Energy For Survival

Life After the Oil Crash

2010-07-15T16:10:00.000+02:00

"Are We 'Running Out'? I Thought There Was 40 Years of the Stuff Left"
Oil will not just "run out" because all oil production follows a bell curve. This is true whether we're talking about an individual field, a country, or on the planet as a whole.
Oil is increasingly plentiful on the upslope of the bell curve, increasingly scarce and expensive on the down slope. The peak of the curve coincides with the point at which the endowment of oil has been 50 percent depleted. Once the peak is passed, oil production begins to go down while cost begins to go up.
In practical and considerably oversimplified terms, this means that if 2005 was the year of global Peak Oil, worldwide oil production in the year 2030 will be the same as it was in 1980. However, the world’s population in 2030 will be both much larger (approximately twice) and much more industrialized (oil-dependent) than it was in 1980. Consequently, worldwide demand for oil will outpace worldwide production of oil by a significant margin. As a result, the price will skyrocket, oil dependant economies will crumble, and resource wars will explode.

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End of oil: End of another human era

2010-07-12T15:03:00.003+02:00

By Ioannis Michaletos

The oil era seems to end in several decades from today, whilst the world markets are experiencing an upward trend in the energy price index. Moreover the consumption of fossil fuel is accelerating due to the growth of the Asian economies and in Eurasia the Russian corporations are eager in controlling most of the energy flow to Europe.

The worldwide oil consumption has increased some 25% over the past decade more than 85 million barrels of oil are needed to meet the daily needs of the globe. With the present consumption rates the oil era will end in less than 40 years. This can be calculated by the fact that the total known reserves amount around 1, 2 trillion barrels. Further, the reserves are distributed unequally in the different geographical zones of the earth, and that means that some countries will experience a shortage much sooner than others.
The oil price has already reached $111.5 and it remains to be seen if it is going to stabilize at even higher price. By taking into account that 40% of energy consumption derives from oil; Western governments already predict a slower growth with and as much as 0.5% of GDP lost in the coming year. Moreover the combination of increased consumption (By India-China), the upward pressure by the options & derivatives market, the weakening of the Dollar and the diminishing reserves, create an explosive situation that can erupt in the future and lay the basis of a world economic crisis.
The greater Middle East region still reigns with the largest oil fields and some other countries like Venezuela, Russia, and Nigeria can be said to form the foundation of the production markets. On the other hand the five largest petroleum corporations (Exxon-Mobil, Shell, BP, Chevron, and Total) made more than $120 billion of profits in total last year, of which 39.5 billion were Exxon-Mobil’s alone. Due to their immense cash-flow the oil industry is still considered as one of the pillars of the modern economic system, apart from their influence in major geostrategic decisions.

The depletion of reserves

It is more than certain that the last drop of oil produced will derive from an oil well in the Middle East. The region according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy 07 produces 31.5% of the world’s total and holds 61.5% of the known reserves.
China’s dynamic entrance in the market assists greatly in the projection that in 20 years from now consumption will have increased some 40% and at that period the peak oil will not just be a term but a distressful reality. Of course the 39 years estimation is calculated for the world total and not for every individual country. Thus the rich in oil states will further upgrade their importance since they will be the ones dictating the rules of the game during the last annum of the oil period. For instance Iraq holds around 115 billion barrels and produces 2 million per day. That’s sufficient for another 100 years or so, whilst Saudi Arabia with 264 billion barrels and 11 million barrels production can hold on for not more of 67 years. Iran another key country will have sufficient amounts for around another 87 years. As it can be shown the interest of the world is rightly centered in the Middle East, because apart from other political developments, those countries will play a very significant role for the global economy from 2040 and beyond.
The OPEC states in general produce 45% of the global production and have 76% of the total reserves. Their cartel is challenged only periodically by the hedge funds that profit from legal gambling on the energy prices. Should the trend continue OPEC will further empower itself, when other non-member oil producing countries such as Norway, Brazil, and Russia deplete their resources (9, 18.5 & 22.5 years respectively).
The main quest for all the main energy players is to discover new oil fields or to take advantage of the new technologies in order to proceed in alternative modes of extracting oil. The oil sands in Canada could prove to be a promising opportunity, worth some 165 billion barrels of oil, even though that won’t stop the peak oil reality, rather it will delay a bit the overall path.
Furthermore over the past generation there has been little investment in the refinery sector of the oil energy industry. Both USA and Russia have neglected to invest in their refinery industries, thus contributed in the overall scenery. There are also serious considerations around Russia’s ability to manage its energy know-how in order to invest in new oil fields as well, thus future plans relating to oil transfer and new pipelines might end up to be just pipedreams, whilst future seams bleak for the market that cannot wait for long-term investments.
Since the first industrial extraction of oil int he modern era, more than 1.1 trillion barrels have been consumed. The interesting part is the acceleration of consumption during the past generation. In 1984 China required 1.7 million barrels per day; nowadays the figure has stepped to 7.5 million. India consumed 0.8 million barrels and today it needs 2.6 million. Both countries are still behind the living status of the post-industrialized Western markets and that is not reassuring that consumption rates will lower their growth. As it can be easily understood the oil era cannot have any future judging the nature of our social system which is based in over-consumption and the eagerness of the Eastern Asian states to imitate the Western way of living.

