Tom Kirkman + 8,860 February 21, 2020 No, wind & solar & hydro *cannot* replace hydrocarbons for powering the entire world. At least not for decades to come. Global long term demand for Natural Gas and for Liquefied Natural Gas looks good, despite the best efforts by a small - but exceedingly vocal - minority. Frothing at the mouth and screaming at oil & gas pipelines and production doesn't alter the simple fact that hydrocarbons power the world. Hey Electric Vehicle enthusiasts, most electricity globally is generated from burning coal and natural gas. Burning natural gas is far cleaner than burning coal. Hydro is a distant third globally for generating electricity (after coal and natural gas), and hydro simply cannot physically be expanded significantly to become a huge contender for generating electricity globally. Solar and wind are minuscule single digits in global percentages for generating electricity. Statistically insignificant globally, despite the media hoopla and media hatred to the contrary. Demand for liquefied natural gas set to double by 2040, according to Shell KEY POINTS Worldwide demand for liquefied natural gas, or LNG, rose by 12.5% last year, according to Shell. Citing forecasts, the energy giant says LNG demand is expected to double by 2040 to 700 million tons. ... While natural gas is a fossil fuel, the EIA states that burning it for energy “results in fewer emissions of nearly all types of air pollutants and carbon dioxide (CO2) than burning coal or petroleum products to produce an equal amount of energy.” ... ====================================================== Total worldwide gross production of electricity in 2016 was 25,082TWh. Sources of electricity were: coal and peat 38.3%, natural gas 23.1%, hydroelectric 16.6%, nuclear power 10.4%, oil 3.7%, solar/wind/geothermal/tidal/other 5.6%, biomass and waste 2.3%. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tom Kirkman + 8,860 February 21, 2020 26 minutes ago, Tom Kirkman said: No, wind & solar & hydro *cannot* replace hydrocarbons for powering the entire world. At least not for decades to come. Hydro is a distant third globally for generating electricity (after coal and natural gas), and hydro simply cannot physically be expanded significantly to become a huge contender for generating electricity globally. Solar and wind are minuscule single digits in global percentages for generating electricity. Statistically insignificant globally, despite the media hoopla and media hatred to the contrary. Some facts to back up my points above. Please feel free to prove me wrong with facts. Simply bitching and moaning to me about eeeeeevil oil & gas will likely cause me much amusement. Solar and wind remain statistically insignificant globally, and the Green New Deal is an insane engineering impossibility, poised to create incredible amounts of political, commercial, social and economic havoc. Where does our electricity come from? Electricity is essential for modern life, yet almost one billion people live without access to it. Challenges such as climate change, pollution and environmental destruction require that we change the way we generate electricity. Over the past century, the main energy sources used for generating electricity have been fossil fuels, hydroelectricity and, since the 1950s, nuclear energy. Despite the strong growth of renewables over the last few decades, fossil-based fuels remain dominant worldwide. Their use for electricity generation continues to increase in both absolute and relative terms: in 2017, fossil fuels generated 64.5% of worldwide electricity, compared with 61.9% in 1990. ... ... Fossil fuel power plants burn coal or oil to create heat which is in turn used to generate steam to drive turbines which generate electricity. In gas plants hot gases drive a turbine to generate electricity, whereas a combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plant also uses a steam generator to increase the amount of electricity produced. In 2017, fossil fuels generated 64.5% of electricity worldwide. ... ... Most large hydroelectric power plants generate electricity by storing water in vast reservoirs behind dams. Water from the reservoirs flows through turbines to generate electricity. Hydroelectric dams can generate large amounts of low-carbon electricity, but the number of sites suitable for new, large-scale dams is limited. Hydroelectric power can also be produced by run-of-river plants but most of the rivers that are suitable for this have already been developed. In 2017, hydropower accounted for 16% of worldwide electricity generation. ... ... Nuclear power reactors use the heat produced from splitting atoms to generate steam to drive a turbine. No greenhouse gases are produced in the fission process, and only very small amounts are produced across the whole nuclear life- cycle. Nuclear power is an environmentally-friendly form of electricity generation, and does not contribute to air pollution. In 2018, nuclear power generated 10.5% of the world’s electricity. ... ... Renewables, such as wind, solar and small-scale hydro, produce electricity with low amounts of greenhouse gas emissions across their entire life-cycle. In 2017, wind and solar generated 4.4% and 1.3%, respectively, of the world’s electricity. They do not produce electricity predictably or consistently due to their inherent reliance on the weather. Electricity generation from wind turbines varies with the wind speed, and if the wind is too weak or too strong no electricity is produced at all. The output of solar panels is reliant on the strength of the sunshine, which depends on a number of different factors, such as the time of day and the amount of cloud cover (as well as the amount of dust on the panels). Another problem is that there might not be enough space or public willingness to accommodate the vast number of turbines or panels required to produce enough electricity. This is due to the fact that energy from the wind or the sun is diffuse, meaning that very significant amounts of land are required in order to generate a significant quantity of electricity. Because electricity cannot be easily stored, renewables have to be backed up by other forms of electricity generation. The largest batteries cannot operate for days, let alone the weeks that would be required to back up renewables in order to ensure the supply of round-the-clock electricity. In order to ensure a steady supply of electricity, gas plants are increasingly providing backup services to renewables electricity. ... ... A biomass plant operates in a very similar way to gas- and coal-fired power plants. Instead of burning gas or coal, the plant is fuelled by different forms of biomass (such as purpose-grown trees, wood chips, domestic waste, or ‘biogas’). In 2017, biomass generated 2.3% of the world’s electricity. ... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
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