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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 | 39 Comments »
Before I write a scientific paper, I always try to identify: (1) my main message [MM], in 25 words or less, and (2) my target audience [TA]. Doing this helps focus the ‘story’ of the manuscript on a key point. Papers that try to present multiple messages are typically confusing and/or too long for busy […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Nuclear, Policy, Renewables | 37 Comments »
Guest post by Dr Mark Diesendorf, Institute of Environmental Studies, UNSW. Click here for a printable 6-page PDF version of this response. ——————- This is a personal response to Lang’s (2012) article critiquing the peer-reviewed paper Elliston, Diesendorf and MacGill (2011) ‘Simulations of scenarios with 100% renewable electricity in the Australian National Electricity Market’, referred […]
Filed under: Emissions, Policy, Renewables | 63 Comments »
Guest post by Dr Ted Trainer, University of NSW (http://ssis.arts.unsw.edu.au/tsw/). Wood, A, T. Ellis, D. Mulloworth, and H. Morrow (2012) No Easy Choices: Which Way to Australia’s Energy Future. Technology Analysis. Grattan Institute, Melbourne. This report is a valuable addition to the literature on the prospects for renewable energy in Australia, providing some recent data on key […]
Filed under: Emissions, Policy, Renewables | 68 Comments »
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 | 153 Comments »
Late last year, Tom Blees, I and a few other people from the International Award Committee of the Global Energy Prize answered reader’s energy questions on The Guardian’s Facebook page. The questions and answers were reproduced on BNC here. Now we’re at it again, this time for the website Eco-Business.com (tagline: Asia Pacific’s sustainable business community). My section […]
Filed under: Emissions, Nuclear, Renewables | 27 Comments »
The Christmas to New Year period is traditionally ‘hibernation mode’ for blogs, when page views and comment counts plummet (my hits have dropped about 70% compared to early December!). I suppose this is a time when people find better things to do than sit in front of a computer screen (family time, good food, beach/snow […]
Filed under: Hot News, Nuclear, Policy, Renewables | 33 Comments »
——————— Guest post by John 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. Energy minister Martin Ferguson has today released the Draft Energy White Paper 2011 (The Australian, ABC). The […]
Filed under: Nuclear, Policy, Renewables | 82 Comments »
The Guardian newspaper’s Environment Facebook page recently put the following to their readers: Ask the Global Energy Prize‘s expert panel your toughest energy questions and they’ll be back here on Friday with their answers. What should power our cities, homes and industry in the future — renewable energy, nuclear power, or fossil fuels? How significant […]
Filed under: Emissions, Nuclear, Renewables | 34 Comments »
Guest Post by Jani-Petri Martikainen. Jani-Petri is a theoretical physicist doing fundamental research in the field of ultracold quantum gases. Most of his current research activities are computational and involve bosonic or fermionic atoms in optical lattices. He has a lively interest on environmental, climate, and energy issues. He runs the blog PassiiviIdentiteetti, which is mostly written in Finnish. […]
Filed under: Emissions, Renewables | 112 Comments »
Debate over large-scale energy storage is a regular theme in the comments on this blog. The post is intended to be a place to centralise this discussion. Some questions that might be considered in the comment thread: 1. What is the cost (per Watt hour, kWh, MWh, GWh — how does this cost scale up, […]
Filed under: Nuclear, Renewables | 214 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 range of energy […]
Filed under: Emissions, Nuclear, Policy, Renewables | 262 Comments »
Guest Post by Jani-Petri Martikainen. Jani-Petri is a theoretical physicist doing fundamental research in the field of ultracold quantum gases. Most of his current research activities are computational and involve bosonic or fermionic atoms in optical lattices. He has a lively interest on environmental, climate, and energy issues. He runs the blog PassiiviIdentiteetti, which is mostly written in […]
Filed under: Emissions, Renewables | 101 Comments »
How can we compare the cost, performance and value-for-money of alternative large-scale clean energy projects? Actually, it’s pretty tough to try and avoid apples-and-oranges comparisons. Still, some adjustments can be made, such as for capacity factor, to partially levelise comparisons. Below is a simplified comparison of four recent real-world projects. All can be considered first-of-a-kind […]
Filed under: Nuclear, Renewables, TCASE | 145 Comments »
In a recent issue of Dissent magazine, a regular commenter here on Brave New Climate, industrial engineer Graham Palmer, engaged in a debate with Mark Diesendorf on energy futures. Unfortunately, this exchange of prose is not available online, although Graham did send me a scanned version (because of potential copyright issues, I won’t post it here). The […]
Filed under: Emissions, Nuclear, Renewables | 193 Comments »
People seem to like to infer motives. (Perhaps it’s an inherent evolutionary trait, allowing anticipation of your prey’s or predator’s next move?) I find that a lot of people get me wrong about my position on energy and sustainability — often deliberately so, I suspect. So here’s a post to clarify my position, and allow […]
Filed under: Future, Nuclear, Renewables | 189 Comments »
In the previous TCASE post, I considered how various low-carbon energy technologies meet the following criteria: commercial readiness, scalability, dispatchability, fuel constraints, load access, storage requirements, capacity factor and emissions intensity. Here I consider the next issue: cost of deployment, based on expert consensus. The primary data again come from the work I had published in 2011 […]
Filed under: Emissions, Nuclear, Policy, Renewables, TCASE | 91 Comments »
The problem of replacing our dependence on fossil fuels is complex. In Thinking Critically About Sustainable Energy (TCASE) #12, a checklist was provided to allow assessment of energy transition plans. The sort of questions listed in TCASE 12 are critical for evaluating the feasibility of future scenarios, like the ones from the recent IPCC report […]
Filed under: Emissions, Nuclear, Renewables, TCASE | 85 Comments »
The following is a detailed guest post by Dr Ted Trainer, University of NSW (http://ssis.arts.unsw.edu.au/tsw/). In it, he provides the most detailed critique I’ve yet seen of the recent IPCC renewable energy scenarios report. Now, I don’t agree with everything Ted says — in particular the conclusion that the only feasible alternative to large-scale renewables is “The […]
Filed under: Policy, Renewables | 96 Comments »
Regular readers of BNC would know that I’m hardly the only climate change researcher to recommend serious deployment of nuclear energy to displace fossil fuels. (Although I’m often portrayed as an isolated [and presumably therefore ignorant?] voice on this point). One very prominent example of a colleague in arms is my fellow SCGI member, Dr […]
Filed under: Emissions, Nuclear, Policy, Renewables | 88 Comments »
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