Principles of Energy Transition
By Chris Nelder, David Murphy, The Energy Transition Show
Dr. David Murphy, a professor of environmental studies at St. Lawrence University, returns to the show to interview Chris about energy transition in this live event
The Landscape of Energy
By David Murphy, Post Carbon Institute/Foundation for Deep Ecology
The next decades will witness a global battle between geologic depletion and technological advancement, as modern society demands ever-increasing quantities of energy from an aging fossil fuel supply and a nascent renewable energy sector.
The Energy Return on Investment threshold
By David Murphy, The Oil Drum
Hall and Day (2009) report that the Energy Return on Energy Invest (EROI) for coal might be as high as 80 and that for hydropower, EROI is 40. Does this mean that coal is twice as ‘good’ as hydro? The answer is no, and in this post I will discuss how this relates to the idea of an EROI Threshold
Lucky economists, unlucky scientists?
By David Murphy, The Oil Drum
For decades, economists (Cornucopians or optimists) have been at odds with natural scientists (Malthusians or pessimists) when it comes to the scarcity of natural resources.
Does peak oil even matter?
By David Murphy, The Oil Drum
It is easy to become befuddled by the current discourse on peak oil. Peak oil is defined generally as the point at which the flow rate of oil to society has reached a maximum. But this simple definition has issues too, such as what should be considered "oil." Take, for example, the following sentences from the executive summary of the International Energy Agency’s recent publication of the World Energy Outlook (WEO) 2010[1]...According to this data, a peak in the production of conventional crude oil occurred in 2006, but a peak in total “oil” production (including unconventional resources such as tar sands, natural gas liquids, etc.) may not occur for some time. So, should we consider this a confirmation of peak oil or not?
EROI, insidious feedbacks, and the end of economic growth
By David Murphy, The Oil Drum
Is a return to long term economic growth possible?
New perspectives on the energy return on (energy) investment (EROI) of corn ethanol: part 2 of 2
By David Murphy, The Oil Drum: Net Energy
In the analysis underlying our paper "New Perspectives on the Energy Return on (Energy) Investment (EROI) of Corn Ethanol," we performed four major analyses relating to the EROI of corn ethanol. In this part, we will discuss two additional research areas from the paper.
New perspectives on the energy return on (energy) investment (EROI) of corn ethanol: Part 1 of 2
By David Murphy, The Oil Drum: Net Energy
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.