Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
The war in Iran has made the paradox inescapable. The pursuit of energy security through fossil fuels produced the very disruption it was meant to prevent. Instead, the transition to renewables offers the genuine insulation that oil never can: from global price shocks, from the geopolitical risks embedded in that dependence, and from the carbon emissions driving the climate crisis.
The fossil fuel era led to widespread dependence on greenhouse gas producing nonrenewable energy sources. The emerging clean energy era is leading to widespread dependence on vast new supplies of nonrenewable metals
There are two basic ways of correctly dealing with coal combustion residuals (CCR) — whether existing or new. They are storing it in lined ponds, preferably as far from potable water supplies as possible, and finding a way to use it so it doesn’t need to be stored at all.
We are going to have to dramatically downsize the dream of a future in which we replace 150-year-old fossil fuel infrastructure with “clean energy” by 2050.
My aim is not to discourage people working toward an energy transition, but to insist that we develop a realistic plan for energy descent, rather than insisting on foolish dreams of eternal consumer abundance by means other than fossil fuels.
Renewables will cover almost all of global electricity demand growth out to 2025, becoming the world’s top source of electricity within three years, new figures reveal.
Do renewable energy sources generate enough energy ‘profit’ to make them worth continued investment? And is any energy profit large enough to run our modern world, as renewables displace fossil fuels?
When I go in search of figures, numbers, data, about energy in relation to ecology and economy, I’m often brought to the website of the very same EPA whose lead scientist studying sewage sludge faked his science and unleashed a toxic torrent upon the world.
Let’s explore the disconnect between the dream scenario of all the energy we need from renewables vs. what happens to the ecosystem if we keep the party at full bore.
One thing is certain: “renewables” is not the generic solution.
Those who give it don’t know what the problem is.
I am writing to you with the intention of raising a series of relevant questions regarding the current effort to undergo an Ecological Transition that must achieve the total decarbonization of Spain and Europe by 2050.
In chilly Scandinavia, Finland has shown the extraordinary potential of one of the less visible renewable energy technologies – heat pumps.
