Hydro

How much dam energy can we get?

Tom Murphy, Do the Math

Having now sorted solar, wind, and tidal power into three "boxes," let's keep going and investigate another source of non-fossil energy and put it in a box. Today we'll look at hydroelectricity. As one of the earliest renewable energy resources to be exploited, hydroelectricity is the low-hanging fruit of the renewable world. It's steady, self-storing, highly efficient, cost-effective, low-carbon, low-tech, and offers a serious boon to water skiers. I'm sold! Let's have more of that! How much might we expect to get from hydro, and how important will its role be compared to other renewable resources?

archived December 21, 2011

Pump Up the Storage

Tom Murphy, Do the Math

If we adopt solar and wind as major components of our energy infrastructure as we are weaned from fossil fuels, we have to solve the energy storage problem in a big way. An earlier post demonstrated that we do not likely possess enough materials in the world to simply build giant lead-acid (or nickel-based or lithium-based) batteries to do the job. Comments frequently pointed to pumped hydro storage as a far more sensible answer. Indeed, pumped storage is currently the dominant—and nearly only—grid-scale storage solution out there. Here, we will take a peek at pumped hydro and evaluate what it can do for us.

archived November 16, 2011

Review: Life Without Oil by Steve Hallett With John Wright

Frank Kaminski, Mud City Press

“Imagining a world without oil” describes in stark detail what might happen if one day the world decided to decommission all its oil tankers, rigs, pipelines and strategic reserves. The authors, environmental scientist Steve Hallett and journalist John Wright, expect that we’d initially see sky-high prices and long lines at pumps. After a few weeks, fuel wouldn’t be had at any price and even first-world citizens would struggle to stay fed and out of the elements. This is no Hollywood doomsday scenario—it’s a levelheaded extrapolation from current trends in the fast deteriorating world energy situation. [An essay prefiguring the book originally appeared in The Washington Post.]

archived August 30, 2011

The roads to our alternative energy future

Barath Raghavan, contraposition

How fast do we need to transition off of fossil fuels? What industrial capacity is available today for different alternative energy technologies and what is likely to be available in the future? What might we do if we can't replace fossil fuels with alternatives fast enough, and what might the consequences be? I finally got around to re-doing these calculations, and wanted to go through the numbers.

archived August 24, 2011

Can renewable energy outshine fossil fuels?

Megan Quinn Bachman, Ecowatch Journal

I'm not popular with environmentalists when I tell them that renewables can only provide a small fraction of the energy that fossil fuels do in powering industrial civilization. In fact, I was recently called a liar at the screening of an anti-nuke film for suggesting so.

archived June 6, 2011

As nuclear falters, here is a practical, affordable (and safe) clean electricity plan

Craig A. Severance, Energy Economy Online

In the wake of the Japanese nuclear debacle, we need a practical and affordable clean electricity plan that does not rely on new nuclear power. This article presents just such a Plan. New nuclear is absent from the Plan not because of any safety concern, but simply because it fails the "practical and affordable" test. President Obama called for "80% Clean Energy" by 2035. This Plan presents how we can do it right.

archived March 14, 2011

A Pearl River tale, power and pride in China

Rahul Goswami, Energy Bulletin

For a few days last week, global news agencies pursued the peculiar story of the world's worst traffic jam, which was reported to have lasted for around nine days and stretched across about 100 kilometres of a major highway leading to Beijing. China's latest instance of leading the world, now in the scale and size of traffic jams, is a direct consequence of the modern uses and abuses of energy.

archived August 28, 2010

The peak oil crisis: countdown at the Guri

Tom Whipple, Falls Church News-Press

Now, if you are wondering why a falling water level in the Venezuelan highlands should be if interest to Americans, the answer is easy. Despite years of political tensions between the Chavez government and Washington, the U.S. is still importing some 800,000 barrels a day of crude from Venezuela.

archived April 7, 2010

Peak oil news - Mar 25

Tom Whipple, ASPO-USA

A midweek roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Prices and production
-Venezuela’s Power Crisis
-UK Peak Oil Summit

archived March 25, 2010

Job Losses Push Need for Energy Bill

Craig A. Severance CPA, Energy Economy Online

Millions of job losses are pushing the U.S. Senate to consider a Jobs and Energy bill, even though Cap and Trade appears to be on life support. What are Five Key Measures that must be in a new Bill to avoid being a "half-ass..d" effort? (term from Sen. Lindsey Graham descrbing limited climate bill)

archived February 10, 2010

Peak oil review - Jan 18

Tom Whipple, ASPO-USA

A weekdly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Prices and production
-Record Asian demand
-The Alberta oil sands
-Quote of the week
-Briefs

archived January 18, 2010

Trolley canal boats

Kris De Decker, Low-tech Magazine

For many centuries, canal boats were propelled by men, horses or mules on the towpath beside the water. Before diesel power took over, engineers developed several interesting methods powered by electricity: trolleyboats, floating funiculars and electric mules. Many of these ecological solutions could be applied today instead of diesel engines.

archived December 22, 2009

Throwing our energy at impossible dreams...

P. F. Henshaw, The People's Voice

"as mankind proceeded to get bigger and bigger we silently crossed a threshold"

archived December 16, 2009

Energy in the UK - Dec 4

Staff, Energy Bulletin

-The UK Power Generation Expenditure Forecast 2010-2030
-How many cyclists does it take to power a hairdryer?
-Energy bills could rise to more than £2,000, says Ofgem
-Solar industry ‘in limbo’ as grants dry up

archived December 4, 2009

Climate finance, the new fiscal frontier

Rahul Goswami, Energy Bulletin

Not deterred by the international financial crisis which became widespread in 2008 or by the many recessionary patterns that grip most country economies, financial engineers are massing in København to prepare for the next wave. This one is about the commercial opportunities which renewable energy technologies, country climate funds and sectoral mitigation programmes promise to contain.

archived December 4, 2009