Posted on 28 March 2012 by Barry Brook |
Guest Post by Ben Heard. Ben is Director of Adelaide-based advisory firm ThinkClimate Consulting, a Masters graduate of Monash University in Corporate Environmental Sustainability, and a member of the TIA Environmental and Sustainability Action Committee. After several years with major consulting firms, Ben founded ThinkClimate and has since assisted a range of government, private and not-for profit organisations to measure, manage […]
Filed under: Hot News, Nuclear, Policy | Tagged: | 43 Comments »
Posted on 21 March 2012 by Barry Brook |
Recently on BNC, I ran two guest posts on the economic and technical challenges of supplying an energy-intensive, developed-world market using 100% renewable sources (under a situation where large hydro and/or conventional geothermal can provide little or no contribution). The case study was the national electricity market of Australia, with an average demand of 25-30 GWe. […]
Filed under: Renewables | Tagged: | 38 Comments »
Posted on 9 February 2012 by Barry Brook |
Download the printable 33-page PDF (includes two appendices, on scenario assumptions and transmission cost estimates) HERE. For an Excel workbook that includes all calculations (and can be used for sensitivity analysis), click HERE. By Peter Lang. Peter is a retired geologist and engineer with 40 years experience on a wide range of energy projects throughout […]
Filed under: Emissions, Policy, Renewables | Tagged: | 153 Comments »
Posted on 6 November 2011 by Barry Brook |
I saw two particularly depressing trend lines this week. Both were confronting enough to make me stop, sit back and just contemplate. It was not as though these came as a great surprise — I’d been following these data for years. But for some reason, the seriousness of them really struck home like never before. […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Emissions, Future, Hot News, Nuclear | Tagged: | 121 Comments »
Posted on 2 November 2011 by Barry Brook |
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 range of energy […]
Filed under: Emissions, Nuclear, Policy, Renewables | Tagged: | 262 Comments »
Posted on 21 May 2011 by Barry Brook |
The following post is intended as a working paper for discussion. (It builds on work started by Peter Lang back in 2009, Does wind power reduce carbon emissions?) This current work is based on the methods and conclusions from the recently published work by Herbert Inhaber in the peer-reviewed journal Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, entitled: […]
Filed under: Emissions, Policy, Renewables | Tagged: | 355 Comments »
Posted on 17 January 2011 by Barry Brook |
Guest Post by Geoff Russell. Geoff is a mathematician and computer programmer and is a member of Animal Liberation SA. His recently published book is CSIRO Perfidy. The United Nations report Livestock’s Long Shadow (LLS) came out in 2006 with an estimate that 18 percent of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are attributable to livestock. If you exclude deforestation emissions, […]
Filed under: Emissions, Impacts | Tagged: | 60 Comments »
All BNC posts, in chronological order. Hyperlinked Title DATE AUTHOR 2008 Welcome to A Brave New Climate 6/08/2008 Barry Brook Geoengineering – damned if you do, damned if you don’t? 7/08/2008 Barry Brook Climate Change Q&A Seminar 1: Is the Earth Warming (Discussion Thread) 8/08/2008 Barry Brook How long will Old King Coal reign? Part […]
Posted on 24 December 2010 by Barry Brook |
So, the year that was — 2010 — comes to a close, with 115 more BraveNewClimate blog posts in the archives, 13,500 more comments and 430,000 extra hits. Thanks to all the many BNC guest posters (Gene Preston, Geoff Russell, Peter Lang, John Morgan, DV82XL, Marion Brook, Tony Kevin, John Rolls, Paul Babie, Jim Green, Tom […]
Filed under: Open Thread | Tagged: | 324 Comments »
Posted on 7 November 2010 by Barry Brook |
I note that there has been some interesting discussion here on costs of electricity, especial the comparative value of fossil fuels versus nuclear (and renewables). This is a point I will revisit from a number of perspectives over the next few months, because I agree with commenters like Arthur Dent, Peter Lang and DV82XL that […]
