Olieprijs op nieuw record: $112 per vat

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Op maandag 21 januari 2008 11:01 schreef indahnesia.com het volgende:
En die stroom wordt opgewekt door?

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by building solar energy generating plants

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By 2100, the world’s energy system will be radically different from today’s. Renewable energy like solar, wind, hydroelectricity, and biofuels will make up a large share of the energy mix, and nuclear energy, too, will have a place. Humans will have found ways of dealing with air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. New technologies will have reduced the amount of energy needed to power buildings and vehicles.

Indeed, the distant future looks bright, but much depends on how we get there. There are two possible routes. Let’s call the first scenario Scramble. Like an off-road rally through a mountainous desert, it promises excitement and fierce competition. However, the unintended consequence of “more haste” will often be “less speed,” and many will crash along the way.

The alternative scenario can be called Blueprints, which resembles a cautious ride, with some false starts, on a road that is still under construction. Whether we arrive safely at our destination depends on the discipline of the drivers and the ingenuity of all those involved in the construction effort. Technological innovation provides the excitement.

Regardless of which route we choose, the world’s current predicament limits our room to maneuver. We are experiencing a step-change in the growth rate of energy demand due to rising population and economic development. After 2015, easily accessible supplies of oil and gas probably will no longer keep up with demand.

As a result, we will have no choice but to add other sources of energy – renewables, yes, but also more nuclear power and unconventional fossil fuels such as oil sands. Using more energy inevitably means emitting more CO2 at a time when climate change has become a critical global issue.

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Op zaterdag 26 januari 2008 15:12 schreef waht het volgende:
Hey, dat lijkt verdacht veel op een vermeende interne mail aan alle Shell medewerkers:
http://forum.peakoil.nl/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2008&sid=c3aab0e4093c8a4b7528f1934bd4264b

Ook interessant om te lezen dat hij Peak Oil rond 2015 verwacht.

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Op zaterdag 26 januari 2008 15:19 schreef henkway het volgende:
ja als ze nou een snappen dat kernenergie schone, CO2 vrije energie is dan kunnen we gaan bouwen

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So Who says Peak Oil is not about to become a reality? It must be true; Shell's biggest cheese, Jeroen van der Veer, effectively says so.

In an e-letter to staff that must surely be splattered right across the Big Oil community by now, and be doing the rounds of NOCs (national oil corporations), Shell's CEO basically says that conventional oil output will peak in seven years - oh, and gas shortages are on the way, too.

That's not really fresh news. But what is significant is that van der Veer has essentially joined the now growing cadre of upstream bosses who are gradually admitting that the clock is ticking and it's five minutes to midnight.

Aggravating the emerging energy crisis is the incredible pressure being exerted by the fast-growing and increasingly urbanised human population. And van der Veer has finally recognised the cracks that are appearing.

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One by one, the world's oil companies are coming out of the closet. For years operating under the assumption and public assertion that world oil supplies were plentiful and would be for years to come, now many of the world's most powerful and well known oil giants are talking about scarcity or, even, the dreaded peak in world oil supplies.

_...

Whether or not the peak in world oil production has already happened or will happen sometime in the near future, we are already seeing its effects on a number of levels both in the US and worldwide. Food, raw materials, money, they all become more difficult to access in a time of constricted energy supply. The wealth of energy oil has been providing to us for the last 150 years is now being taken away. We are at the point in history where we must begin to chart a new energy future with new and different kinds of energy. It will be anything but easy. Perhaps, this is the defining moment of the 21rst century, if not that of modern human history. Can we step away from our dependence on fossil fuels without wrecking our civilization, culture, and planet? Or will we, as many have warned, return to a new dark ages?

It's possible, just possible, that oil industry executives are sounding the alarm. They would like to warn us in plain terms what we're facing but are constrained by the interest of their boards of directors and major stockholders. Perhaps we should listen a little more carefully and think about what it all means for us as individuals, families, and as human beings. A chance for each of us to show our quality and, maybe, just maybe, preserve an ounce of prosperity for our children.

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According to Shell’s chief, the world faces two scenarios.

Either the world works together, with political cooperation between governments and companies, or the world faces what he calls a “scramble”—a mad dash by nations to secure resources for themselves.

We don’t expect the cooperation scenario to work out.

Global oil production is struggling, and resource nationalism and geopolitical conditions continue to hamper oil production. Meanwhile, oil demand from China has increased a whopping 14.1 percent over last year, and demand in India has risen approximately 11 percent.

Barring a major recession, the perfect storm for oil prices may be brewing. If it is, conditions may be about to change radically in America as costs for everything from transportation to breakfast embark on a long upward price trajectory.

