Other Energy Headlines – 26 August, 2005

August 25, 2005

Click on the headline (link) for the full text.

Many more articles are available through the Energy Bulletin homepage


A Question Of Shale

Big Gav, Peak Energy (Australia)
Shale Oil is one of those great white unconventional oil hopes that economists pull out of the bag of tricks when they want to tell us how vast the remaining hydrocarbon reserves are.

With Bubba pouring a bucket on the whole “shale will save us” – or help us to fry ourselves, depending on your point of view – idea (via Mobjectivist’s “Belly of the Beast” post), I think the time has come to investigate the whole shale oil idea.
(25 August 2005)
A good roundup of information on shale oil. The Peak Energy site has similar roundups on energy issues every day or two.


Canadians Gear Up for Protest against Natural Gas Projects in Maine

Associated Press via ENN
ST. ANDREWS, New Brunswick — Growing opposition to proposals for liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects in Maine could fuel a fight between Canada and the United States over access to the pristine waters off southern New Brunswick.

Two companies are looking to build LNG facilities on the Maine shores of Passamaquoddy Bay, across from the New Brunswick resort town of St. Andrews.

Opponents in both countries say major LNG operations, with their supertanker traffic, pipelines and storage tanks, would threaten the rich marine life of Passamaquoddy Bay, as well as the region’s tourism and fishing industries.
(23 August 2005)


Underground Coal-Gasification, Coal-to-Liquids Fuel Project planned in Australia

Staff, Green Car Congress
Syntroleum Corporation and Australian-based Linc Energy are planning to develop a coal-to-liquids (CTL) project in Australia that integrates
Syntroleum’s air-based Fischer-Tropsch technology with Linc Energy’s underground coal gasification (UCG) technology.

This will be the first such project to combine the two technologies for the production of synthetic diesel from coal. …

The first commercial phase of the Chinchilla Project, which Linc Energy plans for next year, involves installation of a 30-40 MW power plant which will provide electricity to local markets. The second commercial phase of the Chinchilla Project, which plans for a 17,000-barrel-per-day Syntroleum CTL plant and power plant expansion, will be developed over the next several years
(15 August 2005)


New chips from Intel will lower power use

Reuters, Bloomberg via International Herald Tribune
SAN FRANCISCO Intel said Tuesday that it would start selling chips next year that combine its desktop and notebook designs as the company shifts its focus from making processors that run at higher speeds to making chips that have higher performance per watt. Such performance is crucial for small, mobile devices as well as for computers in data centers trying to cram more chips into smaller spaces.

Intel expects to ship new chips based on the design in the second half of 2006, the chief executive, Paul Otellini, said. Otellini said the company took designs from its Centrino chip line to cut power consumption in one new chip design by a factor of 10.

Current chips draw as much power as small television sets and have to be cooled by large, noisy fans.
(24 August 2005)


Tags: Fossil Fuels, Hydrogen, Oil, Renewable Energy, Shale Oil, Tar Sands