Z-Car » coal

Fossil Fuel Use to Grow

gsmith — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:27:39 +0000

According to the Energy Department, despite persistently high oil prices, global energy demand will grow by 50 percent over the next two decades with continued heavy reliance on environmentally troublesome fossil fuels, especially coal and oil.

The projections by the Energy Department’s statistical agency said that without mandatory actions to address global warming, the amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide flowing into the atmosphere each year from energy use will be 51 percent greater in 2030 than it was three years ago.

“Fossil fuels … are expected to continue supplying much of the energy used worldwide,” the Energy Information Administration report predicts, in spite of the growth of renewable energy sources, especial wind and biofuels.

“Global energy demand grows despite the sustained high world oil prices that are project to persist over the long term”. Oil could cost as little as $113 a barrel or as much as $186 a barrel in 2030, the analysis concluded.

This seems to be common-sense information, who would guess that energy use would not increase in the future? What seems even more obvious is that we need to start taking strong steps towards isolating the US from the rest of the world in terms of energy supply. We need our own supply of energy, preferably renewable or nuclear based, that will shield us from the volatility of the global energy market.

Four Simple Steps Towards Energy Independence

gsmith — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 15:58:22 +0000

It all seems so simple. All we need to do as a nation is to ween ourselves from over-seas oil. Here are four simple steps, go tell your elected officials to start getting serious.

1) Prominently increasing North American energy supplies, thereby increasing energy security (technologies include frontier hydrocarbon technologies such as gasification, including hydrogen production; gas-to-liquids; tar sands, oil sands, and other heavy crude extractive and processing technologies)

2) Providing additional nonhydrocarbon supply options (ethanol1, biodiesel, wind and solar)

3) Moving towards globalizing a regionally limited natural-gas market to reduce risks associated with supply and price (LNG)

4) Reducing emissions of greenhouse gases (new emission-free supplies such as nuclear, wind, solar; more efficient end-use technologies such as hydrogen fuel cells and advanced technology vehicles; reduced emissions from hydrocarbon usage such as coal gasification, cogeneration and deployment of CO2 capture and sequestration technologies and strategies).

If I could speak to the President

gsmith — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 01:04:05 +0000

If Bush decided that we needed to become energy independent, what policy initiatives should we have? This is what I would tell him (assuming he could stay awake):

Finance the fastest practical development and pilot test programs for fuel cell technology

Block the issuance of permits for any coal-burning powerplants without plans for full carbon sequestration.

Require most new vehicles to be PHEV’s.

Promote or require plug-in facilities for new or renovated construction.

Net metering or other feed-in law is required for the grid.

Get rid of all preferences and mandates for alternative fuels; incentives should be created by taxes on oil, coal and natural gas.

At $1 per Watt, the iTunes of Solar Energy Has Arrived

gsmith — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:09:24 +0000

I just found this article, it is a couple months old, however has some very interesting information. It seems as if real solar is just around the corner. If we can continue to drive down the cost, there will be an explosion of solar. You will see house roofing shingles made out of solar material, awnings, you name it… There will be a mad rush, heck, combine it with Artificial Grass for your yard, and soon consumers will become energy producers instead of consumers.

A Silicon Valley start-up called Nanosolar shipped its first solar panels — priced at $1 a watt. That’s the price at which solar energy gets cheaper than coal. Curious that this story is not on every front page…