“We are facing an unprecedented problem,” says oil analyst Kenneth Deffeyes. “World oil production has stopped growing; declines in production are about to begin. For the first time since the Industrial Revolution, the geological supply of an essential resource will not meet demand” (Beyond Oil: The View From Hubbert’s Peak).

We might have to start thinking again about that commute by bike.

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Op woensdag 6 februari 2008 11:33 schreef Perrin het volgende:
Shell's Van Der Veer Gets Refreshingly Honest
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As Oil Majors Chime In, the Reality of Peak Oil Lurches Closer
[..]

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Op woensdag 6 februari 2008 12:22 schreef icecreamfarmer_NL het volgende:

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wanneer er een probleem is zal er een oplossing komen

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Op woensdag 6 februari 2008 12:31 schreef waht het volgende:

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Zeker weten. Het ligt er alleen aan welke oplossing:
-Een wonderlijke energiebron
-5 miljard mensen dood

Beide zullen het energie-probleem oplossen.

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Op woensdag 6 februari 2008 12:31 schreef waht het volgende:

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Zeker weten. Het ligt er alleen aan welke oplossing:
-Een wonderlijke energiebron
-5 miljard mensen dood

Beide zullen het energie-probleem oplossen.

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Vulnerable regions of the world face the risk of famine over the next three years as rising energy costs spill over into a food crunch, according to US investment bank Goldman Sachs.

"We've never been at a point in commodities where we are today," said Jeff Currie, the bank's commodity chief and closely watched oil guru. Global oil output has been stagnant for four years, failing to keep up with rampant demand from Asia and the Mid-East. China's imports rose 14pc last year. Biofuels from grain, oil seed and sugar are plugging the gap, but drawing away food supplies at a time when the world is adding more than 70m mouths to feed a year.

"Markets are as tight as a drum and now the US has hit the stimulus button," said Mr Currie in his 2008 outlook. "We have never seen this before when commodity prices were already at record highs. Over the next 18 to 36 months we are probably going into crisis mode across the commodity complex.

"The key is going to be agriculture. China is terrified of the current situation. It has real physical shortages," he said, referencing China still having memories of starvation in the 1960s seared in its collective mind.

...

The political environment is extremely hostile. The world is looking like the 17th century under mercantilism when countries saw economics as a zero-sum game. They exported as much as they could to get gold, and erected enormous barriers. China looks like that, so does Russia, the Mid-East and most of Africa and Latin America," he said.

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President Hugo Chavez on Sunday threatened to stop sending oil to the United States unless it halted an "economic war" that he said included an Exxon Mobil lawsuit freezing $12 billion in Venezuelan assets.

The anti-American leader of a major crude exporter to the United States also warned that such U.S. aggression could cause world oil prices to spike to $200 a barrel.

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Ship kites in to port


As a the SkySails cargo ship finishes its maiden voyage, Nature News looks at the logic behind towing a ship with a kite.

Katharine Sanderson

Smooth kiting: the wind is faster and smoother at height.Smooth kiting: the wind is faster and smoother at height.SKYSAILS
Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

No, it’s a giant kite towing a cargo ship. What's more, it helps to save engine power and fuel. The company behind the kite, SkySails, based in Hamburg, Germany, claims that freight ships, and even cruise liners, could reduce fuel consumption by up to 50% under optimal conditions.
That sounds great – is it new?

Yes, on Tuesday the cargo ship MS Beluga SkySails sailed into the port of Guanta, Venezuela, completing its 2-week long maiden voyage from Germany, and the successful testing of the giant kite system. It is the first commercial vessel to use the SkySails kite system.
The kite looks just like a paraglider's wing. Is it?

Well spotted. Yes, the kite is shaped just like the wing used by extreme sport enthusiasts who 'paraglide' over hills — it is the same shape, and has a double-walled construction that fills with air to help provide lift. But it is much, much bigger: the average paragliding wing is about 30 square metres, and these boat-pulling kites have surface areas of between 150 and 600 square metres.

The maiden voyage of the MS Beluga SkySails used a 160 square metre sail to help pull the 132-metre-long, 10,000 tonne vessel from Bremen, Germany, to Guanta. The development of super light, strong materials for sport kites, surf kites and paragliders has driven the development of these huge ocean-going kites.
What happened on the maiden voyage?

Half way through the trip, as the ship reached the trade winds near the Azores, the computer-controlled kite was unfurled. SkySails hasn’t finished doing all the calculations yet, but estimates fuel savings of 10–15% during the time the kite was flying, as the ship cruised at top speed using less engine power. That is a saving of about US$1,000 to $1,500 in fuel costs per day. The company hasn't yet revealed how many hours the kite stayed aloft during the two-week voyage.

