Energy Theory
America’s delusions of energy independence
If rhetoric could move mountains I'd like to see the Rocky Mountains moved to northern Michigan so I could view the magnificence of Lake Superior from the top of Long's Peak. Unfortunately I'm not expecting to see that day.
Hollow men of economics
Left unaddressed during the past 3 years in most of the debates between economists has been the problem of energy. The reason is simple: post-war economists don't do energy, except as an ever-expanding resource that the credit system and technology makes available. For the post-war economist, the supply curve of energy--save for brief lags--is always coming back into rough equilibrium with the economy.
What will it take to convince people about the dangers of peak oil?
I find myself these days especially attentive to people talking about their preparations for a post-peak oil world. I am partly learning and partly measuring myself against their level of preparation. If they are, in my evaluation, further along than I am, my focus is even more intense. That has turned out to be an important clue for me about what it will take to convince the public about the dangers of peak oil.
UK Gov't Department of Energy and Climate Change Pathways 2050 report - July 30
-2050 Pathways Analysis
-UK energy scenarios: working with a flawed model
-DECC publishes plans for achieving 2050 targets
-DECC lays out six possible futures for low-carbon energy
First results from Transition Together evaluation
"Transition Together", the street-by-street behaviour change programme developed by Transition Town Totnes and now being piloted in 10 other communities, has just completed analysing the data that has come back from the first 4 groups, comprising 32 households in Totnes. They have completed all 7 of the sessions set out in the workbook, and the data offers a fascinating first look at whether the process works or not. The results from the other 31 groups currently underway are expected this Autumn. Here, Fiona Ward of Transition Together shares the results that have emerged.
New perspectives on the energy return on (energy) investment (EROI) of corn ethanol: Part 1 of 2
Over the past decade there has been considerable debate on corn ethanol, most focused on whether it is a net energy yielder...On one side are Pimentel (2003) and Patzek (2004) who claim that corn ethanol has an EROI below one energy unit returned per energy unit invested, and on the other side are a number of studies claiming that the EROI is positive, reported variously as between 1.08 and 1.45 (Wang et al. 1997; Wang 2001; Shapouri et al. 2002; Graboski 2004; Shapouri 2004; Oliveira et al. 2005; Farrell et al. 2006; Wang et al. 2007). Even with numerous publications on this issue, disagreement remains as to whether corn ethanol is a net energy yielder.
Renewables & efficiency - July 16
-Germany targets switch to 100% renewables for its electricity by 2050
-Report sees need for 500 additional biofuels plants
-No link between wind turbines and health: report
-Residents reject wind farm health findings
-Locally Owned Wind Power: Quaint it Ain’t
The ways of the Force
Luke Skywalker had to master the ways of the Force to save the galaxy. We face a similar challenge -- mastering the ways of energy, which are surprisingly counterintuitive to people raised in current ways of thinking -- in order to make use of the limited options still open to us in an age of declining energy supplies.
The peak oil crisis: A mid-year review
It now appears that the run-away oil well will soon be brought under control and will stop gushing into the Gulf. While the litigation, cleanup, and economic impact of the sub-sea blowout are likely to go on for years, if not decades, the world's attention will soon shift elsewhere. Even now the economic and employment impact of the administration's drilling embargo is moving to center stage as attention shifts to the possibility of a US political upheaval at the mid-term elections -- now less than four months away.
Optimism, harsh realism, and blind spots—10 years later
Ten years ago, energy analyst Steve Andrews challenged widely respected energy guru Amory Lovins via email for what Andrews thought was an overly optimistic vision—about coal consumption trends, evolution in the auto industry, future world oil production, etc.—articulated in the Rocky Mountain Institute‘s Spring 2000 newsletter. ...Ten years later, read it for the blind spots everyone had.
The aspiration gap
Although the distinction is subtle, it is crucial: while we should adopt these Plan B measures, what I am arguing against is the celebration of them. For when we celebrate them, we indicate to ourselves and each other that these are more than first steps, that they can save us or provide an ultimate solution.
Arrogance and scientific rules of thumb
One of my favorite sources of rules of thumb is thermodynamics. It doesn’t tell you how to do things, or how fast you can do them, but it tells you whether something, like running your car on water, is impossible.
Merlin's time
People in the Dark Ages filled in the gaps in the very limited knowledge base available to them with the help of wizards and soothsayers. As we close in on a future for which most people are hopelessly unprepared, a new kind of wizard -- a green wizard, adept in the forgotten arts of appropriate tech -- may be one of the things that a deindustrializing world needs most.
Shale gas — the hydrofracking wars
Josh Fox's film Gasland has stirred up a lot of controversy over the environmental damage caused by shale gas drilling. Shale gas reservoir rock lies many thousands of feet below the surface, with the depth depending on the location. In order to get the gas to flow up to the wellhead, operators drill down to the shale rock layer, and then apply a process called hydraulic fracturing to "open up" the rock.
Peak oil notes - June 25
A midweek roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Prices and production
-Deepwater Horizon
Zero Carbon Britain 2030
zero carbon britain 2030 is a fully integrated vision of how Britain can respond to the challenges of climate change, resource depletion and global inequity. It examines how we can meet our electricity and heating requirements through efficient service provision, while still decreasing emissions.
The perfect spill: solutions for averting the next Deepwater Horizon
“If we refuse to take into account the full cost of our fossil fuel addiction—if we don’t factor in the environmental costs and national security costs and true economic costs—we will have missed our best chance to seize a clean energy future.”
–President Barack Obama, Carnegie Mellon University, June 2, 2010
The piggy driver: some empirical data to test the Piggy Principle
At the end of February, The Oil Drum published an article I wrote called Efficiency and Resilience: After Jevons Paradox, the Piggy Principle. Its content was a strictly theoretical discussion of energy efficiency and its impact on the consumption and resilience of societies.
More accidents await with President Obama’s errant energy policies
President Obama triumphantly entered office with the popular promise of moving the United States to a cleaner energy basis, but his actions to date, along with those of the Congress, have promoted two types of dangerous energy developments: off-shore oil drilling and nuclear reactors. Nuclear expert Harvey Wasserman highlighted the dual dangers by noting, “As BP’s ghastly gusher assaults the Gulf of Mexico, a tornado has forced a shutdown of the Fermi 2 atomic reactor at the site of a 1966 melt-down that nearly irradiated the entire Great Lakes Region.”
Why anger towards BP is largely misplaced
But our cultural ignorance concerning basic energy numeracy, as well as an understanding of the economics of oil and energy allows otherwise intelligent and well-informed people to participate in outrage towards BP without reflecting for a moment on their own attitudes, habits, or behavior.