Tag Archives: natural gas

Challenges & opportunities for alternative transportation fuels and vehicles. U.S. House hearing, 2011

Preface. Congress is aware that an energy crisis looms, though they seldom acknowledge or deal with it.  Here are a few excerpts from this U.S. House hearing (2011) The American energy initiative part 6: Challenges & opportunities for alternative transportation … Continue reading

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Power density of biomass, wind, & solar take too much land to replace fossil fuels

Volumetric versus specific energy density for selected energy carriers. Source: Palmer, G. 2020. Energy storage & civilization: a systems approach. Springer. Preface. Vaclav Smil writes “The fact that wind, solar, and biomass have incredibly low energy density per square meter … Continue reading

Posted in Alternative Energy, Biomass, Coal, Hydropower, Natural Gas, Oil | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

U.S. House 2013 “Exports and the Changing global energy landscape”

[ My excerpts from the house hearing below is another “let’s export Natural Gas to our allies now that we’re energy independent”.  The driving force is not making even better friends with Europe and keeping bully Russia away (though that’s … Continue reading

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Why is nearly all solar power built where subsidies are the highest?

If solar net energy return is as high as some solar advocates claim, why does solar need any subsidies? And not just U.S. subsidies, it’s subsidies on top of subsidies when you add in that we’re buying Chinese government subsidized … Continue reading

Posted in Concentrated Solar Power, Photovoltaic Solar, Solar EROI, U.S. Congress Energy Policy | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Richard Heinberg: Will the US really be a major energy exporter?

[ I read this the day it was published (January 16, 2017) at resilience.org here, but thought it would be interesting to post in the future to see if the EIA predictions were as optimistic as Heinberg and Hughes thought … Continue reading

Posted in How Much Left, Natural Gas, Oil & Gas Fracked, Richard Heinberg | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Wind and solar need natural gas to balance intermittent, variable, and seasonal power

Preface. The highest wind states are getting more and more dependent on natural gas to balance wind and solar as they live and die. Yet conventional natural gas in the U.S. has peaked (half of our national gas, and declining … Continue reading

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California hits the solar wall

[ What is a solar wall?  Read part 1: California could hit the solar wall and then excerpts from the following article in the financial times, Britain’s Wall street journal.  I’ve also reworded some of it. Renewables are rendering existing … Continue reading

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Why railroads are against running locomotives on natural gas

Since oil is finite, natural gas was seen as a fuel that could extend how long oil lasted by being a “bridge” fuel.  Since natural gas is finite also, and would lead to dependence on unstable foreign nations, the plan … Continue reading

Posted in LNG Liquified Natural Gas, Natural Gas Vehicles, Railroads | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

EROI of Canadian Natural Gas. A peak was reached despite enormous investment

[ Although I’ve extracted much of this paper, it is not complete—there are missing equations, figures, tables, and text– so see the paper for details (it is available online).  I’ve rearranged the order of the paper.  The conclusion is just … Continue reading

Posted in EROEI Energy Returned on Energy Invested, Natural Gas, Peak Natural Gas | Tagged , | 4 Comments

The dangers and costs of importing Liquefied natural gas (LNG). U.S. Senate Hearing 2005.

                      [ Before fracked (tight) natural gas came along, natural gas prices spiked sky-high and the U.S. Congress began looking at how new LNG import terminal construction could be expedited, … Continue reading

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