Growing Sustainable Biofuels

Biofuels are emerging as a potential replacement for petroleum, in a transportation efficiency context that also includes more efficient vehicles and better designed communities. Farm fields are back in competition with oil fields to drive transportation. Patrick Mazza of Climate Solutions is known for his thoughtful essays on energy. He has posted two articles that […]

Ultra-thin Solar Cells Made Through Exfoliation Are Cheaper and Lighter

Researchers, from the California Institute of Technology and EMCORE PhotoVoltaics, led by James Zahler from Aonex Technologies, created a new technology for producing solar cells by replacing the thick semiconductor substrate that is currently used in creating these devices with a thin “wafer-bonded” substrate. The new exfoliation process replaces the thick indium phosphide substrate with […]

New Process Promises To Reduce Costs Of A Clean-coal Technology

Scientists in China are reporting an advance in clean-coal technology that could substantially reduce the cost of producing clean-burning fuels from underground deposits of coal. sciencedaily

Oil Supply Crunch Stems From Unexpected Side, North Sea Under Pressure

Unexpected troubles seem to be hitting the global oil market and pushing up crude oil prices; however, not from news surrounding the Middle East but from one of the minor supply regions, the North Sea. Norway resourceinvestor

Major Fuel Stocks Continue to Charge Ahead

A fuel cell is an electrochemical energy conversion device which produces electricity from external supplies of fuel and an oxidant. They can operate continuously, as long as the flow continues between the fuel and the oxidant. A fuel cell’s electrodes are relatively stable, unlike a battery. The most common type of fuel cell is the […]

On the precipice: Energy security and economic stability on the edge

I am a Major in the United States Army. When looking at this report for the first time, one may legitimately ask why an Army officer is writing about energy issues. The genesis for this project began many months ago when I was conducting research for a project related to the development of the future […]

Diamonds are fuel cells

Researchers at UC Davis have used nanocrystals made of diamond-like cubic zirconia to develop cooler fuel cells. Even if hydrogen fuel cells have been touted as clean energy sources, current fuel cells have to run at high temperatures of up to 1,000 zdnet

Wind Energy – Cumulative Capacity to Exceed 360 Thousand Megawatts by 2015

Driven by rising demand for renewable energy sources, the world wind energy market is expected to grow at gutsy speed to generate over 360 thousand megawatts of energy by the end of 2015. Further, harnessing the power of the wind will generate approximately 12% of the world’s electricity by the year 2020. yahoo

Demand to outpace crude supplies

Conventional crude oil supplies won’t keep up with growing global demand in the next 25 years and other fuels from ethanol to liquefied coal and oil from tar sands will be needed to close the gap, says a draft oil industry report. The draft report by the National Petroleum Council, an advisory group to the […]

A dress rehearsal for the final collapse of liberal capitalist ideology

…The right-wing apologists of capitalism, for their part, have assured us that socialism cannot ever work; when the evidence of Venezuela suggests otherwise, they say that it depends on the unsustainable mining of Venezuela If it were not for his inestimable courage, perseverance, intelligence, and his great heart and soul, could Venezuela have come this […]

Energy’s Manpower Peak? – Why the biggest problem might not be oil.

For headhunters like Tom Zay, business couldn This article will survey a few of the sectors and geographic regions facing labor shortages. Given the high commodity prices, it

Four reasons to cultivate greener IT

…Right now, energy supply looks to be struggling to keep up with demand. A recent study by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory concludes that, thanks to the industry shift to low-end servers, global power consumption has doubled since 2000 to more than 123 million kw/hours. Power demands are expected to increase by 40 percent come […]

Zambia’s Indeni refinery stocks depleted, now using reserves

Zambia’s sole oil refinery is working from reserves after running out of fuel stocks amid growing energy demand, an industry official told Dow Jones Newswires Monday. The Indeni refinery has formally notified the Ministry of Energy and Water Development about the problem, an official at Zambia’s Energy Regulatory Board said. “The refinery run out of […]

Rise in ethanol leads to close look at spills

LINCOLN – In 2005, 25 Brentwood, Calif., residents spent Labor Day night in a junior high school shelter after an overturned railroad tanker spilled ethanol into storm sewers. Another railroad spill prompted evacuation of homes, a mental health facility and a middle school in South Hutchinson, Kan., that same year. In 2006, a highway was […]

Gas prices fall, gas futures tumble

NEW YORK – Gas prices fell overnight, ending more than a week of steady advances. Gasoline futures, meanwhile, reasserted their leadership on the energy complex, dragging oil prices below $74 a barrel on news that refineries and a pipeline were returning to service quickly after unexpected problems. The average national price of a gallon of […]

The Oil Drum: Oil Watch Monthly 2007

Latest developments: 1) Crude oil – Production of crude oil increased by 181,000 b/d from March to April. Total production in April was estimated at 73.40 million b/d by the Energy Information Administration (EIA), which is 850,000 b/d lower than all time high crude oil production of 74.25 million b/d reached in December 2005. 2) […]

Shift the focus to stewardship

Craft payments, penalties to reward conservation. The rush to expand crop production to make biofuels threatens to erode decades of effort to improve soil and water quality across America. But the ethanol-driven climb in commodity prices also presents a historic opportunity to shift the emphasis of farm payments from subsidizing crops to rewarding good stewardship. […]

If you’re in a hole, merge. But is it too late for BP and Shell?

