The tough task of finding oil--Thanksgiving green tech roundup
Oil officials see limit looming on production. It's not an oil peak; it's an oil plateau. The Wall Street Journal reports on impending restrictions on oil extraction. Now both oil industry skeptics and execs are seeing limits. Recently, Don Paul, CTO of Chevron (not the presidential candidate), told us that the world has consumed 1.1 trillion barrels of oil and will go to 1.5 trillion by 2012. The world only had 3 trillion barrels to begin with.
A deeply green city confronts its energy needs and nuclear worries. The New York Times reports on the struggle in Fort Collins, Colorado, between a solar power plant or increased nuclear power. The technology around nuclear has improved and applications for 31 new nuclear plants are expected to be filed, but the public remains queasy.
'Geoengineering': space mirror over Greenland? Scientists are starting to consider planet-scale engineering projects to slow the pace of climate change.
"Cold" geothermal experiments in Halifax. Speaking of big engineering projects, construction began on the Alderney 5 Advanced Geothermal Energy Project in Nova Scotia, according to Renewable Energy Access. The system consists of a field of 100 holes, each 600 feet deep. Sea water chills the rock mass underground. This can then be used to meet peak air conditioning needs, eliminating the need for a supplementary cooling system. It's sort of like Heat Miser and Snow Miser finally seeing eye-to-eye.
UN says wood for fuel is bad. That campfire smell is soot going into the atmosphere.
The ethanol market says youch. Pacific Ethanol tumbled when it came out that celebrity investor Bill Gates (through a fund) is selling shares in the outfit, notes Earth2Tech. Ethanol looked great in 2005, before capacity went up and corn prices rose.
Finally, First Solar has become one of the fastest growing solar companies in the world. It has no major direct competitors in its particular niche, and experts explain why.
