Solar World: Desperately seeking silicon

In a world of silicon scarcity, many solar energy companies are trying to find ways to stretch, cut back on, or even cut out the traditional photovoltaic panel’s main ingredient. Solar companies from around the world met in Dresden, Germany, this week at the 21st annual European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition, where several […]

Australians guzzle oil while supplies dwindle

ELEANOR HALL: Some members of the Federal Coalition are urging the Government to start planning for the time when the world’s supply of oil starts to run down. Sweden is planning to be oil free by 2020, and a multi-party Senate Committee has cited it as a good example. Their report raises recommendations reducing greenhouse […]

Peak oil or has oil peaked? It

I Peak Oil seems a neat and tidy theory with strong intellectual appeal. But many similar theories were hatched in the 1970

Former BP executive declines to testify

WASHINGTON – The former head of pipeline-corrosion monitoring for BP in Alaska refused to testify under oath Thursday as outraged lawmakers grilled company officials over the causes of a massive oil spill earlier this year. Richard C. Woollam, who was transferred to BP’s Houston offices in 2005 amid concerns that he intimidated potential whistleblowers, invoked […]

Power to spare

By slightly altering their behavior, consumers can drive down gasoline prices. Gasoline prices usually decline after Labor Day. They do so not because dealers have back to school sales, or because cooling temperatures somehow cool off prices at the pump. Prices decline in the fall because Americans, their summer vacations over, drive fewer miles. According […]

Developing economies, peak oil, and the future

The important question is whether the recent rise in oil price is merely a temporary spike, reflecting bottlenecks in refining capacity and current political uncertainty in oil producing areas in the Middle East, Africa, Russia, and Latin America,[212] or whether it is due to continue or rise even higher. This brings us onto the “peak […]

How low can gasoline prices go?

After relentless run-up, pump prices have made a sharp U-turn After marching relentlessly higher this year, gasoline prices suddenly have made a sharp U-turn in the past few weeks. And analysts say consumers can expect even more relief at the pump in the coming weeks. The average retail price for a gallon of regular gasoline […]

Planes, trains and automobiles the preferred choices of travel

Walking has taken another backwards step with the publication of official statistics showing that Britons are making far fewer journeys by foot than a generation ago. Despite official advertising campaigns urging people to stride out for their health, the Government’s annual transport survey showed that walking was declining. David Haslam, the clinical director of the […]

VW chief attacks food crop biofuels

Volkswagen on Thursday attacked biofuels made from food crops as unsustainable, setting the German carmaker at odds with President Bush, US carmakers and European governments, which have all been touting ethanol as an environmentally friendly alternative to petrol in cars. Bernd Pischetsrieder, chief executive, called on politicians to lower tax breaks for current “first-generation” fuels […]

Nigeria May Face Gas Scarcity From 2009

With capacity of gas supply to meet effective demand trailing by not less than 50 percent, if the current rate of gas exploration in Nigeria is sustained, the country will face severe gas deficit from 2009, petroleum experts have stated. The Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE), which made the statement in Lagos yesterday, said […]

Wind and solar: ready to meet global energy needs?

Electricity produced from wind and solar energy could meet a substantially larger chunk of global demand by 2020-2025 if the right policies are put in place, trade associations claim.World energy forecasts published on 5 September by GWEC, the global wind industry trade association, predict “a serious shortfall between demand and supply could become evident soon […]

Russia demands equal access to nuclear market

Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, said today said he wanted equal access for Russian companies to the world nuclear market, Interfax news agency reported. “We still do not see equal relations on the market for atomic energy. Russia’s interests are here being infringed upon,” Putin told Russian reporters on his plane from Casablanca in Morocco, […]

New Zealand energy minister rejects nuclear power as energy option

New Zealand’s energy minister on Friday rejected an electricity company’s call to consider introducing nuclear power, saying it is not yet feasible for the country and goes against the government’s anti-nuclear policy. Murray Jackson, the chief executive of Genesis Energy, urged New Zealand to “get on board” with nuclear technology so that it can take […]

About the Oil Depletion Protocol – by Richard Heinberg

The Oil Depletion Protocol is a historically significant agreement that promises to set a global precedent for dealing with resource scarcity through cooperation and voluntary moderation rather than competition and conflict. It is inherently simple, calling for a gradual reduction in petroleum consumption according to a transparent formula. And it can be implemented at any […]

PG&E spokesperson talks about

to learn more than you might want to know about Pacific Gas & Electric’s “net energy metering” program and this investor-owned utility’s efforts to increase the share of its power from renewable sources, go to: etopiamedia

