Packing for the crash

[glenatron]

For the past few years global oil production has been stuck at around 73 to 74 million barrels of oil per day. Currently global demand is at around 88 million barrels per day. That, ladies and gentlemen, is Peak Oil right there.

Hold tight, it's going to be a heck of a drop.

Comments

[thewhitespider.livejournal.com]

Offshore wave power and small-scale modular coastal tide barrages do seem to offer a lot of potential, plus they have benefits in resisting coastal erosion and provide protection from storm damage. Small coastal barrages in particular are a nifty idea - they have a very flat resource/time curve to build and don't require a lot of metal (just a lot of concrete). Deep sea wave power will probably have to wait until we can handle piped hydrogen as an energy transfer method.

On the other hand, using tidal barrages will eventually make the Moon fall on us.

[littlesnowy.livejournal.com]

There's a nice design by dragon power (I think) which involves a floating set of pontoons to "collect" waves and dump them into a reservoir held up over the sea a few metres with a vertical axis turbine set in it. They claim it only needs 1/2 metre swells to run it continually. Excess water just slops over the sides of the reservoir.

I like the idea of coastal barrages, I don't trust most planning authorities to choose where to put them. People are unreliable.

I think there's a real massive change in energy demand that can be made first of all. Then I like alcohol powered systems rather than hydrogen, I know hydrogen is an easier fuel but the storage and transport sucks. Possibly if the new ideas about adsorbing/absorbing materials comes off.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

The change in energy demand is pretty much the most significant thing we can do. It makes me so angry that governments who have known it was important for the last 30 years or so have refused to force even basic energy efficiency optimisations like decent amounts of insulation into building regulations. It would have been so much cheaper to build things to be efficient from the start compared to the cost of retrofitting insulation and whathaveyou.

I'm sure in the long run we'll find some awesome energy sources- I wouldn't be surprised if fusion generation turned out to be useful in the long term - but the problems of the ratio of energy-in to energy-out on everything apart from the current "pump it out of the ground with no difficulties" crude oil we've been using.

[thewhitespider.livejournal.com]

Thing about hydrogen, from my point of view, is that it's really easy to generate at sea. RO the seawater and crack it - release the oxygen and pipe the hydrogen ashore. Nice and clean. But you're right - storing it sucks.

People are unreliable, and should be replaced by Multivac.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

That has just revealed a whole lot of what is really going on to me- who loves the moon? Moths do. And who tries to cover up our lights so we need more power? Moths do. It's all a devious ploy on the part of the nocturnal lepidoptera to drag their luminous lunar deity to earth.