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Tag Archives: Roger Andrews
Blowout Week 228
Blowout Week 228 The big news this week is Trump’s re-imposition of sanctions on Iran, which will cut Iran’s oil production to the point where, combined with cratering oil production from Venezuela, it could cause another oil price spike. We follow with our usual mix – more on Iran, Venezuela and OPEC; oil in Norway; […]
A review of recent solar & wind auction prices
A review of recent solar & wind auction prices Recent renewable energy auctions in a number of countries have been won by record low solar and wind bids – proof, according to some media sources, that wind and solar are already cheaper than fossil fuels. This post addresses the question of whether these low bids […]
The causes of the differences between European and US residential electricity rates
The causes of the differences between European and US residential electricity rates The price of residential electricity has risen in lockstep with growth in renewable capacity in Europe but not in the US, and because of this European residential electricity rates are now roughly twice US rates. The reasons for the difference are a) that […]
A brief review of the New England electricity sector
A brief review of the New England electricity sector New England’s transition to renewable electricity is complicated by differences between the generation mixes in and the renewables targets set by its six component states. New England’s approach to fostering renewables by replacing dispatchable fossil fuel generation with wind and solar also does not help. New […]
The seawater pumped hydro potential of the world
The seawater pumped hydro potential of the world As discussed in numerous previous posts the world will need immense amounts of energy storage to transition to 100% renewables, or anywhere close to it, and the only technology that offers any chance of obtaining it is sea water pumped hydro (SWPH) storage. Here I consider the […]
Pumped hydro energy storage in Australia – Snowy 2.0 vs. sea water
Pumped hydro energy storage in Australia – Snowy 2.0 vs. sea water To support a 100% renewable electricity sector Australia will need approximately 10 terawatt-hours of long-term energy storage. The multi-billion-dollar Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro project will supply only 0.35 terawatt-hours, a small fraction of this, and conventional pumped hydro potential elsewhere in Australia, including […]
Global CO2 emissions forecast to 2100
Global CO2 emissions forecast to 2100 In his recent post Euan Mearns projected global energy requirements out to 2100. In this brief post I apply Euan’s methodology to carbon dioxide emissions, which are closely correlated with energy consumption. The projections show CO2 emissions peaking around 2075 under the UN low population growth scenario but continuing […]
The Cost of 100% renewables: The Jacobson et al. 2018 Study
The Cost of 100% renewables: The Jacobson et al. 2018 Study Proponents of a global transition to 100% renewable energy point to a number of studies which claim to show that such a transition is feasible, and arguably the most influential of these is the study of Jacobson et al. 2017, an updated 2018 version […]
Battery storage* in perspective – solving 1% of the problem
Battery storage* in perspective – solving 1% of the problem The energy world is fixated on the “huge” amounts of battery storage presently being installed to back up slowly-increasing levels of intermittent renewables generation. The feeling seems to be that as soon as enough batteries are installed to take care of daily supply/demand imbalances we […]
The pumped hydro storage potential of the Great Lakes
The pumped hydro storage potential of the Great Lakes The potential energy contained in the waters of the Great Lakes amounts to approximately six thousand terawatt hours, enough to supply the US and Canada with electricity for an entire year were the lakes to be drained to sea level. This of course will never happen, […]
Blowout Week 215
Blowout Week 215 This week’s lead story highlights the perils of basing policy decisions on speculative computer models. It seems that the ozone layer isn’t healing as predicted after all, so the dangers of man-made CFC radiation are still with us. And if radiation doesn’t do the job other computer models now tell us that […]
Blowout Week 211
Blowout Week 211 This week we return to the Big South Australian Battery (BSAB), the alleged success of which – the “Tesla effect” – is spawning a raft of similar projects elsewhere in the country. Coming after we have Frydenberg on Snowy River; the usual dose of OPEC; Russia sells gas to the US; less […]
Blowout Week 210
Blowout Week 210 Is the US about to become the world’s largest oil producer? Our feature story says yes. To follow we have Trump’s offshore leasing program; record Russian gas production; Saudi Arabia’s gasoline price hike; Germany shuts down a nuclear reactor; Australia’s industry to power down during heatwave; Coal growth in Asia; the Snowy […]
How Chile’s electricity sector can go 100% renewable
How Chile’s electricity sector can go 100% renewable If pumped hydro plants that use the sea as the lower reservoir can be put into large-scale operation Chile would be able to install at least 10 TWh of pumped hydro storage along its northern coast. With it Chile could convert enough intermittent solar into dispatchable form […]
Blowout Week 209
Blowout Week 209 This week’s lead story features the imminent return of the Ice Age to UK – good news for those looking forward to a White Christmas. After that the usual mix: record production from the Permian, Putin replaces petroleum with natural gas; New England replaces natural gas with petroleum; nuclear plant restarts and […]
