In 1965, ten years after Britain commissioned the world’s first commercial nuclear power station at Calder Hall in 1956, global consumption of nuclear energy reached six million tonnes oil equivalent (Mtoe), amounting to 0.15% of the world’s total energy consumption from all sources. This rose steadily to 637 Mtoe in 2005, 6.0% of total consumption. […]
Author Archives: GEC
The gas sector differs from the electricity sector in that not every country produces or uses gas, natural or manufactured, whereas every country generates and uses electricity. The transport of natural gas requires enormous investment with pipelines covering great distances, sometimes thousands of kilometers, or conversion plants and shipping for liquified natural gas (LNG). 21.7% […]
The Oil & Gas Journal (OGJ), a leading source for worldwide reserves estimates that at the end of 2010, worldwide reserves were 1.35 trillion barrels of oil and 6,609 trillion cubic feet or 187 trillion cubic metres of natural gas. These estimates are 14 billion barrels of oil and 348 trillion cubic feet or 10 […]
Solar PV 2009 – Historical Data Seies. Global investment in renewables grew very fast from $35 billion in 2004 to $148 billion in 2007, averaging over 60% growth a year, but slowed down with only 5% growth in 2008 to $155 billion. $41.3 billion was by company investment through VC/PE (venture capital/private equity), equity in […]
There is increasing discussion of linking wind power systems with pumped storage hydro facilities, especially in Norway and Canada, directly via the grid. This was effectively done with Danish wind power, a large amount of which has been generated at periods of low demand, necessitating export to Norway and Sweden. Pumped hydro storage alone will […]
Poland has steadfastly pursued a policy of economic liberalisation since 1990 and today stands out as a success story among transition economies. Even so, much remains to be done, especially in bringing down the unemployment rate, which is still the highest in the EU despite recent improvement. The privatisation of small- and medium-sized state-owned companies […]
In August 2008, the Crown Estate of the UK purchased Clipper’s 7.5 MW Britannia turbine for testing in its laboratory. Following successful tests, Clipper is planning to open a manufacturing facility in the UK and planning to produce its 7.5 MW turbine in the third quarter of 2010. In 2012, the company is expecting to […]
Continuing our look at historical data, this is a write-up of what the hydrogen economy looked like in 2007. The energy sectors in both the United States and Europe are on the cusp of immense change. New technologies are being developed and opportunities for entrepreneurial ideas and innovative approaches are ripening at a time when […]
Compounding the issues surrounding grid balancing, there are policies in place to promote distributed, small-scale renewable energy capacity. For example in the UK government subsidies are for consumers to erect wind turbines and rooftop solar panels for self-consumption. These consumers can then sell back their electricity to the grid. Changing the existing grid model from […]
Capesize vessels Carrying capacity: 140,000-170,000 t. Common use: coal and iron ore; not economical for fertiliser and grain Cape vessels are too large for the Panama Canal and many fertiliser/grain berths. When the demand for Cape vessels surged and then fell off, its effect on the freight market spilled over to vessels used for fertiliser […]
