Ocean energy

With the exception of tidal energy, our focus thus far has been on land-based energy sources. Meanwhile, the ocean absorbs a prodigious fraction of the Sun's incident energy, creating thermal gradients, currents, and waves whipped up by winds. Let's put some scales on the energetics of these sources and see if we may turn to them for help. We've got our three boxes ready: abundant, potent, and niche (puny). Time to do some sorting!

As temperatures dropped in Britain this week, the political heat over rising energy bills intensified. Prime Minister David Cameron hauled in the utility bosses and demanded action. Cameron claimed “everything that can be done will be done to help people bring their energy bills down...

Physicists and other hopefuls seek energy solutions on far off horizons. But what's really needed are solutions that are available which will put folks back to work, move the economy and address energy resilience at the same time.

According to The Times, Iraq’s oil ministry is to reset its oil production target for 2017 reducing it down from 12 million barrels per day to between 6.6-7 mb/d. The news is of no surprise to anyone (with the possible exception of Donald Trump)...

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.

A year ago peak oil author Dave Cohen christened 2009 "A Year We Will Live To Regret." But as it happens, 2010 has brought its own mother lode of discouragement, failure and tragedy. It began on the heels of the bungled climate change summit in Copenhagen, a major blackout in southern France and news of a disastrous crash in Yemen's oil revenues. Before the year had rounded its halfway mark, it had presided over the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history. And as if all this weren't enough, 2010 also saw the sudden and unexpected death of one of the very icons of the peak oil movement, the revered Matthew R. Simmons.

-Does Facebook deserve the hell it’s catching from Greenpeace?
-Saudi Arabia to export solar power soon, US says
-Energy expert Lovins brings conservation message
-The new wave: Harnessing the power of the ocean

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)

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

Evolution demands short-term thinking focused on individual survival. Most attempts to overcome our evolutionarily hardwired absorption with self are selected against. The Overman is dead, killed by a high-fat diet and unwillingness to exercise. Reflexively, we follow him into the grave.

- California votes down offshore project
- How Can Obama Pay for Healthcare Reform? How about Linking it to a ‘Manhattan Project for Energy Efficiency’?
- Lessons learned from General Motors’ collapse
- Climate Change and the Future of Southern California: Peak Oil and Climate Change Scenarios
- Is the ocean Florida's untapped energy source?

A weekly review from a UK perspective

This content is no longer available. It was a pre-publication draft of a section of "Energy Limits to Growth," a report that will be published in expanded form by Post Carbon Institute and International Forum on globalization in May.

Climate change experts 'lose faith' in renewable technology
Solar's future doesn't look quite so sunny
Floating Offshore Wind Power
Indonesia: New energy scheme not a load of bull
Sweet Answer to a Fuel Problem

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