Comments ThomC has made

India

It also appears that India is looking to source more power from coal. Tata power has stated in its annual report that it plans to install a further 10 GW of power in the next five years of which >80% will be from coal fired power.

Tata are also buying up coal resources abroad to sure up supply.On China to increase coal production 30 percent by 2015 posted 10 months, 3 weeks ago 28 Responses

CCS is a fantasy

I am sorry to inform you Jonas but Hansen is wrong on CCS. There are numerous reasons, i will list the main ones:

• Most areas around power stations are not geologically suitable for storage therefore you need to build up a nationwide infrastructure of gas pipelines to transport the CO2 to the storage sites. This network would be required to be financed and built in a decade.

• The energy required in capturing and transforming CO2 into a sequestrable state requires that you basically drop a retrofitted power station output significantly(http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/sdissues/energy/op/ccs_egm/ ...). Consequently you need to build more power stations just to maintain the existing electrical output.
  • There are issues surrounding leaks and potential for ecological catastrophe if a CO2 reservoir "burped".

  • To date i am not aware of anyone that has demonstrated the complete process of CCS. I know that the O&G boys have been doing the storage part for EOR and that CO2 has been captured before using amines. Futuregen is a project that is looking to construct a demonstration facility but i think there are funding issues.
    
  On Coal front group sets up 'Blogger Brigade' to fight reality posted 11 months, 1 week ago 5 Responses

• Fundamentals

  Saluki,

  Models used to predict behaviour of complex systems such as climate or particle physics will continue to be in a state of flux. Observations such as a lower than predicted warming trend over the past few years are no justification to discredit the theory, but should be used to further the understanding of the dynamics at play.

  On a fundamental level the presence of IR absorbing gases in ever increasing concentrations in the atmosphere will effect the heat flux between the earth and space.

  I would look to the equilibrium position of water in its different phases as a likely explanation for the plateau in observable warming. On Reflecting on (and fact-checking) the VP debate posted 1 year, 1 month ago 27 Responses

• While your doing the R&D

  If society is considering CCS, they should also seriously consider how coal is transformed into electrical energy. A lot of the cost involved in CCS is in the quantity of gas required to be sequestered. I believe there should be equal emphasis on reducing the amount of gas generated in the first place. This can be accomplished by looking to technologies that have very high thermal efficiencies like carbon fuel cells and micronised coal/water slurry as a diesel fuel.On Is coal with carbon capture and storage a core climate solution? posted 1 year, 2 months ago 24 Responses

• fish emulsion from introduced pest

  Wisci,
  I noticed you were interested in finding a brand of fish emulsion for gardening that is sustainable or environmentally sound. In Australia we have a problem with an introduced species (european carp) in the Murray river. One company, Charlie Carp, is ridding the river of this pest by using it as a fertiliser. Here is a link to their website: http://www.charliecarp.comOn Farm animals consume 17 percent of wild-caught fish posted 1 year, 5 months ago 13 Responses

• Other alcohols

  By other alcohols I think he means
  -Coal to ethanol
  -Gas to ethanol On McCain calls for $300 million prize for the designer of a better electric-car battery posted 1 year, 5 months ago 18 Responses

• Critical Mass

  One idea that has been used to some degree of success in Australia to gather the attention of the policy makers is to oranise a critical mass event. This involves getting a whole bunch of cyclists together and riding 50 (or more) abreast across a very busy section leading to or heading from a large city.

  Also to encourage more commuting by cycling the light rail system must accomodate extra carriages for the bikes during peak hour. In addition toll gates should be set up at the entrance to the city and motorists should be required to pay a fee scaled on the level of congestion the city is experiencing with the funds going to the development of barriered bike ways. On A breathless appraisal of Lance's new bicycle mecca and mission posted 1 year, 9 months ago 30 Responses