New Book Cites Inevitability of Solar Energy

As the energy crisis escalates — and the price of gas and electricity with it — a new book just released from MIT Press predicts that in the next two decades, solar will become the cheapest energy source for most applications, and will be widely adopted by consumers in both the developed and developing worlds. […]

Tightly Rigged for the Future

Norway’s emergence as an oil and gas-producing nation began in 1969 with the discovery of oil in the Ekofisk field, and production starting two years later. One-third of the resources in the NCS remain undiscovered, according to estimates. For the Norwegian government, providing access to unexplored acreage is seen as key to exploiting the potential […]

Fast-Growing Poplars Could Be Ethanol Source

Purdue University researchers are using genetic tools to design trees that can readily and inexpensively yield the substances needed to produce ethanol. The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Biological and Environmental Research is funding the $1.4 million, three-year study. Approximately 10 tons of poplar could be grown per acre annually, representing 700 gallons of […]

Exxon Russian project provides boost

Exxon Mobil Corp. said Thursday that a project off the Russian coast is ready to sell oil globally, helping boost the company’s gross daily production by 1 million barrels of oil and 1.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas. “That’s equivalent of the crude production of the entire state of Texas and three times the […]

Solve climate ‘whatever it costs’

Climate change is “potentially the most serious threat there has ever been” to security and prosperity, according to Britain’s new climate ambassador. Consensus and diplomacy are, he writes, the only ways to tackle climate issues; unlike more traditional security concerns, the “hard power” option of solving a problem by force is not available. bbc

Go nuclear, says electricity chief

New Zealand needs to seriously look at using a nuclear power plant to generate electricity with low greenhouse gas emissions, says a leading electricity company. “If the country at large does not get on board with nuclear technology, then when fusion reactors are available we will be so far behind the pace we won’t have […]

Let them have it

What’s the best way to stop Iran raining destruction on the Middle East with nuclear weapons? To let them have nuclear weapons, argues Haaretz’s defence correspondent Reuven Pedatzur. Pedatzur’s argument may seem counter-intuitive, but it is essentially the same old mutually assured destruction (MAD) that prevented conflict during three decades of the cold war. In […]

Briefing for the Descent

From a survivalist point of view, peak oil is simply one more reason to head for the hills. Still, it doesn energybulletin

Redesigning Crops to Harvest Fuel

That is the new mission of crop scientists. In an era of $3-a-gallon gasoline and growing concern about global warming from fossil fuels, seed and biotechnology companies see a big new opportunity in developing corn and other crops tailored for use in ethanol and other biofuels. Syngenta, for instance, hopes in 2008 to begin selling […]

Total Chief Says World Will Find Oil Target Tough

Times Online – THE world will struggle to raise oil output to levels much greater than 100 million barrels per day, Thierry Desmarest, chief executive of Total, has given warning. The head of the French energy multinational is sceptical that the global oil industry can raise output from current levels of 85 million bpd to […]

Survey: OPEC Aug Output Up 200,000 B/D on Mo At 29.76 Million B/D

(Dow Jones)- Crude oil output from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries rose 200,000 barrels a day in August from July, led by increases in Nigeria, Iran and Venezuela, according to a Dow Jones Newswires survey Thursday. Output in August from the 11-nation producer group increased to 29.76 million b/d compared with 29.56 million b/d […]

Children told to stay off radioactive beach

The Telegraph – A beach near Dounreay power station has become Britain’s first officially acknowledged radioactive public landscape after pieces of plutonium fuel rods were found there. Signs warning visitors of the radiation dangers have been posted on the beach, and last month a potentially carcinogenic 4mm fragment of fuel rod was found The Telegraph

US heading towards recession, says HSBC

Times Online – HSBC’s chief economists, Stephen King and Ian Morris, were sending around a “recession risk” warning to clients this afternoon. The Hong Kong bank cut its 2007 growth forecast for the US economy to just 1.9 per cent, or 1.3 per cent for next year’s fourth quarter alone. “Following the 2000-01 stock market […]

BP policies ‘rusty as its pipes’ say lawmakers

Times Online – BP executives today faced a barrage of fierce criticism from US lawmakers over the companyTimes Online

British species migrate northward

BBC – Right across Britain, animals are on the march, moving northwards and going to higher ground as the climate warms. Scientists have studied how the ranges of more than 300 species – from small mammals to insects – have changed over the past 25 years. About 80% of them have extended the northern margin […]

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