The underlying strategic landscape

The pessimist projections will lead to an overturn of the standing political balances across the world. Every state in need of oil will have to move fast in order to acquire new sources and be able to withstand the passage from the oil era to a new one, which is not yet well defined. It is not by coincidence that two of the most critical areas in the planet are Iraq, and Iran –As they have been for many decades now-.Even the former Director of the American Federal Bank (Greenspan) has implied that the war in Iraq had mainly motives that include the control of the commodity beneath its surface. The American economy which is responsible for 25% of the world’s consumption is still very much dependent on oil, despite recent moves to initiate renewable resources investments of a grand scale. The interest on the global warming and the environmental destruction was highly elevated since 2001, due to purely political and economic reasons that relate to the demise of the oil era and the turbulent situation in the Muslim world that controls much of this source. The issues here is the high costs of using sources as the solar and wind one and the low returns on investments that they provide. Actually oil is still much cheaper than any renewable commodity, thus the main challenge will be for the USA to retain its primal position in the world energy system for several decades and in parallel introduce new cost-effective technologies. To that one can add that the growth of renewable energy might alter the established world order by changing the importance of certain geographical regions in favor for other ones; and that constitutes another strategic quest for the policy planners and futurologists alike.
China and India are due to their rising needs two other power units that alter the established strategic notions. They will have to secure new energy sources; therefore they will try to re-engineer the global power blocs to their advantage. The deals signed between Iran-China, Russia-China, African countries & China, since 2001 are just a preparatory phase of what may follow next. Venezuela under Chavez leadership constitutes an emblem of energy nationalism which seems to becoming a trend in Latin America. His policies have global repercussions and an alignment of his state with the emerging giants of the East is a probable outcome in the near future.

Iraq by itself is a major issue, since the production of the country is not sufficient enough to assure a steady flow to the markets, as it was the case before the 2003 war. For the moment there are not signs of any positive development in that field and it should be noted that Iraq was at time the second largest oil producer in OPEC and its severe decrease means significant rise in oil prices. Terrorism also –And not just in Iraq- is an X factor for oil prices. For instance the attack on the oil industry complex in Saudi Arabia by Al Qaeda in May 2004 witnessed a sudden spike on prices, despite the failure of the terrorist act. One should wonder of the consequences of a successful terrorist attack in an oil-producing country, a hypothesis regularly discussed by security analysts across the globe.
Lastly Russia is a state that uses its natural resources wealth for geopolitical expansion and its main tool to re-establish most of the space lost due to the break-up of the USSR and the dissolution of the Soviet Empire. Actually when mentioning Russian diplomacy nowadays one means energy politics. Moscow is steadily becoming the major source for the European markets and gains footholds in East Asia. Simultaneously it retains a grip in the production of Central Asian countries by signing a multitude of agreements that require the trespassing of their exporting pipelines from its territory in order to influence directly the production of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and others.
The short-term projection in relation to the strategic landscape is actually more difficult to define than the long-term. OPEC seems to loose its influence it has since 1973 due to the Russia initiatives, the USA control of Iraq, the Venezuelan directions and the all-pervading reach of the international capital markets in the form of the hedge funds. Note however that the peak oil will elevate once again OPEC that holds most of the resources and certainly the Middle East can be said to represent the Middle of every energy related strategy in the future.

