Our Finite World

Ramping Up Renewables Can’t Provide Enough Heat Energy in Winter

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://ourfiniteworld.com/2022/09/20/ramping-up-renewables-cant-provide-enough-heat-energy-in-winter/ One of our big needs for energy is heat energy to keep us warm in winter. Solar energy is primarily available in summer. Hydroelectric generation and wind energy are are unpredictable. They both tend to produce peak output in spring, when little heat energy is needed. Even if we ramp them up, they cannot solve our need for winter heat energy.

Spike in energy prices suggests that sharp changes are ahead

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://ourfiniteworld.com/2021/10/18/spike-in-energy-prices-suggests-that-sharp-changes-are-ahead/ An analysis of what is going terribly wrong in the world economy to cause these spikes, and a bit of a look at what might be ahead. The world economy requires stability. As long as energy supplies are abundant, stability is easy to achieve. But, as energy supplies get scarce, we add complexity to try to work around the adverse impacts of price spikes. These workarounds are not permanent fixes, however. Eventually, the economy becomes too brittle. It cannot respond to the temporary disruption in energy consumption caused by the economy's reaction to the pandemic. The situation is alarming. Analyses of the value of wind and solar greatly overvalue these resources because the economy really needs stability of energy supply. The economy now seems to be headed toward the early stages of collapse. This occurs because we seem to be reaching limits on oil, coal and natural gas almost simultaneously, and renewables are not of much value.

The Afghanistan Fiasco (and Today’s High Level of Conflict) Reflect an Energy Problem

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://ourfiniteworld.com/2021/08/30/the-afghanistan-fiasco-and-todays-high-level-of-conflict-reflect-an-energy-problem/ Even though it is not obvious, the United States is up against energy limits. It needed to pull back from Afghanistan to try to have enough energy to continue in its other roles, such as providing benefits for its growing army of retirees, and building infrastructure to mitigate the COVID-19 downturn. The way energy limits play out is not at all intuitive. Most people assume that we will run out of oil, leading to a spike in oil prices. We will then transition to renewables. As I see it, this understanding is completely wrong. Limited energy supply first leads to a need for simplification: Stepping back from Afghanistan would be one such type of simplification. It would save energy supplies and reduce the need for greater tax revenue or added debt.

COVID-19 Vaccines Don’t Really Work as Hoped

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://ourfiniteworld.com/2021/08/05/covid-19-vaccines-dont-really-work-as-hoped/ In early August, the CDC announced a surprising finding [https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2021/s0730-mmwr-covid-19.html]: “Delta infection resulted in similarly high SARS-CoV-2 viral loads in vaccinated and unvaccinated people.” Public officials had known from the early days of vaccine development that vaccinated people could catch COVID-19, but the assumption had been made that they were not going to be spreaders of COVID-19. It turns out that the delta variant is sufficiently different from the original Wuhan version of the virus that the vaccines work much less well.

To Be Sustainable, Green Energy Must Generate Adequate Taxable Revenue

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://ourfiniteworld.com/2021/07/15/to-be-sustainable-green-energy-must-generate-adequate-taxable-revenue/ This is an article I wrote because a Biophysical Economics group that I am part of is looking at the question of whether EROEI calculations are sufficient to give good answers with respect to Green Energy. In this post, I try to explain in lay people terms that what really is needed is taxable income generated by Green Energy products. Right now, Green Energy products are heavily subsidized, making them look profitable. If an economy is truly to be sustainable for the long run, Green Energy cannot depend on subsidies, indirectly from fossil fuels. Instead, Green Energy needs to be able to generate huge amounts of "net energy" for use by the rest of the economy. It does this by producing high amounts of taxable income, which the governments can tax and distribute to other parts of the economy where it is needed. We are already having difficulty producing enough energy for the world's population. I am skeptical that Green Energy is up to the task it needs to perform, if it is expected to replace fossil fuels.