03 February, 2012
Nuclear Fusion
By Tom Murphy
Our energy future is highly uncertain. Commercial fusion may come along decades down the road—mid-century at the earliest—but even then it is yet another source of heat that we can use to make electricity. Another step (mobile storage) must accompany fusion development to replace petroleum functions, and even then at significant disadvantage in energy density using current technologies. So yeah—I hope it helps us out one day. But I’m not sure we can wait that long
25 January, 2012
Is The Ocean An Alternative?
By Tom Murphy
As I cast about looking for reasons why I should not worry about our energy future, I find little solace when I look to the sea
12 January, 2012
Warm And Fuzzy On Geothermal?
By Tom Murphy
The Earth started its existence as a red-hot rock, and has been cooling ever since. It’s still quite toasty in the core, and will remain so for billions of years, yet. Cooling implies a flow of heat, and where heat flows, the possibility exists of capturing useful energy. Geysers and volcanoes are obvious manifestations of geothermal energy, but what role can it play toward satisfying our current global demand? Following the recent theme of Do the Math, we will put geothermal in one of three boxes labeled abundant, potent, or niche (puny). Have any guesses?
09 January, 2012
The Myth Of Renewable Energy
By Dawn Stover
There are now seven billion humans on this planet. Until we find a way to reduce our energy consumption and to share Earth's finite resources more equitably among nations and generations, "renewable" energy might as well be called "miscellaneous."
05 January, 2012
Nuclear Options
By Tom Murphy
Nuclear is likely to play an increasing role in our energy story. Energy hardship will trump concerns over waste, proliferation, and safety. As long as such hardship does not bind us in an Energy Trap or plunge us into dysfunction, we will likely build more plants. But because nuclear does not smack the primary problem right on the kisser (fossil fuel substitute), I doubt it will be heralded as the answer to our prayers, and imagine that its role will be correspondingly modest
21 December, 2011
How Much Dam Energy Can We Get?
By Tom Murphy
’m a fan of hydro power, and I’m glad nature does most of the work for us. Nonetheless, my mind is not much eased by the joint facts that it falls far short of our current demand and that it’s yet another way to make electricity. It’s a gift from nature, but much like getting yet another tie for Christmas to add to the pile, I’m not getting excited about the prospect of more dams
16 December, 2011
Can Tides Turn The Tide?
By Tom Murphy
We need a few solid, scalable, reliable solutions to fall back on. And tidal is not one of those. It’s more like a decoration than a foundation. Let’s use it where we can
23 November, 2011
A Solar-Powered Car?
By Tom Murphy
So solar powered cars fall solidly on the reality side of the reality-fantasy continuum. That said, pure solar transport (on board generation) will suffer serious limitations. More reliable transport comes with nuances that may be irritating to the purist. You can apply a bumper sticker that says SOLAR POWERED CAR, but in most cases, you will need to put an asterisk at the end with a lengthy footnote to explain exactly how you have realized that goal
14 November, 2011
The Biofuel Grind
By Tom Murphy
What about biofuels? To what extent can they solve our problem? We’ll dip our toes into the math and see where a first-cut analysis leaves us.
19 September, 2011
Got Storage? How Hard Can It Be?
By Tom Murphy
The lesson is that adequate storage appears at first-blush to border on impossible under the current profile of consumption in the U.S. But cut consumption down by a factor of five or so, and I become optimistic. Such deep cuts are not impossible: I can personally still participate in a western lifestyle at a fifth of the energy cost at home
19 July, 2011
Galactic-Scale Energy
By Tom Murphy
No matter what the technology, a sustained 2.3% energy growth rate would require us to produce as much energy as the entire sun within 1400 years. A word of warning: that power plant is going to run a little warm. Thermodynamics require that if we generated sun-comparable power on Earth, the surface of the Earth—being smaller than that of the sun—would have to be hotter than the surface of the sun!