The quest for alternative production

The presentation of the aforementioned challenges & events already sweeping across the world, have activated a quest for making use of any type of material possible in order to both ease dependency on oil & gas along with the political implications that this implies. The Shell Research & Development sector has transmitted in the media that there is a great chance of making use of Kerogen a mixture of organic chemical compounds found in sedimentary rocks. A region in the USA that contains large amounts is a 17,000 Sq. mile one between Utah and Colorado. It is guessed that approximately 800 billion barrels of retrievable oil can be extracted an amount three times the one of the Saudi Arabia’s reserve. The area mentioned is named Green River and can produce up to 5 million barrels of oil per day, which is 17% of the present daily consumption. Shell expects to receive the appropriate license to begin using a new method to extract oil from there, and this revolutionary development might alter the future of oil politics. It has to be noted that there are not any clear projections on the financial viability of this investment, something that will be ascertained in the future.
Notable Kerogen amounts can be found also in Brazil, China, Jordan, Israel, Thailand, Russia and Korea. In total at least 3 trillion barrels of oil can be retrieved which is almost 3 times the currently assessed petroleum reserves. A drawback of the extraction process by Kerogene is the use of excessive amounts of water, something that might hinder the ability to use this technology in desert regions lacking water. Shell has invested 855 million USD on Kerogen research in 2006 and according to Fortune magazine the corporation has dedicated over 200 million Dollars per annum over the past 28 years in this project. Certainly this might be a future solution that will have its ramifications in the energy security politics.

The International Energy Agency predicts that up to 2030 the world energy needs will increase at least 60% due to the growth of China, India and the other booming developing economies. That means that in the next generation or so, the countries in OECD alone should develop new energy resources as much as 2,000 GW. That means renewable energy production should be introduced in any case regardless of the discovery of new modes of producing hydrocarbon.
Photovoltaic energy is being viewed as a promising renewable energy resource that has a plentiful of advantages. It is a clean mode of producing electricity without emissions; it doesn’t involve substantial operational costs and can provide a durable and trustworthy production. Germany for example which produces for 2006, 3,063 MWp and holds around 50% of the global market.
Wind energy is another resource that has gained popularity and promises clean energy and energy security at the same time. According to the World Wind Energy Association globally, the wind power generation more than quadrupled between 2000 and 2006.
At the end of 2006, worldwide capacity of wind-powered generators was 73.9 gigawatts, and the main producers are: Denmark (19% of its electricity production), Spain & Portugal (9%), Germany & Ireland (6%).
Lastly the Coal Storage techniques that have been introduced by BP, Total, Duke Energy, RWE, Vattenfal and others, might revive coal as clean energy resource, although the whole process is under scientific review and the commercial results are about to be seen in a decade from now.

What lies ahead?
The synthesis between the energy security quest by the Western countries and the demise of the oil era, leave no other option but for the use and deployment of new technologies and techniques in the field of alternative energy. Despite the fact that they are less cost effective presently, they have the crucial advantage of relieving the world from the perils of environmental destruction, although the current projections by concerned citizens and NGO’s portray a much worse depiction of what the reality is actually, a hotly debated subjected suitable for another discourse.
In the meantime before the demise of oil and the introduction of renewable energy new methods have to be used in order to ease the transformation, especially in the countries affected mostly. Furthermore the ongoing research on the use of hydrogen power is bearing fruits, even though it has to be noted that for the mid-term and possibly until the end of the first centenary of the 21st century, hydrogen will rely to the use of natural gas as a cost effective and reliable way to produce hydrogen. A latest development on that is the effort by the Abu Dhabi Emirate to invest 15 billion Dollars in order to construct the largest hydrogen production facility in the world. That will constitute the first phase of this gigantic project that will use natural gas as a production commodity, a material in abundance in that country.
Albeit that will not solve the issue of energy dependency of Western states by the gas producers notable Russia and the Middle East. Thus it is probable that for political reasons solar, wind, wave and other forms of renewable energy will enter the market with a greater role, until technological advancements can solve the complex issue of hydrogen production.
Technology & energy security considerations go hand by hand in the peak oil era that has to be managed skillfully by the political establishments across the globe in order not to experience a looming crisis that will certainly erupt to a military one and will visualize the Armageddon perhaps as envisaged in the Apocalypse. Energy is the blood of the global system since the period man became dependent in machinery for his own needs. That will continue into the future and this century seems to be a pivotal age for the human race to enter a new stage shedding the hydrocarbon one. The decisions made by the politicians in the near future will dictate more at stake than it can be assumed at a first glance presently.

