Drone Strike on Saudi Arabia Knocks out 5% of Global Oil Supplies

Posted on September 17, 2019 by Euan Mearns

On Saturday 14 September the Abqaiq oil processing facilities in Saudi Arabia were hit by an air borne attack assumed to be a drone. Abqaiq lies to the NE of Ghawar, the world’s largest oil field and producer by far. Abqaiq is the largest single oil processing facility in the world. It processes all the oil from Ghawar and nearby Khurais oil fields. Both produce high value, easy to refine, high quality light sweet crude oil. This attack appears to have halted 50% of Saudi oil production representing 5% of global oil supply. A decade ago, this would have been headline news for weeks, and yet today it has barely been reported by the UK media.

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Posted in Energy, Political commentary | Tagged , | 31 Comments

Grazing, desertification and climate change

Posted on May 18, 2019 by Euan Mearns

Open thread…..

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Posted in Climate change | Tagged , , | 40 Comments

Can Renewable Portfolio Standards make RE Work?

Posted on May 9, 2019 by Euan Mearns

Guest post by Geo who is a geologist working in Alaska

People want energy to be cleaner (i.e. emit less carbon dioxide). One way to do this is to use regulations to force either greater efficiency, or a switch to cleaner fuels.

A good example would be Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards in the United States. They were first enacted by the United States Congress in 1975, after the 1973–74 Arab Oil Embargo, to improve the average fuel economy of cars and light trucks (trucks, vans and sport utility vehicles) produced for sale in the United States. The idea was that slowly, across the board, the mileage of all cars and trucks produced in the U.S. would gradually increase. Over time this would result in cleaner air, and reduced oil usage. And perhaps save consumers money…

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Posted in Energy | Tagged , , , , , | 32 Comments

UK Government to Announce New Energy Policies

Posted on April 1, 2019 by Euan Mearns

Amidst Brexit chaos, the Prime Minister will today introduce a white paper to Parliament  detailing the Government’s new energy strategy. Stunned by criticism that she has failed to listen, the new policies will take full cognisance of the concerns recently raised by striking school children. The new policy has 4 main strands. The Downing Street press release is below the fold.

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Posted in Political commentary | Tagged , , , , , | 78 Comments

Waking into our new volatile age of oil prices

Posted on March 4, 2019 by Euan Mearns

Guest post by Tom Therramus that is the pen name of a US based Professor. The article was first published on Oil-Price.net.

Consider some recent headlines: “World Bank Warns Of Extreme Volatility In Oil Markets”, “International Energy Agency Head: Oil markets are entering an era of unprecedented volatility” and “Oil prices spike, stocks plummet as uncertainty roils global markets – Washington Post” .

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Posted in Energy | Tagged , , | 85 Comments

Open Energy 4: Renewable energy versus nuclear: dispelling the myths

Posted on March 3, 2019 by Euan Mearns

Don’t believe the spurious claims of nuclear shills constantly doing down renewables, writes Mark Diesendorf. Clean, safe renewable energy technologies have the potential to supply 100% of the world’s electricity needs – but the first hurdle is to refute the deliberately misleading myths designed to promote the politically powerful but ultimately doomed nuclear industry.

The strategies and tactics of RE deniers are very similar to those of climate science deniers.

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Posted in Climate change, Energy, Political commentary | Tagged , , , | 159 Comments

Open Energy 3

Posted on February 24, 2019 by Euan Mearns

In this comment (comment 45,749) Roger’s friend Gillian posted a couple of links to articles about Greener Earth which is a fitting subject for an open energy thread. Commenters are invited to post links to the main energy and climate news stories from the last week.

Goodnewsnetwork: NASA happily reports the Earth is Greener, with more trees than 20 years ago – and its thanks to India and China
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Posted in open energy | Tagged , | 115 Comments

Open Energy 2

Posted on February 10, 2019 by Euan Mearns

An open thread for commenters to post links to the week’s biggest energy and climate news stories. I kick off with a story about lasers zapping nuclear waste and follow with Green payments made to the UK Green establishment.