With reserves running dry in non-Opec countries, rumours of a marriage could finally come true. Even a combined group, though, might struggle in its quest for more black gold. David Strahan reports BP and Shell are finally set to merge. That’s if you believe the tittle-tattle in the Square Mile. Of course rumours that the […]

King CONG vs Solaropia

… the nation’s biggest state may soon be at war over new nukes. In essence, it’s King CONG (Coal, Oil, Nukes and Gas) versus Solartopia. The core issue is who will control our energy: corporations, or the public. The irony is that we stand at the brink of the greatest technological revolution in human history. […]

U.S. oil may hit $95 if OPEC does not hike output: Goldman

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. crude price could top $90 a barrel this autumn and hit $95 by the end of the year if OPEC keeps oil production capped at current levels, Goldman Sachs said in a report issued on Monday. U.S. oil prices have risen to near $74 per barrel, driven this month by […]

OPEC sees modest 2008 demand, lower need for its oil

LONDON (Reuters) – OPEC said on Monday that world oil demand in 2008 will grow moderately while supply from rival producers will expand, reducing the need for crude from the exporter group. The assessment, in OPEC’s July Monthly Oil Market Report, underscores OPEC’s view that crude supply is enough and oil prices near a record […]

Power lines coming to national parks?

Federal regulators propose new corridors for transmission lines GETTYSBURG, Pa. – Apple trees have been planted, wood fences restored and power lines buried in recent years to transform the Civil War battlefield in Gettysburg to the way it looked when Union and Confederate forces clashed on farmers’ fields in 1863. But preservationists now worry that […]

Company wins $4.5m in venture funds to test energy source

Ze-Gen planning to convert trash to clean-burning gas Every day in America, Boston energy entrepreneur Bill Davis calculates, trash gets thrown out that has enough latent energy content to generate 110,000 megawatts of electricity — five times the typical demand for all of New England. Now Davis’s company, Ze-Gen Inc., is about to take a […]

Chris Skrewbowski on the dramatic shortage of new LNG mega projects

The LNG market currently presents users with a paradox. Demand is booming and rising numbers of countries are looking to LNG imports for increased security of supply and to cover emerging production shortfalls. Yet on the supply side virtually nothing has changed from a year ago in terms of plans for new liquefaction capacity, writes […]

Greens to banks: Just say no to coal

Environmental group tells big financiers to stop funding dirty power plants. NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Fueled by climate change concern and a Texas utility’s recent scrapping of several “dirty” power plants, one environmental group is looking to cut funding for new coal fired power plants at the source: the big banks. San Francisco-based Rainforest Action […]

Uganda gears up to become oil producer

NZIZI, Uganda (Reuters) – Flanked by the rolling green hills and steep, jagged escarpments of the western Rift Valley, an oil rig prepares to drill deep into Ugandan earth. Better known for its myriad conflicts in recent years, Africa Great Lakes region has become one of most exciting frontiers in a hunt for oil on […]

Plan Iraq – Permanent Occupation

…Voices from the administration, Pentagon, Congress and the dominant media assure they’ll be disappointed as the top goal is salvaging America’s imperial adventurism and mission shifting current operations into a workable permanent occupation. Here’s why. The Afghan and Iraq wars are for resources, primarily oil, and in the parts of the world where more than […]

Report: Radioactivity leaked from Japan nuke plant

TOKYO, Japan (AP) — A strong earthquake struck northwestern Japan on Monday, causing a radioactive water leak and fire at one of the world’s most powerful nuclear power plants and turning buildings into piles of lumber. At least seven people were killed and hundreds injured. National broadcaster NHK reported that water containing radioactive material leaked […]

Warming may bring hurricanes to Mediterranean

LONDON (Reuters) – Global warming could trigger hurricanes, or tropical cyclones, over the Mediterranean sea, threatening one of the world’s most densely populated coastal regions, according to European scientists. Hurricanes currently form out in the tropical Atlantic and rarely reach Europe, but a new study shows a 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) rise in […]

System relies on ice to chill buildings

NEW YORK – As the summer swelters on, skyscrapers and apartments around the city will be cranking up the air conditioning and pushing the city’s power grid to the limit. But some office towers and buildings have found a way to stay cool while keeping the AC to a minimum The systems save companies money […]

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