power
Tagged aquifer, concentrated solar power, CSP, desert, water shortages
1 Comment