Branson: UK faces oil crunch within 5yrs

[WildspitzE]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/ene...son-warns.html

of course "some" of the conclusions are "self motivated"

[phirang]

Re: Branson: UK faces oil crunch within 5yrs

A collapse of the GBP would solve that "demand" part of the equation...

[WildspitzE]

Re: Branson: UK faces oil crunch within 5yrs

absolutely.

[Starving Steve]

Re: Branson: UK faces oil crunch within 5yrs

With another oil shock down the road, maybe in less than five years, I think of Obama's energy plan: electric cars run by energy transmitted from windmills and solar panels. One might laugh at the Brits as North Sea oil runs-out, but the real laugh is going to be at Americans when the Obama plan proves to be unworkable. America is short of electric power now, and the first plug-in cars haven't even been sold yet.

And also thank Nancy Pelosi and her pot-heads in California for this unworkable energy plan. It all sounded so wonderful, "windmills on the Great Plains providing power to cities on the coasts," and "foreign oil no longer needed".

[MulaMan]

Re: Branson: UK faces oil crunch within 5yrs

There was a time when American's believed that they could solve ANY and ALL technical problems, they used to call this "progress".

When I hear comments like that above it really does scare me about America. The land of progress? Not these anti-American cowards like the person above!

Hate & fear of progress, fear of change, fear of science, fear of technology, fear of education, fear of future, .... the level of loser-ville in so many of these Americans is simply scary.

[Starving Steve]

Re: Branson: UK faces oil crunch within 5yrs

Hope is not an energy plan. Faith in Americans is not an energy plan. Windmills on the Great Plains are useless for providing power to distant cities on the coasts. And solar panels are useless outside of desert regions, and even there only helpful in lower water heating costs, and not much more than that.

And the same thing with Obama's economic plan: Digging the debt-hole deeper with zero interest rates is not an economic plan. Re-appointing Bernanke to the Fed is not an economic plan. Bail-outs for bankers is not an economic plan. Cash-for-clunkers is not a plan.

Healthcare? 2050 pages of gobbly-gook and pork is not national health insurance. It's not medicare for everyone, regardless of age or pre-existing condition. One short paragraph is what should have been presented to the Congress: "No-one shall be denied access to Medicare on account of age or pre-existing condition."

Education? Simply increasing the funding to public schools the way they are now is not a plan.

Foreign policy? Another mess, again based upon hope and not realities. Being sensitive to the feelings of Muslims was not a plan. Four no-win wars (Afganistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and a festering Iran) all simultaneously, is not a plan.

Buy American? Nationalism and the duplication of the Smoot-Howley mistake is not a viable trade policy, nor a viable jobs policy.

Leadership? A daily speech from the bully-pulpet is not a demonstration of leadership. Telling the American people what they want to hear is not a demonstration of leadership, and telling the American people the ugly facts that they need to hear is not what an Obama speech is all about.

Obama's first year has been nothing less than a disaster. I am worried about America and its future. The Democrats deserve to be thrown-out for this because they have proven to be no different than the Republicans--- and maybe a even worse.

[Glenn Black]

Energy Plan Unworkable

I am a Professional Engineer with 25 years of industrial experience.

My home is powered by wind & solar. I live off the grid. My cost of electricity is ~$1.50/kW-hr.

The province sells electricity on the grid at $0.16/kW-hr, all taxes in. That's 1/10 of my off-grid price.

The printing of nano-thin film solar panels is in prototype R&D now and may, if everything works perfectly, cut solar PV panel costs to 1/10 of current prices. However, panels are ~30% to ~50% of the total system cost. Cut from 40% to 4%, and the total system price goes to 64% of current costs. That is still far more expensive than subsidized grid electricity. This is at least 10 years to more than 20 years away, if all goes well.

Increased efficiency & production volumes take many years to drop prices dramatically. Using T.P. Wright's Learning Curve, we have another 20 years of development to get alternative energy prices from solar to where historical prices have been.

Energy consumption and GDP have a very strong correlation across all nations. Cheap energy provides the ROI to give us our decadent lifestyles. Remove cheap energy, and say goodbye to the good times.

This economic meltdown we are now in had the $147/bbl crude oil price as the fuse on the bomb. Unfortunately, Wall Street was storing its nitroglycerine CDO's & CDS' & MBS & NINJA loans right next to the crude oil bomb. When it went off, everything went up at the same time, and here we are.

In N. America, we use the simple thermodynamic cycle for the most part, so grid electricity is generated at ~33% efficiency. My province (Ontario Canada) has one of the largest hydro-electric capacity & nuclear in n. America (ie. no GHG, unlike US & other province where coal is the main fuel source. The transmission losses from powerhouse to home loses another 9% to 14%.

Crazy! Grid electricity is one of the biggest wasters of energy in our N. American society. And they want to double it so as to have plug-in electric vehicles?

Crazy! Absolutely ridiculous.

Can't be done with current technology. Shouldn't be done.