Filed under: Emissions, Nuclear, Renewables | Tagged: | 259 Comments »
Posted on 2 November 2010 by Barry Brook |
Back in September, I visited UNSW in Sydney and debated Mark Diesendorf on nuclear and solar power. It was a useful night, with quite a few Sydney-based BNC readers attending. I was pleased with the outcome — I just hope the audio becomes available at some point. Now this “Brain Food” event comes to Melbourne. […]
Filed under: Emissions, Nuclear, Renewables | Tagged: | 95 Comments »
Posted on 9 September 2010 by Barry Brook |
When I was at UNSW yesterday — prior to my debate with Mark Diesendorf — I met up with Ted Trainer, author of ‘Renewable Energy Cannot Sustain a Consumer Society“. We had a great chat, and I think I even inched him a little towards IFRs (ever the optimist). Anyway, Ted asked me to post […]
Filed under: Emissions, Renewables | Tagged: | 82 Comments »
Posted on 1 September 2010 by Barry Brook |
About 1 year ago, I posted on BNC two important pieces by Peter Lang – “Does wind power reduce carbon emissions?” and a follow-up reply. Together, these stirred up considerable discussion (about 500 comments to date) and raised important questions about the ability of wind-energy to reduce emissions from burning fossil fuels, when natural gas usage for […]
Filed under: Emissions, Renewables | Tagged: | 134 Comments »
Posted on 22 August 2010 by Barry Brook |
Download the printable 13-page PDF (includes appendix) here. 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, […]
Filed under: Emissions, Renewables | Tagged: | 229 Comments »
Posted on 15 August 2010 by Barry Brook |
On Friday night, 13th August, I was awarded the 2010 Community Science Educator of the Year. On September 8, 2010, I will be speaking on nuclear and solar energy at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. The BraveNewClimate.com blog is 2 years old! Details below… —————————- I got back from China at midday […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Nuclear, Renewables | Tagged: | 23 Comments »
Posted on 12 August 2010 by Barry Brook |
‘Zero Carbon Australia – Stationary Energy Plan’ – Critique Download the printable PDF here [An addendum on wind farm and solar construction rates, by Dave Burraston] ———————— Edit: Here are some media-suitable ‘sound bytes’ from the critique, prepared by Martin. Obviously, please read the whole critique below to understand the context: They assume we will […]
Filed under: Renewables | Tagged: | 361 Comments »
Posted on 23 July 2010 by Barry Brook |
I’m about to fly out for a 3-week trip to the US and China (24 July to 15 Aug). But fear not! The BNC blog will remain active over that time. Indeed, there are quite a number of new posts in the pipeline for this period, including guest pieces by Rob Parker (this Sunday), Geoff […]
Filed under: Impacts, Nuclear | Tagged: | 11 Comments »
Posted on 12 July 2010 by Barry Brook |
Guest post by John D. Morgan. John runs R&D programmes at a Sydney startup company. He has a PhD in physical chemistry, and research experience in chemical engineering in the US and at CSIRO. He is a regular commenter on BNC. A 10-page printable PDF version of this post can be downloaded here. ———————————- Beyond […]
Filed under: Emissions, Nuclear, Renewables, TCASE | Tagged: | 108 Comments »
Posted on 4 July 2010 by Barry Brook |
In chapter 7 of his book “The Nuclear Energy Option“, Prof Bernard Cohen wrote the following provocative statement: It is very difficult to predict the future of scientific developments, and few would even dare to make predictions extending beyond the next 50 years. However, based on everything we know now, one can make a strong […]
Filed under: Nuclear | Tagged: | 168 Comments »
Posted on 25 June 2010 by Barry Brook |
This post follows on directly from part 1, which you can read here. Here, a list of frequently asked questions (FAQ) on climate change and nuclear energy are answered. These are quite deliberately not technical – you won’t find explanations of adiabatic lapse rates, actinide isotopes or Brayton cycle efficiency here! Nope… these are ‘big […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Emissions, Nuclear, Renewables | Tagged: | 282 Comments »
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