Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
My busy eating, drinking & breathing schedule prevented me from going down to Houston for CERAWeek this year. It’s funny how that works—something seems to come up every year. So I’ll have to use news reports to get a feel for how this year’s exciting oil & gas Schmooze-Fest went. Tuesday, March 9th was Oil Day.
While in the hills of western India last week I saw something I haven’t seen since my schooldays. The something is old-fashioned fuel balls. You can hold one of these lightweight balls in your hand, for they are around 8-9 cm in diameter, their colour a slatey grey flecked with brown. You only rarely see them being sold in the small provision shops in these villages, for the fuel balls are made at home. They require two ingredients: cow dung and coal dust.
– Kuwaiti scientists predict peak oil production for 2014
– Forecasting world crude oil production using multicyclic Hubbert model (paper)
– Study sees efficiency as key to meeting energy needs (CERA)
– Traders bet on higher gasoline prices
If a person were to listen to Energy Secretary Steven Chu or National Geographic, one might think that our energy problems are fairly minor and distant. We can easily add sufficiently renewable energy to substitute for fossil fuels in a fairly short time frame. But if one looks at the situation more closely, one discovers that the situation is quite different.
-EU to exceed 2020 green energy target: forecasts
-Quantum Physics Breakthrough: Scientists Find an Equation for Materials Innovation
-Solar PV has failed in Germany and it will fail in the UK
Qué tonto. Yo habia pensado que los líderes del mundo querrian evitar la caída de sus naciones. Seguro que trabajan duro para evitar la caída del sistema de finanza, del sistema alimenticio, del sistema social, ambiental, y el principio de una miseria abrumadora, verdad? Pero no, eso no es lo que demuestra la evidencia. Me inclino a pensar que el objetivo de los líderes mundiales, no es de salvar a sus naciones de la caída, sino, sencillamente ser el último en caer para poder devorar a los que cayeron antes.
Most homeowners in the U.S. would come out ahead if they invested in energy efficiency improvements — new insulation, sealed windows, more efficient boilers, and the like. So why don’t they do it? Simple: the upfront costs are steep and the paybacks can take a long time. Many homeowners don’t have access to the capital to cover the costs, or they worry that they will move before the the costs are repaid, thus leaving subsequent owners to reap gains they didn’t pay for.
-Is East Africa the Next Frontier for Oil?
-‘Market can absorb spare Saudi capacity’ – Al Falih
-Royal Dutch Shell halts gasoline sales to Iran
-Traders bet on higher gasoline prices
-How a 22-year-old student uncovered peak oil fraud
A midweek roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Prices and production
-China’s foreign trade
-US EPA chief concerned about gas drilling fluids
-Europe the new frontier in shale gas rush
-The true cost of shale gas production
-The Natural Gas Shopping Spree Quickens
-Green fuels cause more harm than fossil fuels, according to report
-Chemists create biofuel from plant waste
-Seeking a More ‘Poplar’ Biofuel
-Are we really going to let ourselves be duped into this solar panel rip-off?
-Solar panels are not fashion accessories
-There is no ‘green treachery’ in questioning this solar panel rip-off
I accept George Monbiot’s £100 solar PV bet
