A recent online discussion on gravity storage brought the usual suspects out of the woodwork. Proponents of heavy fluid pumped hydro reared their sludgy heads this time. Follow along for why this is a silly idea, as all gravity storage options that aren’t pushing water uphill turn out to be. … [continued]
Recently I sat down virtually with professional chemical process engineer Paul Martin of Spitfire Research on my podcast Redefining Energy – Tech to discuss how much industrial heat can be replaced with electrical heat technologies (tl’dr: virtually all of it directly). In the theme of providing transcripts of presentations I’m … [continued]
Fossil fuels have damaged our world and continue to do so. None represents the impact more than the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, after which federal and state agencies came together to form the Deepwater Horizon Natural Resource Damage Assessment Trustee Council. The Trustees studied the effects of the … [continued]
As concrete month draws nearer to a close, it’s time to look at an option not previously explored, continuing to use limestone but bolting on carbon capture and paying for waste disposal in permanent sequestration sites. After fifteen years of assessing carbon capture technologies, pilots and proposals, this is one … [continued]
County-level data reveals climate impact on future building energy use Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed free data sets to estimate how much energy any building in the contiguous U.S. will use in 2100. These data sets provide planners a way to anticipate future energy needs as the climate … [continued]
Regular readers will either appreciate or hate that for roughly 20 months I’ve been decorating my articles and presentations with images generated by artificial intelligence algorithms. I’m not going to address the full range of reasons, but will just do some basic math on the electricity use to get a … [continued]
How Shifting Our Perception of Extreme Weather Can Aid Planning for a Reliable Wind- and Solar-Rich Power System From severe storms to recent unprecedented cold and heat waves, extreme weather events are impacting electric utilities, grid operators, and ultimately customers like never before. At the same time, the energy sources … [continued]
The parliament in Switzerland has rejected a finding by the European Court of Human Rights in favor of a group of older women.
The economic impact of global heating is greater than previously thought, according to research that includes ocean heating analysis.
During what has become concrete month, I’ve explored the full range of actual and purported solutions to the climate problem that is the cement, steel, and concrete used in construction. The industry’s emissions are high, with every ton of reinforced concrete having a carbon debt of 0.3-0.4 tons of carbon … [continued]
