Duggles’s Recent Comments

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  I have a few comments on the article. First, I see that the 2008 LLNL Energy Flow Chart that THOLLANDPE posted a link to appears to already answer the question, how much waste is there? The number given is 57.07 Quads out of ~99.2 Quads. This agrees fairly well with the numbers that you gave in your conclusion, 60 quads of waste out of 100 quads of primary energy. Good job on the analysis, Mr. Casten.

  
  With regards to the inclusion of agricultural inputs in the Energy Flow Charts, it seems to me that the main energy inputs to agriculture would be diesel fuel and fertilizer. So the fertilizer should be accounted for under "Industrial" use, and the diesel fuel would most likely be accounted for under "Transportation" and "Industrial". The rest of the energy inputs for agriculture would be manual labor and environmental inputs, like sunshine and rain, and would not be considered in the chart.

  As for the transportation wastes, my familiarity is with automotives, but it is very good to see that you are thinking of energy losses due to braking and tire replacement, and not just powertrain losses! From what I recall having learned about the subject, though, the issue of automotive energy efficiency is largely a matter of capital expenditures vs. operations and maintenance (o & m) costs. Unfortunately, there's not much "low-hanging fruit" left in the automotive sector. The technology exists to improve fuel economy (an o & m cost) in consumer automobiles, but the trade-off is that this increases the cost of the car (a capital expenditure). Obviously, when gas is cheap then few are willing to pay more upfront in order to save money on gas down the road (car pun ftw). This has been the case in the past, but there is reason to hope that this will change in the era of $4 per gallon gasoline. Anyway, my point is that the 20 quads of waste in the transportation sector is not an easy number to reduce, and thus not all of the 60 quads of waste is actually an "opportunity".

  
  My complaints are mostly just a matter of chipping away at the edges of the argument, though. I agree that there ARE a lot of ways that our society can reduce waste, whether it be by cogeneration of steam and electricity, properly insulating our homes, recycling high-value waste like glass and aluminium, or even just (gasp!) walking or biking to your destination.

  On How much energy does the U.S. waste? posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago 14 Responses

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  The link to your CHP Primer appears to be broken, as it leads me to a Page Not Found page. For those interested,

  http://www.grist.org/article/chp-primer-fun-with-thermodynamics

  should be the correct url.  (If it's not, boy will I look silly!)

  On How much energy does the U.S. waste? posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago 14 Responses

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  Wouldn't a robot cannibal be a robot that ate other robots?

  On Company denies its robots feed on the dead posted 3 months, 2 weeks ago 2 Responses

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  I think you're all missing the point here: space-based death-ray! I mean, come on, the company is made up of military-industrial complex guys, and they can't reveal their investors. Carlyle Group, anyone?

  
  That said, this project is just what we need.  Green energy needs to be made far more dangerous to be sexy enough for America. And this space ray is just the sort of project that can make that happen.

  
  (Warning: LINKS CONTAIN LANGUAGE THAT SOME MAY FIND OFFENSIVE)

  On California utility bets on space-based solar power posted 6 months, 3 weeks ago 11 Responses

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  2 little things

  thebike45: You are largely correct that weight has reduced importance in a car with regenerative braking.  However, rolling resistance is a function of weight, so additional weight will result in additional losses.

  biodiversivist: I believe that the tax credit is sized to match the Volt, not the other way around.On CMU study suggests GM has wildly oversized the batteries in the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid posted 8 months ago 37 Responses