• Capacity Factor

  Charles,

  Capacity factor is not the best measure to use when comparing energy generating technologies, since it depends on wether the technology employed is base, intermediate or peak load plant. Sure the capacity factor of a base load system comrpised of a mixture of renewables may be much lower, however it is still providing the base load. A much better way to separate the men from the boys is a total energy balance i.e. to produce 1MWe how much MWth or MWe must i use. I think if you follow this through to conclusion you will see the bigger picture. With just an extra bit of effort you could also calculate the CO2 intensity as well. On Nuclear power and fossil fuels face water crises and other problems posted 1 year, 9 months ago 40 Responses

• Breeder Reactors

  Some facts on Breeders to date:

  -Cost of the french Superphénix ~ $12-13Bn, shut down in 1998.
  -Russian 600 MW demo "Beloyarsk" currently operating but never as a breeder.
  -Realisation of commercial operation for breeders ~ 3 decades (Pro-Nuclear MIT).
  -Reclamation of spent fuel requires large scale chemical reprocessing, yet another hazardous link in the fuel chain.

  All in all the notion of investing huge sums of money into a technology that has unpredictable outcomes sounds awfully familiar to the current drive to commercialise CCS.
  On Clean, safe nuclear power posted 1 year, 9 months ago 14 Responses

• Advertising and Promotion

  I happened to see a Heart Foundation advertisement the other day promoting that the average individual should consume 2 fish meals a week. I can name plenty of other sources of omega 3 that are probably better since there is no bio-accumulation of toxins such as mercury. Linseeds, hemp seeds, avocado's etc and the list goes on. I have also noticed that the weight loss industry has also been heavily promoting fish as a lean source of protein and encouraging its greater use. This ever increasing demand for fish will lead to the worlds oceans becoming like the mediterranean, lifeless! On Better management is needed before closing fisheries is the only option left posted 1 year, 11 months ago 9 Responses

• What kind of votes?

  I am a little confused as to what this delegate means by votes, is he talking about the votes of the American public, or is it the votes in the senate? Perhaps the US should hold a referendum on the matter to by-pass the heavily influenced American political hierachy. On Confronting the belligerent U.S. delegation at the 2007 climate talks posted 1 year, 11 months ago 3 Responses

• Where Biofuels can be useful

  Whilst i agree with this post, Biofuels can play an important role in certain situations where waste residues from agriculture can be salvaged. A good example is some small pacific island nations that have existing palm oil plantations and oil production facilities. These facilities generate a waste stream that in most third world nations is disposed of in a local water way with no regard for surrounding ecosystems. The waste stream from these facilities could be processed to produce biofuel and clean water for a local community. The Biofuel processing facility would need to be "black boxed" such that the technology could not be abused and used for the production of Biofuel from non-waste material. On An alternative view on biofuels, from a Briton in Sudan posted 2 years ago 19 Responses

• 1 down 1 to go

  Finally after 11 years of this tyrant promoting unsustainable growth he has been given the send off he so rightly deserves. Now that Australia will be signing up to Kyoto the pressure in Washington will be mounting. I am glad to say that any plans the Bush administration had to use Australia as a nuclear waste dump are now in tatters. On Australian prime minister goes down to decisive defeat posted 2 years ago 14 Responses

• Diesel Gen Set Running on Waste Chip Frying Oil

  The could use the waste chip frying oil in diesel gen sets, that would be a highly cost effective measure since gen sets are available off shelf.They would need some front end filtration/dewatering but again these are off shelf items. Maybe someone should mention this to them?On 80% by 2050? Try 2010. posted 2 years ago 8 Responses

• What About Biomass

  Natural gas is far too valuable to be burning for power, so if it is going to be used in this sense it should only be used as peak load contributor. Also NG fields can contain up to 20% CO2 which is often not included in the CO2 intensity figure. A possible contributor to dampen out some of the fluctuations in output of wind and solar is Biomass. Now im not advocating the growing of Biomass in place of food crops, but instead utilising waste from agriculture and perhaps using certain biomass crops to assist in the remediation of damaged land. i.e. the growing of oil mallee in South Western Australia to lower the water table in high salinity areas.
  Offcourse as other posters have noted this will only be feasible with improvements in generation side and end use efficiency. On Beware the allure of liquefied natural gas posted 2 years ago 15 Responses