Category Archives: Energy

by Robert Ellison

A look at the Drift EV concept for electric vehicles.

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by Planning Engineer

Some of the Climate Etc. denizens have requested a post on the generation planning process to help them better understand cost issues surrounding the large scale addition and integration of renewable resources.

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by Planning Engineer

It can be very misleading to compare the energy costs for wind and solar to the energy costs for more conventional generation technology and assume the difference is the cost of providing for “clean” energy.

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by Planning Engineer

Power System Planners do not have the expertise or knowledge to say whether or not the benefits of reducing carbon emissions are worth the costs.   However they should be respected as experts for obtaining a better understanding of what the implications and costs of such programs are.

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by Dave Rutledge

Now that Working Group 3 has put its chapters on line, all six thousand pages of the IPCC’s 5th Assessment Report have arrived. Coal is the specter that looms.

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by Judith Curry

“I don’t know whether I can make the environmental argument, or the economic argument” – Tom Vilsack

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by Judith Curry

China is engaged in a push to build hydroelectric dams on a scale unprecedented in human history. While being touted for producing lower-emission electricity, these massive dam projects are wreaking havoc on river systems across China and Southeast Asia. – Charlton Lewis

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by Judith Curry

China has no alternative to coal, with its domestic gas output limited and liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports more costly than coal. – William Durbin

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by Judith Curry

[W]orld energy consumption will grow by 56 percent between 2010 and 2040. – EIA

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by Judith Curry

The wheels are falling off of Germany’s green energy revolution. – Walter Mead

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The U.S. energy revolution is not confined to a single fuel or technology: oil and gas production, renewable energy, and fuel-efficient automobile technologies all show great promise. To best position the country for the future, U.S. leaders should capitalize on all these opportunities rather than pick a favorite; the answer lies in ‘most of the above.’ – Michael Levi

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by Judith Curry

The U.S. was the largest emitter carbon dioxide (CO₂) until 2006 when China’s emissions exceeded the U.S.  U.S. CO₂ emissions from the consumption of fossil fuels peaked in 2007 and have declined significantly over the past five years.  – John Miller

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by Rud Istvan and Brandon Shollenberger

Comments on the previous Climate Etc post on Maggio and Cacciola’s paper, When will oil, natural gas, and coal peak? motivated an analysis of the World Energy Outlook produced annually by the International Energy Agency (IEA).

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by Rud Istvan

Fossil fuel availability affects how much CO₂ will be emitted, which might or might not affect climate much. Hubbert’s 1956 insight suggests total peak oil is near (around 2020), and that gas and coal will peak by midcentury.

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by Judith Curry

Whether the benefits of alternative energy outweigh its drawbacks depends on the policy context. – Ed Dolan

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by James Stafford of Oilprice.com

We were fortunate enough to speak with the well known economist Ed Dolan on various energy and economic issues.

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by James Stafford

Reposted with permission from oilprice.com.

We were fortunate enough to have some time with Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond where we discussed a broad range of topics from Scotland’s ambitious renewable energy targets and North Sea oil & gas to Scottish independence and Donald Trump.

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by David Rutledge

Judy Curry has provided a remarkable forum for climate science and policy, and I appreciate the opportunity to continue the discussion on energy supplies that Rutt Bridges started with his post Wednesday on natural gas. In this post, I will consider the limited impacts of climate policy on fossil-fuel production and discuss ways to estimate fossil-fuel production in the long run.

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by Rutt Bridges

Let me start by admitting that the future of natural gas is especially difficult to predict. Commodity forecasting is always a pseudo-science at best. At times it seems that its primary function is to make astrology look respectable.

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by Judith Curry

THE LIGHTS ARE not going off all over Japan, but the nuclear power plants are. Of the 54 reactors in those plants, with a combined capacity of 47.5 gigawatts (GW, a thousand megawatts), only two are operating today. A good dozen are unlikely ever to reopen . . .  (from the Economist)

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