Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
The Cost of Energy is a new grassroots energy education web site from American Lou Grinzo that is outlining the issues (and the jargon!) in an approachable question and answer format. We asked Lou to outline his starting assumptions and provide some background on the project and himself.
Research at Oxford University shows that intermittent renewables, combined with domestic combined heat and power (dCHP) could dependably provide the bulk of Britain’s electricity.
The growing consensus is that only new nuclear power can plug that gap without contributing to global warming.
But a new report indicates that a judicious mix of intermittent renewables – wave, wind, sun and tide – could supply over half of UK electricity.
The anticipated power crisis in Auckland can be circumvented by careful, innovative planning and the deployment of tidal-current turbines, claims retired Professor Dr Anthony Bellve.
GE shows its green colors, with full page ads full of .. imagination.
A conference on oil supply difficulties just held in Edinburgh, Scotland, witnessed a lively a debate about supply and demand in energy markets.
Wind farms, while necessary, are a classic example of what environmentalists call an “end-of-the-pipe solution”. Instead of tackling the problem – our massive demand for energy – at source, they provide less damaging means of accommodating it.
Worldwide, populations are suffering from poor levels of energy investment and ageing power plants. The research calculates that about $12.7 trillion (£6.7tn) of investment, greater than the entire US annual economic output, is understood to be needed globally to meet an expected doubling in electricity consumption through 2030.
An interesting proposal for an ‘atmospheric vortex engine’, a variation on the solar chimney concept for channeling solar energy as wind to drive a generator.
But even if [Cornucopian economists] are right about the miraculous and timely appearance of oil substitutes, are they right that the things we would do as a global society to prepare for world peak oil production are a “waste of resources?”
Our world is so dominated by machines and motors (fifty in a typical home) that it’s easy to forget that most of human history has been powered by muscle.
National Grid Transco (NGT) yesterday took steps to strengthen Britain’s fragile energy supply situation by unveiling plans to spend £355m in tripling the capacity of the country’s first new liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal.
So where are the Democratic voices linking energy conservation and national security? With awareness of Peak Oil rising along with prices at the pump, it’s time for Democrats to make it clear they are leading the charge for the geo-green strategy.