Reserves Years until oil depletion
USA 30 billion barrels 12
Venezuela 80 billion barrels 78
Kazakhstan 40 billion 77
Russia 80 billion barrels 22,5
Iran 137 billion barrels 87
Iraq 115 billion barrels 100
Kuwait 101 billion barrels 100
Saudi Arabia 265 billion barrels 67
UAE 98 billion barrels 90
Libya 41,5 barrels 62
Nigeria 36 billion barrels 40

Source: BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2007

International Analyst Network 21 Mar 2008

Solar Energy

2010-07-08T18:03:00.003+02:00

The Earth receives an incredible supply of solar energy. The sun, an average star, is a fusion reactor that has been burning over 4 billion years. It provides enough energy in one minute to supply the world's energy needs for one year. In one day, it provides more energy than our current population would consume in 27 years. In fact, "The amount of solar radiation striking the earth over a three-day period is equivalent to the energy stored in all fossil energy sources."

Solar power is just as practical in populated areas connected to the local electrical power grid as it is in remote areas. "An average home has more than enough roof area to produce enough solar electricity to supply all of its power needs. With an off inverter, which converts direct current (DC) power from the solar cells to alternating current (AC), which is what most home appliances run on, a solar home can look and operate very much like a home that is connected to a power line." With a grid tie inverter, the DC electricity is still converted to AC and used to power normal appliances but any excess electricity generated can be fed back to the electical grid.
Solar energy is a free, inexhaustible resource, yet harnessing it is a relatively new idea. The ability to use solar power for heat was the first discovery. A Swiss scientist, Horace de Saussure, built the first thermal solar collector in 1767, which was later used to heat water and cook food. The first commercial patent for a solar water heater went to Clarence Kemp of the US in 1891. This system was bought by two California executives and installed in one-third of the homes in Pasadena by 1897.
Producing electricity from solar energy was the second discovery. In 1839 a French physicist named Edmund Becquerel realized that the sun's energy could produce a "photovoltaic effect" (photo = light, voltaic = electrical potential). In the 1880s, selenium photovoltaic (PV) cells were developed that could convert light into electricity with 1-2% efficiency ("the efficiency of a solar cell is the percentage of available sunlight converted by the photovoltaic cell into electricity"), but how the conversion happened was not understood. Photovoltaic power therefore "remained a curiosity for many years, since it was very inefficient at turning sunlight into electricity." It was not until Albert Einstein proposed an explanation for the "photoelectric effect" in the early 1900s, for which he won a Nobel Prize, that people began to understand the related photovoltaic effect.
CHECK OUT THE SOLAR MAP
"Solar technology advanced to roughly its present design in 1908 when William J. Bailey of the Carnegie Steel Company invented a collector with an insulated box and copper coils." By the mid-1950s Bell Telephone Labs had achieved 4% efficiency, and later 11% efficiency, with silicon PV cells. From then on, interest in solar power intensified. During the late 1950s and 1960s, the space program took an active role in the development of photovoltaics. "The cells were perfect sources of electric power for satellites because they were rugged, lightweight and could meet the low power requirements reliably." Unfortunately, the cells were not practical for use on earth due to the high cost of making them efficient and lightweight, so further research was necessary.
Solar energy may have had great potential , but it was left on the backburner whenever fossil fuels were more affordable and available. "Only in the last few decades when growing energy demands, increasing environmental problems and declining fossil fuel resources made us look to alternative energy options have we focused our attention on truly exploiting this tremendous resource." For instance, the US Department of Energy funded the installation and testing of over 3,000 PV systems during the 1973-1974 oil embargo. By the late 1970s, energy companies and government agencies had invested in the PV industry, and "a tremendous acceleration in module development took place." Solar energy improvements were again sought during the Gulf War in the 1990s.
Considering that "the first practical solar cells were made less than 30 years ago," we have come a long way. The biggest jumps in efficiency came "with the advent of the transistor and accompanying semiconductor technology." The production cost has fallen to nearly 1/300 of what it was during the space program of the mid-century and the purchase cost has gone from $200 per watt in the 1950s to a mere $5 per watt today. The efficiency has increased dramatically to 18.8% the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Lab's new world record as of February 1999.
We still use solar power in the same two forms today, thermal and photovoltaic. The first concentrates sunlight, converts it into heat, and applies it to a steam generator or engine to be converted into electricity in order "to warm buildings, heat water, generate electricity, dry crops or destroy dangerous waste." Electricity is generated when the heated fluid drives turbines or other machinery. The second form of solar power produces electricity directly without moving parts. Today's photovoltaic system is composed of cells made of silicon, the second most abundant element in the earth's crust. "Power is produced when sunlight strikes the semiconductor material and creates an electric current." The smallest unit of the system is a cell. Cells wired together form a module, and modules wired together form a panel. A group of panels is called an array, and several arrays form an array field.
