When appliance standards are revised, the Department of Energy (DOE) looks at the estimated benefits of standards relative to the estimated costs and only sets standards that it finds are cost-effective to […]
Battery storage: The numbers don’t add up – yet : Renew Economy
At the big clean energy conferences that have been held in three continents over the last two months the major topic of conversation has been clear – battery storage – what it […]
Tech Talk – The latest Canadian oil spill
Time was that I used to write, on Sundays usually, a Tech Talk over at The Oil Drum where I would try and explain some of the technical issues involved in oil […]
New wells proliferate across the Eagle Ford Shale
All of that oil field activity in South Texas is adding up to lots of new wells.In the last four quarters, operators have drilled 4,092 new wells in the Eagle Ford Shale, […]
World Oil and Gas Production Forecasts Up to 2100
The modelling methodology is the same as in my previous analyses, which started 20 years ago, namely the use of a multi-cycle logistic curve (and its derivatives) to extrapolate the future. The […]
Wholesale electricity prices rose across the United States
Average on-peak, day-ahead wholesale electricity prices rose in every region of the Lower 48 states in first-half 2013 compared to first-half 2012. The most important factor was the rise in the price […]
Asking the Hard Questions
There are nights, now and then, when I sit up late with a glass of bourbon and look back over the long strange trip that’s unfolded over the last thirty years or […]
Pumped storage provides grid reliability even with net generation loss – Today in Energy – U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)
Pumped hydro storage plants serve an important role on electric power systems: they improve system-wide efficiency and reliability by allowing system operators to time-shift power generated during periods of low demand for […]
Staying afloat as assets get stranded
Stranded assets – assets that are unexpectedly or prematurely devalued, converted to liabilities or written off – are part of the creative destruction that drives capitalism. Asset stranding of this kind regularly […]
Implications of a Higher Estimate of Social Cost of Carbon
Carbon pollution harms the economy much more than the federal government previously estimated, according to the Interagency Working Group on Social Cost of Carbon. While researchers continue to look for ways to […]
Prometheus Institute 