Hydrogen power
The hydrogen economy is a proposed method of deriving the energy needed for motive power (cars, boats, airplanes), or for off-grid electrical applications, by reacting hydrogen (H2) with oxygen, the hydrogen having been generated by a number of possible methods, including the electrolysis of water. If the energy used to split the water were obtained from renewable or nuclear power sources, and not from burning carbon-based fossil fuels, a hydrogen economy would greatly reduce the emission of carbon dioxide and therefore play a major role in tackling global warming. Countries without oil, but with renewable energy resources, could use a combination of renewable energy and hydrogen instead of fuels derived from petroleum, which is becoming scarcer, to achieve energy independence.
Data sources: Energy Bulletin, Fuel cells, Hydrogen Cars Now, Hydrogen Discoveries, Hydrogen Fuel Cells, Hydrogen Enthusiast, Renewable Energy World
Transport Revolutions presents an ambitious vision of a world, 15 years from now, that is well on its way to kicking oil and being run on renewably produced electricity. The books authors, internationally recognized transport policy experts Richard Gilbert and Anthony Perl, readily acknowledge the enormity of this challenge, with transport worldwide currently 95 percent dependent on oil.
The project of a "green wizardry" based on 70s-era appropriate tech requires a clear understanding of matter as well as energy. With the help of dog slobber, nuclear waste, and several other unmentionable substances, the Archdruid explains.
-Environmentalists question coal's place in Obama policy
-The Dirty Truth Behind Clean Coal
-Parsing fact from fiction with the Bloom Energy box
Fuel cell company Bloom Energy made quite a stir over the weekend, with a spot on the CBS "Sixty Minutes" TV program in the United States (The Bloom Box: An Energy Breakthrough? - see the link for the video and transcript).
Millions of job losses are pushing the U.S. Senate to consider a Jobs and Energy bill, even though Cap and Trade appears to be on life support. What are Five Key Measures that must be in a new Bill to avoid being a "half-ass..d" effort? (term from Sen. Lindsey Graham descrbing limited climate bill)
"as mankind proceeded to get bigger and bigger we silently crossed a threshold"
We cannot be lulled into a false sense of security: though oil prices have declined from their historic highs, there is little doubt that peak oil is real. A 2008 research project completed at Washington University in St. Louis found strong evidence in support of the theory. Please feel free to circulate this academic document as a primer on peak oil.
Evolution demands short-term thinking focused on individual survival. Most attempts to overcome our evolutionarily hardwired absorption with self are selected against. The Overman is dead, killed by a high-fat diet and unwillingness to exercise. Reflexively, we follow him into the grave.
This week saw further oil discoveries in the Santos Basin and off the coast of Ghana, extending a run of sizeable finds in recent weeks. Following much breathless reporting of such discoveries, it was good to them put into context by solid analysis from Morgan Stanley and Bank Macquarie...
Recently a friend gave me a copy of a January 22, 1973 issue of Newsweek. The cover title was “The Energy Crisis”. It’s interesting to look back and see how things have changed; or, to be more accurate, not changed.