There are several advantages of photovoltaic solar power that make it "one of the most promising renewable energy sources in the world." It is non-polluting, has no moving parts that could break down, requires little maintenance and no supervision, and has a life of 20-30 years with low running costs. It is especially unique because no large-scale installation is required. Remote areas can easily produce their own supply of electricity by constructing as small or as large of a system as needed. Solar power generators are simply distributed to homes, schools, or businesses, where their assembly requires no extra development or land area and their function is safe and quiet. As communities grow, more solar energy capacity can be added, "thereby allowing power generation to keep in step with growing needs without having to overbuild generation capacity as is often the case with conventional large scale power systems." Compare those characteristics to those of coal, oil, gas, or nuclear power, and the choice is easy. Solar energy technologies offer a clean, renewable and domestic energy source.
Photovoltaic power even has advantages over wind power, hydropower, and solar thermal power. The latter three require turbines with moving parts that are noisy and require maintenance.
Solar energy is most sought today in developing countries, the fastest growing segment of the photovoltaics market. People go without electricity as the sun beats down on the land, making solar power the obvious energy choice. "Governments are finding its modular, decentralized character ideal for filling the electric needs of the thousands of remote villages in their countries." It is much more practical than the extension of expensive power lines into remote areas, where people do not have the money to pay for conventional electricity.
India is becoming one of the world's main producers of PV modules, with plans to power 100,000 villages and install solar-powered telephones in its 500,000 villages. By 2000, Mexico plans to have electrified 60,000 villages with solar power. Zaire 's Hospital Bulape serves 50,000 outpatients per year and is run completely on solar power, from air conditioning to x-ray equipment. And in Moroccan bazaars, carpets, tin ware, and solar panels lie side by side for sale. Probably the most outstanding example of a country's commitment to solar power is in Israel . In 1992, over half of all households (700,000) heated their water with solar energy systems. And there are 50,000 new installations every year.
Household energy supply is but one use of solar power. There are actually four broad categories that can be identified for solar energy use: industrial, rural habitation, grid-connected, and consumer/indoor. Industrial uses represent the largest applications of solar power in the past 30 years. "Telecommunications, oil companies, and highway safety equipment all rely on solar power for dependable, constant power far from any power lines." Roadside call boxes and lighted highway signs rely on the sun's energy in order to provide reliable services without buried cable connections or diesel generators. Navigational systems such as marine buoys and other unmanned installations in harsh remote areas are also ideal applications for solar power because "the load demands are well known and the requirements for reliable power are the highest." Rural habitation includes "cabins, homes, villages, clinics, schools, farms, as well as individually powered lights and small appliances." Grid-connected systems pair solar power with an existing grid network in order to supply a commercial site with enough energy to meet a high demand, or to supplement a family's household supply. Consumer/indoor uses of PV cells include watches and calculators; PV modules power computers and radios.
The practicality and environmentally safe nature of solar power is influencing people worldwide, which is evident in equipment sales. According to Seimens Solar, production of PV cells and modules increased threefold from 40 MW in 1990 to about 120 MW in 1998. "Worldwide sales have been increasing at an average rate of about 15% every year during the last decade . We believe that there is a realistic possibility for the market to continue to grow at about a 15% rate into the next decade. At this rate, the world production capacity would be 1000 MW by 2010, and photovoltaics could be a $5 billion industry."
There are only two primary disadvantages to using solar power: amount of sunlight and cost of equipment. The amount of sunlight a location receives "varies greatly depending on geographical location, time of day, season and clouds. The southwestern United States is one of the world's best areas for sunlight . Globally, other areas receiving very high solar intensities include developing nations in Asia, Africa and Latin America ." See also sustainable house design
But a person living in Siberia would not benefit much from this renewable resource. And while "solar energy technologies have made huge technological and cost improvements, [they]are still more expensive than traditional energy sources." However solar equipment will eventually pay for itself in 2 to 5 years depending on h ow much sun a particular location receives. Then the user will have a virtually free energy source until the end of the equipment's working life, according to a paper called "Energy Payback Time of Crystalline Silicon Solar Modules." Future improvements are projected to decrease the payback time to 1 to 3 years.
The best way of lowering the cost of solar energy is to improve the cell's efficiency, according to Larry Kazmerski, Director of the DOE's National Center for Photovoltaics. "As the scientists and researchers at the NCPV push the envelope of solar-cell efficiency, we can begin to visualize the day when energy from the sun will be generating a significant portion of the country's electric power demand." Any improvements and subsequent cost cuts will also be vital to space applications.
As the price of solar power lowers and that of conventional fuels rises, photovoltaics "is entering a new era of international growth." So much so, that solar power "will remain an excellent energy option, long after the momentary fossil fuel model fades into smoke."