The company claims that savings of up to 50% can be made for short time periods, with an average saving of 10-35%. A kite with an 'effective tractive force' (which depends on the ship, its load and speed, and wind conditions) of 8 tonnes can pull the equivalent of 1,000 kilowatts of engine power, compared to the MS Beluga SkySail's main engine's 3,840 kilowatts of power.

The kite needs winds of at least 3 Beaufort (8–12 miles an hour or 7–10 knots — a gentle breeze) and can be used at up to 8 Beaufort (39-46 miles per hour, or 34–40 knots – a gale).
Does the ship have to be going the same way as the wind is blowing?

No, the kite can work over a range of angles away from the wind to provide power, just like a sail. In theory a ship can take a course up to 50 degrees skewed from the wind. Salty old sea dogs might recognise that this isn’t far off the capabilities of a yacht.
How does the kite compare to sails?

A 3-masted clipper ship might have a sail area of 2,000 square metres, 10 times the size of the kite, and move at top speeds of perhaps 17 knots on wind alone. But for massive cargo ships aiming to cruise at 10 knots or so, adding masts and sails isn't a very practical idea.

A kite is much easier to install and comes with a bonus: the higher the kite, the greater and smoother the wind speed. Closer to the sea’s surface, the friction, or drag, between air and sea slows things down and can cause turbulence, which decreases efficiency.

This kite can fly up to 300 metres above sea level. SkySails says that at 200 metres above sea level, the kite has twice the amount of energy available to it than on a 10-metre line.
Can I have a kite-powered boat for my own, personal use?

Yes. Small kites for yachts already exist, and are even used in races.
Are there any other uses of kites, apart from pulling ships, and loop-the-loops?

Yes, kites are also being developed to produce electricity. A kite attached to a ground-based dynamo and whizzing around overhead can generate electricity. Again, the development of materials for sport kites in recent years has seen this burgeoning technology begin to get commercial interest — Makani Power, a Hawaii-based wind power company, has recently attracted investment interest from Google to develop kites for electricity generation. Of course this is very different, and somewhat safer, than Benjamin Franklin's alleged attempts to use kites to harness electricity directly from lightning.
Comments

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Op maandag 11 februari 2008 12:35 schreef digitaLL het volgende:

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Bron
Dit kan veel olie besparing opleveren op termijn.

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Shell somber over olietekort
12 februari 2008, 7:45 uur | FD.nl
Door: Jessayan, H.;Schrijver, J.
Het mondiale tekort aan olie loopt nog sterker op dan eerder voorspeld. De wereldwijde behoefte zal in 2050 circa 38 mln vaten olie hoger liggen dan nu, terwijl de productie slechts opgevoerd kan worden met maximaal 25 mln vaten per dag. Een gevecht om energie is alleen te vermijden als politiek en bedrijfsleven binnen vijf jaar gezamenlijk met maatregelen komen

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Op dinsdag 12 februari 2008 08:41 schreef Basp1 het volgende:

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Een bedrijf wat per jaar bijna 27.6 miljard $ aan winst maakt die vind dat de overheid maar met maatregelen moet komen. Nou ik weet het wel, room die megawinst maar totaal af en besteed al dat geld aan het zoeken naar alternatieven.

Als we kijken naar de winst van weer diezelfde shell en dit vergelijken met het GPD van landen blijkt dat shell meer winst maakt dan het gpd vanaf land 105.

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Op woensdag 13 februari 2008 19:43 schreef BigMick het volgende:
Dan hadden ze de stroomvoorzieningen niet moeten privatiseren. ('het zou goedkoper worden' me reet)

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Op donderdag 14 februari 2008 10:58 schreef waht het volgende:

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Of de energiebedrijven nou private of staatsbedrijven zijn, de olieproductie stijgt niet meer. Dus aan die energiekosten valt niks te doen. De enige taak die de overheid heeft is om ons zo snel mogelijk onafhankelijk te maken van olie. Met 8 miljoen auto's die graag benzine drinken, zal dat een enorme pain in the ass worden (m.a.w.: onmogelijk (zonder schade aan economische groei en welvaart)).

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Op donderdag 14 februari 2008 12:41 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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Nee hoor. Innovatie, nieuwe mogelijkheden. Er word altijd geld verdient met nieuwe producten. We zijn toch ook van de stoommachine afgestapt? Heeft dat geld gekost? Zijn we nu slechter af dan in 1850?