Euronews Nobel prizewinner working on making nuclear waste safe

Mourou, along with his former student Donna Strickland, won the Nobel for research into lasers, or more precisely, inventing a technique called Chirped Pulse Amplification, developed in the Laboratory for Laser Energetics at the University of Rochester in the USA.
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Posted in open energy | Tagged , , , | 171 Comments

Roger Andrews has died aged 77

Posted on February 5, 2019 by Euan Mearns

Roger Andrews died peacefully in his sleep last night at his home near Guadalajara in Mexico that he shared with his wife Bridget.

Roger’s first contribution to Energy Matters was on 26 May 2014 with a post titled White House goes Green – and into the Red. Since then he has contributed a total of 479 posts including the inimitable Blowouts.

All readers will know and respect Roger’s tremendous capacity to analyse and present on graphs large and complex data sets and to draw the appropriate conclusions from them. In the next week or two I will compile a full tribute to Roger’s enormous contributions to both energy and climate debates.

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Posted in Site news | Tagged , | 105 Comments

Open Energy 1

Posted on February 3, 2019 by Euan Mearns

Given the apparent success of the recent Open Thread (2200 reads and 293 comments) and the on-going difficulty we have in compiling the Blowout, this is the first in a possible new seriese where commenters are invited to post relevant energy and climate news stories from the week just gone. You can simply post the link + first paragraph of the story. The more ambitious may wish code this to look like Blowout (instructions below the fold).

UK Government Funding for innovative smart energy systems

Government funding for innovation in smart energy systems and technologies

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Posted in Blowout | Tagged , , | 137 Comments

The Analog Tipping Points Lurking in Tech’s Future

Posted on January 27, 2019 by Roger Andrews

This is a guest post from John Andrews. John is 30-year plus veteran of the banking industry. For the last 23 years he was the Head of Investor Relations for Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Citadel, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank. He makes the point that explosive tech growth, which has had a significant impact on renewable energy growth, has been achieved in the absence of regulatory oversight, and that this is likely to change in the future as some of its less desirable impacts become more obvious.

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Posted in Political commentary | Tagged , , , | 43 Comments

Site news

Posted on January 26, 2019 by Euan Mearns

Roger Andrews has become temporarily indisposed and will unlikely be able to contribute content for a week or two. I am beginning the second year of my appointment at ETH Zurich and find this is occupying all of my time. Therefore, there may be a lull in content for a few weeks.

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Blowout Week 262

Posted on January 20, 2019 by Roger Andrews

We lead this week with news that Pacific Gas & Electric, the largest utility in California, has filed for bankruptcy, facing $30 billion in liabilities for wildfires apparently caused by PG&E’s power lines. We follow with OPEC production cuts across the board; US rig count drops sharply; oil and gas reserves in China; fatal pipeline fire in Mexico; Poland doubles down on coal; Hitachi delays Wylfa nuclear; climate change denial and how climate change can make oor wullie shrink.

Stanford Daily: PG&E declares bankruptcy following wildfires

Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), the California utilities monopoly that has faced massive legal backlash for its alleged role in the 2017 and 2018 wildfires in Northern California, filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday.

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Posted in Blowout | Tagged , , , , , | 94 Comments

Open Thread

Posted on January 17, 2019 by Roger Andrews

Being unable to think of a subject for the mid-week post that I haven’t written about before – often more than once – I thought this would be a good time to try an experiment. Accordingly, this will be Energy Matters’ first open thread, where correspondents are at liberty to bring up energy- or climate-related subjects of their own choosing with no constraints applied other than our normal rules of engagement. So, readers, fire away:

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Posted in Climate change, Energy, Political commentary | Tagged | 309 Comments

Blowout Week 261

Posted on January 12, 2019 by Roger Andrews

Back again after a short recess. This week we turn the focus on Switzerland, where researchers have concluded that solar panels on Alpine mountaintops  could fill Switzerland’s winter supply shortfall after it shuts down its nuclear plants. We move on to OPEC; Trump takes credit for the US gas price decrease; US emissions increase; the Russia/Belarus dispute; Chile to exit coal; Italy to ban oil & gas exploration; Bill Gates wants more nuclear; a “market-driven” replacement for UK solar export payments; a cheap solution to carbon capture & storage and how Kuwait will use solar power to ramp up its oil production in a sustainable manner. (Inset: Berchthold-Klosters solar array).

Swiss Info: Alpine solar panels could address Swiss energy gap

New findings from the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF) and Lausanne’s Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) suggest that alpine photovoltaic (PV) systems can provide a home-grown means of replacing a significant amount of lost power – particularly in winter.

