According to an Ernst and Young analysis, things are getting a little gnarly out on the biofuels frontier. From Platts: The global biofuels industry has seen a slowdown in growth over the third quarter of 2007, caused by rising feedstock prices and a rapid expansion in capacity that may outstrip demand, according to an Ernst …
TWIP this week explains the disconnect between the rise in the price of oil and the rise in the price of gasoline: The main reason for the surge in gasoline prices over crude oil seems to have been unusually extensive U.S. refinery outages, which also pushed the limits of gasoline import availability. In the face …
A shift from coal to natural gas for generating electricity contributed to a 1.5 percent drop in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2006 as compared to 2005, according to an EIA report out today. We’re 15 percent above 1990. Platts story (which I have read) Full report (which I haven’t read) update: from the comments, …
Nature has a story on a massive Sahara-based solar energy proposal to be presented to the European Parliament in Brussels tomorrow (Thursday Nov. 28). The price tag mentioned in the story sounds enormous: US$595 billion. The political complications sound vexing. But hey, couldn’t be any harder than retrofitting coal plants for carbon capture, could it? …
Can one of my European readers help with a currency conversion? How does Euros per MWh translate into dollars per ton of carbon? The context: RWE will proceed with the construction of two, 1,530 MW coal-fired plants in Germany, believing that the units will make money even if carbon dioxide costs of up to Eur30.00/MWh …
Continue reading ‘A Little Help Please With A Conversion?’ »
A couple of handy graphics from the Energy Information Administration that answer questions I’ve had:
The discussion of nuclear energy’s role in combating anthropogenic climate changing continues to be one of the most interesting bits of the political dynamic around this subject. The latest bit comes from Platts (my new favorite energy news source – great at stripping away the he-said/she-said and just explaining the underlying economic forces): A Delaware …
Not: “If all starch, sugar, fat and natural oils were used to make liquid biofuels and none went to food, feed or other industrial uses (…) biodiesel could meet 8% of diesel demand,” Tony Regan, principal consultant with Singapore energy consultancy Nexant, told a gathering held by the British Chamber of Commerce in Singapore. With …