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In TCASE (thinking critically about sustainable energy) #5, I analysed a currently deployed technology for harnessing wave energy – the Pelamis device. If you haven’t read TCASE 5 then please do so now, since it explains some of the basic physical properties of wave energy, the extend of the global resource, etc. In writing the […]
Filed under: Renewables, TCASE | Tagged: | 39 Comments »
Guest Post by Peter Lang. Peter is a retired geologist and engineer with 40 years experience on a wide range of energy projects throughout the world, including managing energy R&D and providing policy advice for government and opposition. His experience includes: coal, oil, gas, hydro, geothermal, nuclear power plants, nuclear waste disposal, and a wide […]
Filed under: Nuclear, Renewables | Tagged: | 199 Comments »
The previous BNC post, a guest contribution by Douglas Wise, provided an excellent and thorough review of the political and technical issues facing the UK energy scene. Douglas’ post was also timely, because, last week, the esteemed Royal Academy of Engineering released a new 27-page report on this topic. Although useful as a crystal-ball-gazing exercise, the report has […]
Filed under: Nuclear, Renewables | Tagged: | 36 Comments »
If you ask Jim Hansen to name the single most important thing required to avert catastrophic climate change, he’ll say this: don’t burn all the coal (nor unconventional fossil fuels, such as tar sands and oil shales). Ideally, we would also prefer to leave some of the oil, and much of the natural gas, in […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Emissions | Tagged: | 94 Comments »
Guest Post by Peter Lang. Peter is a retired geologist and engineer with 40 years experience on a wide range of energy projects throughout the world, including managing energy R&D and providing policy advice for government and opposition. His experience includes: coal, oil, gas, hydro, geothermal, nuclear power plants, nuclear waste disposal, and a wide […]
Filed under: Emissions, Nuclear | Tagged: | 536 Comments »
As I discussed briefly here, author Tom Blees is visiting Australia in the first two weeks of February, as reported on our Environment Institute blog. Tom is the author of “Prescription for the Planet”, which presents a solution to the world’s energy and environmental crises (for reviews of the book on BNC, see here and here […]
Filed under: Emissions, Nuclear | Tagged: | 67 Comments »
I’m sometimes asked to describe what science is. Well, there are many definitions and philosophical positions which cover this question, but to me, as a working scientist, one stands out above all others as relevant to what I do. Science constrains uncertainty. Or, to put it in a slightly longer form, science is the method […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Impacts | Tagged: | 67 Comments »
“We must cut our carbon emissions immediately!“… “We have to transition rapidly to 100% renewable energy!“… “A massive nuclear build out is the only logical course of action!“… and so on. We get these well-meant but hand-waving arguments all the time, almost always bereft of real-world numbers — especially those with $$ attached. This greatly […]
Filed under: Emissions, Nuclear, Renewables | Tagged: | 341 Comments »
Here is an incomplete list of the sustainable energy and climate change books I read in 2009 (actually, a few also scraped in from late 2008). I’ve provided a 2 — 3 sentence summary of each book (from my perspective) and a Rating out of 5. Some books have been reviewed in more detail on […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Emissions, Future, Impacts, Nuclear, Renewables | Tagged: | 28 Comments »
As the end of 2009 approaches, I have many BraveNewClimate blog posts that are developing behind the scenes — more from the IFR FaD and TCASE series, a guest post by Tom Blees on the natural gas ‘game’, a guest post by a new BNC writer on wind farm planning problems, a report about my upcoming […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Hot News, Sceptics | Tagged: | 39 Comments »
The November 2009 issue of Scientific American has a cover story by Mark Z. Jacobson (Professor, Stanford) and Mark A. Delucchi (researcher, UC Davis). It’s entitled “A path to sustainable energy by 2030” (p 58 – 65; they call it WWS: wind, water or sunlight). This popular article is supported by a technical analysis, which […]
Filed under: Renewables | Tagged: | 192 Comments »
This is the first post in what is planned to be an extended series, ‘Thinking critically about sustainable energy‘ (henceforth TCASE #). As explained in my previous blog entry, A necessary interlude, this series will look in detail at the issues confronting renewable and nuclear energy, with an aim to break down the often complex […]
Filed under: Nuclear, Renewables, TCASE | Tagged: | 93 Comments »
Thinking critically about sustainable energy (TCASE series): A necessary interlude TCASE 1: Prologue TCASE 2: Energy primer TCASE 3: The energy demand equation to 2050 TCASE 4: Energy system build rates and material inputs TCASE 5: Ocean power I – Pelamis TCASE 6: Cooling water and thermal power plants TCASE 7: Scaling up Andasol 1 to […]
Peter Lang’s ‘solar realities’ paper and its associated discussion thread has generated an enormous amount of interest on BraveNewClimate (435 comments to date). Peter and I have greatly appreciated the feedback (although not always agreed with the critiques!), and this has led Peter to prepare: (a) an updated version of ‘Solar Realites’ (download the updated […]
Filed under: Nuclear, Renewables | Tagged: | 321 Comments »
The two recent posts focusing on Peter Lang’s wind study have generated considerable debate, and some very stimulating discussion, among BNC readers. This post is a follow-up, which this time highlights Lang’s analysis of solar power and related problems associated with energy storage. This is about solar photovoltaics (PV), which generate electricity directly via the […]
Filed under: Nuclear, Renewables | Tagged: | 505 Comments »
The following is a response from Peter Lang to various comments made in the post “Does wind power reduce carbon emissions?“ Energy Storage Energy storage, at the scale required to make wind power a reliable source of dispatchable power, is uneconomic. This link provides comparative costs of energy storage technologies. Even without energy storage wind […]
Filed under: Emissions, Nuclear | Tagged: | 236 Comments »
Update: Peter Lang, author of the wind study referred to below, responds here. If renewable or nuclear energy is going to be successful in decarbonising our electricity supply (and, ultimately, all energy use), it needs to hit a couple of fundamental benchmarks: (i) its life cycle energy inputs must be low compared to its ‘clean energy’ […]
Filed under: Nuclear, Renewables | Tagged: | 254 Comments »
These are the top 10 most viewed posts on BraveNewClimate – happy reading (hits and # comments, in brackets): —————————————————- Top 10 climate sceptics posts 1. Ian Plimer – Heaven and Earth (45,780; 1,028) 2. Spot the recycled denial III – Prof Ian Plimer (7,509; 40) 3. Sceptics (6,709; 15) 4. Dr David Evans: born-again ‘alarmist’? […]
IFR FaD 4 – a lifetime of energy in the palm of your handBelow is a compilation of posts I’ve made on Brave New Climate (each with plenty of hyperlinks to external resources for futher reading) which refer to nuclear power and the Gen IV exemplar design, the Integral Fast Reactor Nuclear Power (IFR). Please be […]
This page provides links to the most significant climate action plans and policy critiques that have been posted on BraveNewClimate. It is updated regularly. Science Council for Global Initiatives We need a real global plan for carbon mitigation We need a real global plan for carbon mitigation A sketch plan for a zero-carbon Australia Emission cuts […]
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