Source: www.altenergy.org

Renewable Energy

2010-07-08T17:59:00.002+02:00

There are many forms of renewable energy . Most of these renewable energies depend in one way or another on sunlight. Wind and hydroelectric power are the direct result of differential heating of the Earth's surface which leads to air moving about (wind) and precipitation forming as the air is lifted. Solar energy is the direct conversion of sunlight using panels or collectors. Biomass energy is stored sunlight contained in plants. Other renewable energies that do not depend on sunlight are geothermal energy, which is a result of radioactive decay in the crust combined with the original heat of accreting the Earth, and tidal energy, which is a conversion of gravitational energy.

Solar. This form of energy relies on the nuclear fusion power from the core of the Sun. This energy can be collected and converted in a few different ways. The range is from solar water heating with solar collectors or attic cooling with solar attic fans for domestic use to the complex technologies of direct conversion of sunlight to electrical energy using mirrors and boilers or photovoltaic cells. Unfortunately these are currently insufficient to fully power our modern society.
Wind Power. The movement of the atmosphere is driven by differences of temperature at the Earth's surface due to varying temperatures of the Earth's surface when lit by sunlight. Wind energy can be used to pump water or generate electricity, but requires extensive areal coverage to produce significant amounts of energy.
Hydroelectric energy. This form uses the gravitational potential of elevated water that was lifted from the oceans by sunlight. It is not strictly speaking renewable since all reservoirs eventually fill up and require very expensive excavation to become useful again. At this time, most of the available locations for hydroelectric dams are already used in the developed world.
Biomass is the term for energy from plants. Energy in this form is very commonly used throughout the world. Unfortunately the most popular is the burning of trees for cooking and warmth. This process releases copious amounts of carbon dioxide gases into the atmosphere and is a major contributor to unhealthy air in many areas. Some of the more modern forms of biomass energy are methane generation and production of alcohol for automobile fuel and fueling electric power plants.
Hydrogen and fuel cells. These are also not strictly renewable energy resources but are very abundant in availability and are very low in pollution when utilized. Hydrogen can be burned as a fuel, typically in a vehicle, with only water as the combustion product. This clean burning fuel can mean a significant reduction of pollution in cities. Or the hydrogen can be used in fuel cells, which are similar to batteries, to power an electric motor. In either case significant production of hydrogen requires abundant power. Due to the need for energy to produce the initial hydrogen gas, the result is the relocation of pollution from the cities to the power plants. There are several promising methods to produce hydrogen, such as solar power, that may alter this picture drastically.
Geothermal power. Energy left over from the original accretion of the planet and augmented by heat from radioactive decay seeps out slowly everywhere, everyday. In certain areas the geothermal gradient (increase in temperature with depth) is high enough to exploit to generate electricity. This possibility is limited to a few locations on Earth and many technical problems exist that limit its utility. Another form of geothermal energy is Earth energy, a result of the heat storage in the Earth's surface. Soil everywhere tends to stay at a relatively constant temperature, the yearly average, and can be used with heat pumps to heat a building in winter and cool a building in summer. This form of energy can lessen the need for other power to maintain comfortable temperatures in buildings, but cannot be used to produce electricity.
Other forms of energy. Energy from tides, the oceans and hot hydrogen fusion are other forms that can be used to generate electricity. Each of these is discussed in some detail with the final result being that each suffers from one or another significant drawback and cannot be relied upon at this time to solve the upcoming energy crunch.

Source: www.altenergy.org

Renewable Energy: Wind Power

2010-07-07T15:33:00.000+02:00

New energy solutions

2010-07-06T15:48:00.000+02:00

Oil era is near the end.
We desperately need new energy solutions for survival.