08 July, 2011
Global Investments In Green Energy Up Nearly A Third
To US$211 Billion Says UNEP
By Marianne de Nazareth
According to the latest news released by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), China along with a number of developing countries are now the biggest investors in large-scale renewables while Germany surges ahead on rooftop solar. Last year, investors pumped a record US$211 billion into renewables -- about one-third more than the US$160 billion invested in 2009, and a 540% rise since 2004
24 April, 2011
Renewable Energy: No Solution For Consumer Society
By Ted Trainer
It would be difficult to find a more taken for granted, unquestioned assumption than that it will be possible to substitute renewable energy sources for fossil fuels, while consumer-capitalist society continues on its merry pursuit of limitless affluence and growth. There is a strong case that this assumption is seriously mistaken. Following is a summary of the discussion in my forthcoming book Renewable Energy Cannot Sustain Consumer Society
06 April, 2011
A Solar Transition Is Possible: Report
By Peter D. Schwartzman & David W. Schwartzman
Arguably no challenge is more serious for the world’s future than bringing about a rapid decarbonation of the energy infrastructure with the possibility of preventing the onset of catastrophic climate change. With a mathematical model we demonstrate that this transition is technically plausible using modest inputs of existing fossil fuel reserves in the creation of a global solar power infrastructure even with existing solar technologies such as wind turbines
22 March, 2011
Wind: The Center Of The Plan B Economy
By Lester R. Brown
For many years, a small handful of countries dominated growth in wind power, but this is changing as the industry goes global, with more than 70 countries now developing wind resources. Between 2000 and 2010, world wind electric generating capacity increased at a frenetic pace from 17,000 megawatts to nearly 200,000 megawatts
03 February, 2011
WWF Energy Report: 100% Renewable Energy By 2050
By Stephan Singer
Energy Report released by WWF claims that all the world’s energy needs could be provided cleanly, sustainably and economically by the year 2050
25 January, 2011
Green Energy’s Big Challenge: The Daunting Task Of Scaling Up
By David Biello
To shift the global economy from fossil fuels to renewable energy will require the construction of wind, solar, nuclear, and other installations on a vast scale, significantly altering the face of the planet. Can these new forms of energy approach the scale needed to meet the world’s energy demands?
16 September, 2010
The Limits And Potential Of Plant-Based Energy
By Lester Brown
As oil and natural gas reserves are being depleted, the world's attention is increasingly turning to plant-based energy sources. The potential use of plant-based sources of energy is limited because even corn -- the most efficient of the grain crops -- can convert just 0.5 percent of solar energy into a usable form. In contrast, solar PV or solar thermal power plants convert roughly 15 percent of sunlight into a usable form
28 July, 2010
Wind Power Can Change The World --Why Aren't We Investing In It?
By Melinda Burns
A lack of continuous federal support cripples emerging clean energy industries in the United States
Net Energy Of Ethanol Minimal: Study
By David Murphy
The EROI values for counties with biorefineries ranged from 0.64 in Stark, North Dakota, to 1.18 in Phillips, Kansas. Our analysis of 127 biorefineries indicated that of 31.6 billion liters of ethanol produced in the United States, only 1.6 billion liters were net energy (roughly 5%)
09 July, 2010
Can The World Run On Renewables,
Nuclear Energy And Geo-Sequestration?
The Negative Case
By Ted Trainer
For many years I have been arguing that consumer-capitalist society is so grossly unsustainable that technical advance cannot solve the problems it is generating. I have especially developed the case against the dominant belief that alternative energy sources can substitute for fossil fuels. This is not an argument against transition to renewables. We must do that, and we could live well on them, but not at anything like the levels of consumption we have today
12 February, 2010
It’s Time For A Solar Revolution
By Senator Bernie Sanders
Senator Bernie Sanders and 10 others (Senators Whitehouse, Cardin, Gillibrand, Merkley, Lautenberg, Leahy, Boxer, Menendez, Specter, and Harkin) has introduced the Ten Million Solar Roofs Act. The legislation will rapidly increase production of solar panels, driving down the price of photovoltaic systems. It also would mean the creation of over a million new jobs. The passage of this bill would dramatically reorient our energy priorities and would be a major step forward toward a clean energy future for the United States
23 January, 2010
A Global Push For Renewable Energy
By Alice Slater
With 142 member nations already signed on, the new International Renewable Energy Agency is promoting a fast, global transition to clean, safe, and renewable energy.
Document Actions
05 August, 2008
Solar Power Breakthrough
By ENS
Within 10 years, homeowners could power their homes in daylight with solar photovoltaic cells, while using excess solar energy to produce hydrogen and oxygen from water to power a household fuel cell. If the new process developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology finds acceptance in the marketplace, electricity-by-wire from a central source could be a thing of the past
