Energy Balance
Energy Balance is a series of essays on the matter of future energy
provision for the world, particularly against the backdrop of "Peak
Oil", which the author Chris Rhodes has dubbed the "Oil Dearth" Era
when supplies of the cheap light crude oil, on which the modern age
of globalisation has been built, begin to run-short. All aspects are
considered: pollution, nuclear power, nuclear waste, global warming
(and its reality), renewable energy, coal liquefaction, the myth of
the putatuive "hydrogen economy", biofuel production, and the
essential underlying solution of energy saving on a huge scale, by
relocalising civilization into smaller essentially self-sustaining
communities provided for by local farms and businesses.
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Posted 2 years ago
The European Energy commissioner has announced that the project Desertec will begin to provide electricity to Europe within 5 years, which is half the original estimate.The project is partly funded
Posted 2 years ago
Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) systems employ lenses or mirrors coupled with tracking systems to concentrate a large area of sunlight into a small beam, rather in analogy with the simple and
Posted 2 years ago
The Icelandic volcano which prevented my travelling to Slovakia as planned last April, appears to have fallen sufficiently silent to at least provide a window through which I could pass, on my cheap R
Posted 2 years ago
It seems too good to be true that water can be used as a fuel, but in a recent paper, a fuel-cell has been described which runs on water and air, in which you don't actually burn water but a concent
Posted 2 years ago
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill is thought to be pouring anywhere between 5,000 and 100,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico each day, according to different estimates. The blame is being laid s
Posted 3 years ago
The Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland began erupting a few weeks ago, but a combination of factors is now wreaking havoc on European air-travel. The interaction of the molten lava with an ice-sheet
Posted 3 years ago
A new study suggests that overall the CO2 emissions attendant to producing biofuel from algae may be worse than those from corn, canola (rape-seed) or switch grass. The main problem is the use of car
Posted 3 years ago
The Economist has published an excellent article (link below) on the subject of deep-sea drilling. The first offshore oil well completely out of sight of land was drilled in 1947, 17 km off the Louisi
Posted 3 years ago
When I heard of a coffee-powered car I envisaged the tank being filled with the liquid beverage from a cafetiere. This is not what is meant, however, and the fuel is ground coffee combusted in a fluid
Posted 3 years ago
It is concluded that a plausible cause of a series of small earthquakes in Texas during 2008 - 2009 is saltwater pumped deep into the earth to recover natural gas, though this explanation is not def
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