perceptions_now
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Australian Politics
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Perth WA
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perceptions_now wrote on Jul 30 th, 2012 at 1:28pm: perceptions_now wrote on Jul 30 th, 2012 at 12:32pm: longweekend58 wrote on Jul 30 th, 2012 at 11:31am: freediver wrote on Jul 30 th, 2012 at 9:51am: There are plenty of alternatives already, and that is without trying very hard to replace oil. except of course that is a lie - a complete fallacy. Electric cars are no alternative to petrol cars as they simply dont do the job. and anyhow, they are still mainly recharged using coal-powered stations anyhow. current expectations are that there is about 80-100 years left of oil in current reserves. and recent technology has made tar sands and shale oil commercially viable. USA and Canda currently has reserves of those oils of 14 times that which saudi arabia has - the worlds biggest oilfield.the oil shortage has been oversold and over-rated - like most hysterias. This is one of those rare occasions, when I will agree with Longweakend, at least on one point.
In fact, there are NOT plenty of alternatives to Crude Oil, at least not on the magnitude required or the Price needed.
However, I must disagree with Longweakend, in that the newer "alternatives", such as Tar Sands & Shale Oil, can NOT be Produced at the Net Energy output required.
They are in fact, Energy Sinks, which means they use more Energy than they Produce or they are very close to it, which means that the spare Energy capacity we once had is long gone, as are the existing levels of Productivity gains that arose from a mixture of Innovation & cheap Energy.
The EROEI (Energy Return On Energy Invested) was around 100/1 at one point, it is now down under 5/1 on many of the "New alternatives"! One exception being Hyrdo, but that isn't going to power transport & it's not going to Produce all the synthetic Products that currently are derived from the Hydrocarbons found in Crude Oil.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fe/EROI_-_Ratio_of_Energy_...
EROI (for US) Fuel 1.3 Biodiesel 3.0 Bitumen tar sands 80.0 Coal 1.3 Ethanol corn 5.0 Ethanol sugarcane 100.0 Hydro 35.0 Oil imports 1990 18.0 Oil imports 2005 12.0 Oil imports 2007 8.0 Oil discoveries 20.0 Oil production 10.0 Natural gas 2005 10.0 Nuclear 30.0 Oil and gas 1970 14.5 Oil and gas 2005 6.8 Photovoltaic 5.0 Shale oil 1.6 Solar collector 1.9 Solar flat plate 18.0 Wind 35.0 World oil production http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_returned_on_energy_invested
In terms of the current expectations being that there are about 80-100 years left of oil in current reserves, that is also well off the correct timeline, BUT the problems start well before these Energy lifelines actually completely run out.
In fact, we have already started to see the effects, from the perceptions that the end of Oil & Coal is now in sight and that has been under way for a decade of more.
Crude Oil was under US$10 per Barrel around the year 2000, it went as high as US$147 in 2008, before falling back to US$30, but it is now retracing back to around US$100, depending on the source and when these shortages become apparent Prices will rise thru the roof.
Coal has also started a relentless push upwards, which is caused by shortages & lessening Energy output, from the lower grades of Coal that must now be used, as the higher grade Coal Production has Peaked!
Finally, there is the question of lead times, to change over Global Technologies and in many cases in would take decades to change our Energy technologies, decades we just don't have! So who can explain to me, how the following alternative fuel sources are going to replace Oil & Coal? EROI (for US) Fuel 1.3 Biodiesel 1.3 Ethanol corn 1.6 Solar collector 1.9 Solar flat plate 3.0 Bitumen tar sands 5.0 Ethanol sugarcane 5.0 Shale oil 6.8 Photovoltaic I didn't think so!
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