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Creative Commons License
Tag Archives: solar energy
How Energy Transition Models Go Wrong
I have written many posts relating to the fact that we live in a finite world. At some point, our ability to extract resources becomes constrained. At the same time, population keeps increasing. The usual outcome when population is too high for resources is “overshoot and collapse.” But this is not a topic that the politicians or central bankers or oligarchs who attend the World Economic Forum dare to talk about.
Instead, world leaders find a different problem, namely climate change, to emphasize above other problems. Conveniently, climate change seems to have some of the same solutions as “running out of fossil fuels.” So, a person might think that an energy transition designed to try to fix climate change would work equally well to try to fix running out of fossil fuels. Unfortunately, this isn’t really the way it works.
Posted in Energy policy
Tagged fossil fuels, low oil prices, solar energy, wind energy
3,781 Comments
Why a Great Reset Based on Green Energy Isn’t Possible
It seems like a reset of an economy should work like a reset of your computer: Turn it off and turn it back on again; most problems should be fixed. However, it doesn’t really work that way. Let’s look at … Continue reading
Posted in Energy policy
Tagged EROEI, EROI, low oil prices, peak oil, solar energy, wind energy
2,650 Comments
The Approaching US Energy-Economic Crisis
I was recently asked to give a talk called, “The Approaching US Energy-Economic Crisis.” In other words, how might the United States encounter problems that lead to a crisis? As we will see, many of the problems that could lead to … Continue reading
We are at Peak Oil now; we need very low-cost energy to fix it
This past week, I gave a presentation to a group interested in a particular type of renewable energy–solar energy that is deployed in space, so it would provide electricity 24 hours per day. Their question was: how low does the … Continue reading
Posted in Financial Implications
Tagged electricity price, financial crash, oil price, peak oil, renewable energy, solar energy
1,585 Comments
Ten Reasons Intermittent Renewables (Wind and Solar PV) are a Problem
Intermittent renewables–wind and solar photovoltaic panels–have been hailed as an answer to all our energy problems. Certainly, politicians need something to provide hope, especially in countries that are obviously losing their supply of oil, such as the United Kingdom. Unfortunately, … Continue reading
Posted in Alternatives to Oil, Financial Implications
Tagged carbon dioxide, climate change, CO2, renewables, solar energy, solar voltaic, wind
657 Comments