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Posted in Blowout | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 113 Comments

The Gyle Premier Battery – The Loch Ness Minnow of energy storage

Posted on January 10, 2019 by Roger Andrews

The Gyle Premier Inn in Edinburgh has just installed a 100kW Li-ion storage battery, enough to power about 70 hair dryers. Rarely in the history of renewable energy has a battery so tiny attracted the attention of so many. Here, based on limited information, I make an attempt to scope out the specifications of this battery and how it might assist in cutting the hotel’s costs, if at all, and whether it makes any difference if it does.

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Posted in Energy | Tagged , , , , , | 65 Comments

El Hierro fourth quarter 2018 performance update

Posted on January 6, 2019 by Roger Andrews

In 4Q 2018 Gorona del Viento (GdV) supplied only 27.7 % of El Hierro’s electricity and 6.4% of its total energy consumption, down by a factor of almost three from the 74.2% and 17.1% recorded in 3Q 2018. Since project startup in June 2015 GdV has supplied 45.2.% of El Hierro’s electricity and 10.4% of its energy. During 2018 it supplied 56.6% of El Hierro’s electricity and 13.0% of its energy, up from 46.3% and 10.6% in 2017. Whether this is a result of improved practices or stronger winds in 2018 is unclear at this time. There is an ongoing labor dispute at the Llanos Blancos diesel plant, where workers are demanding more money because their work load has quadrupled since GdV came on line.

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Posted in Energy | Tagged , , , | 68 Comments

Blowout Week 260

Posted on December 23, 2018 by Roger Andrews

A group of activists in UK has decided that climate change poses an “unprecedented global emergency” and had made its demands known by blocking streets and blockading the BBC, which it says must make climate change its” top editorial issue”. Then back to our normal fare: OPEC vs. US shale; North Sea oil & gas to survive Brexit; Nordstream 2; the Norway-Poland Baltic pipeline; Germany closes its last coal mine; the EU to phase out coal; Canada to phase out coal; China and India to use more coal; LA to refurbish gas plants; The Paris Agreement lives on; Europe’s electricity bills to soar because of renewable energy, Australia’s to decrease; Hitachi seeks more government funding; France’s “yellow vests” sink EU market regulation bill; Met Office forecasts hottest ever year in 2019 and how climate change causes female turtles.

Guardian: BBC’s London HQ put on lockdown over climate change protest

The BBC’s central London headquarters has been put on lockdown due to a protest by climate change campaigners who are demanding it uses its status as national broadcaster to declare a “climate and ecological emergency”.

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Posted in Blowout | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 184 Comments

The end of the Little Ice Age

Posted on December 20, 2018 by Roger Andrews

The Little Ice Age (LIA) was a recent and significant climate perturbation that may still be affecting the Earth’s climate, but nobody knows what caused it. In this post I look into the question of why it ended when it did, concentrating on the European Alps, without greatly advancing the state of knowledge. I find that the LIA didn’t end because of increasing temperatures, decreasing precipitation or fewer volcanic eruptions. One possible contributor is a trend reversal in the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation; another is an increase in solar radiation, but in neither case is the evidence compelling. There is evidence to suggest that the ongoing phase of glacier retreat and sea level rise is largely a result of a “natural recovery” from the LIA, but no causative mechanism for this has been identified either.

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Posted in Climate change | Tagged , , | 47 Comments

Blowout Week 259

Posted on December 15, 2018 by Roger Andrews

This week we feature the UK nuclear industry, or what’s left of it. Last month Toshiba pulled out of the Moorside plant, and now Hitachi may be about to pull out of Wylfa Newydd. Then it’s back to the routine stuff: the US, shale and NOPEC; the EU and Nordstream 2; Alberta to cut oil production; more gas to China; Australia’s underwriting plan; Vietnam needs coal; Snowy hydro gets go-ahead; hydro in Tanzania and Egypt; China’s EPR reactor; the rare earth shortage; wildfires in California; tidal power in Nova Scotia; Porsche’s new EV charger and how climate change caused Brexit.

Guardian: UK’s nuclear plans in doubt after report Welsh plant may be axed

Fresh doubts have been raised over prospects for the UK’s new nuclear power programme after a report that Hitachi is considering axing plans for a plant in Wales.

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Posted in Blowout | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 126 Comments