by Robert Bryce
14. BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2013.
15. IEA Key World Energy Statistics 2013, 53.
16. Ibid., 51, 57. The per-capita electricity use in the US is 13,277 kWh per year.
17. Victor Mallet, “Indian Power Shortage Is Achilles Heel of Economy,” Financial Times, May 30, 2013, http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/f5bc2d72-c8f1–11e2–9d2a-00144feab7de.html#axzz2VABnbzCn.
18. Sanjeev Choudhary and John Chalmers, “RPT-India’s Blackouts Shine Light on Broken Power Sector, Reuters, August 1, 2012, http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/08/01/india-power-idINL4E8J12R920120801.
19. Prashant Mehra and Abhishek Vishnoi, “Coal India Shares Slip on Import Risks; UK Fund Files Suit,” August 1, 2012, http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/08/01/tci-coalindia-idINL4E8J12SD20120801.
20. TheHindu.com. “Pachauri Defends India’s Climate Stand,” July 22, 2009, http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200907220334.html.
21. IEA World Energy Outlook 2011, 381.
22. Http://www.mikebloomberg.com/index.cfm?objectid=4D1722F5-C29C-7CA2-FCB6385366A49867.
23. IEA data, http://www.worldenergyoutlook.org/resources/energydevelopment/accesstoelectricity/.
24. For electricity data: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EG.USE.ELEC.KH.
25. BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2011.
26. Ibid.
27. Todd Moss, “How Long Can You Live with This Kind of Modern Energy?” Center for Global Development, November 14, 2013, http://www.cgdev.org/blog/how-long-can-you-live-kind-%E2%80%9Cmodern%E2%80%9D-energy.
28. IEA, “Tracking Clean Energy Progress 2013,” http://www.iea.org/publications/TCEP_web.pdf, 8.
29. World Nuclear Association, “Plans for New Reactors Worldwide,” March 2013, http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Current-and-Future-Generation/Plans-For-New-Reactors-Worldwide/#.UY1oFCt4aRk.
30. NETL data, http://www.netl.doe.gov/coal/refshelf/ncp.pdf, 16.
31. EIA data, http://www.eia.gov/electricity/annual/html/epa_04_03.html.
32. Dieter Helm, The Carbon Crunch, How We’re Getting Climate Change Wrong—and How to Fix It (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), 45.
33. Quirin Schiermeier, “Renewable Power: Germany’s Energy Gamble,” Nature, April 10, 2013, http://www.nature.com/news/renewable-power-germany-s-energy-gamble-1.12755.
34. Brad Stone, “A Subsidiary Charts Google’s Next Frontier: Renewable Energy,” New York Times, November 28, 2007, C3.
35. Google was incorporated in 1998. See: http://www.google.com/about/company/history/.
36. Google Inc., http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/pressrel/20071127_green.html.
37. Google data, http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/more-spring-cleaning-out-of-season.html.
38. Carnegie Mellon University, bio of Jay Whitacre, undated, http://www.materials.cmu.edu/people/whitacre.html.
39. J. F. Whitacre, T. Wiley, S. Shanbhag, S. Chun, W. Yang, D. Blackwood, A. Mohamed, E. Weber, D. Humphreys, “Large Format Aqueous Electroloyte Polyionic Devices for Low Cost, Multi-Hour Stationary Energy Storage,” September 2012, Aquion Energy, http://cdn2.hubspot.net/hub/147472/file-23732056-pdf/docs/aquion_technical_presentation.pdf, 8.
40. Vaclav Smil, Energy Myths and Realities: Bringing Science to the Energy Policy Debate (Washington, DC: AEI Press, 2010), 19.
41. Freedoniagroup.com data, http://www.freedoniagroup.com/InTheNewsDisplay.aspx?DocumentId=46888. See also, GIA report, August 29, 2011, which puts global consumer battery market at $55.4 billion by 2017. See: http://www.prweb.com/releases/consumer_batteries/primary_secondary/prweb8605940.html.
42. Randy Alfred, “March 20, 1800: Volta’s Battery Shows Potential,” Wired, March 20, 2008, http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/03/dayintech_0320.
43. Batteryuniversity.com data, http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/whats_the_best_battery.
44. Boeing data, http://www.boeing.com/787-media-resource/docs/fct-031514–787%20battery%20timeline.pdf. For grounding, see: CBSnews.com, “FAA Grounds 787 Dreamliner,” January 16, 2013, http://www.cbsnews.com/8301–201_162–57564384/faa-grounds-787-dreamliners/.
45. Karthikeyan Sundaram, “Air India Said to Seek $37 Million in Damages for 787 Grounding,” Bloomberg, April 1, 2013, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013–04–01/air-india-said-to-seek-37-million-in-damages-for-787-grounding.html.
46. Clive Irving, “Boeing Won’t Budge as Industry Abandons Lithium-Ion Battery,” Daily Beast, April 25, 2013, http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/04/25/boeing-won-t-budge-as-industry-abandons-lithium-ion-battery.html.
47. CBSnews.com, “Another Sony Laptop Battery Recall,” February 11, 2009, http://www.cbsnews.com/2100–500395_162–2051618.html.
48. Batteryuniversity.com data, http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/can_the_lead_acid_battery_compete_in_modern_times.
49. Benjamin Romano, “Fire Destroys 15MW Wind Energy Storage System in Hawaii,” RechargeNews.com, August 8, 2012, http://www.rechargenews.com/business_area/innovation/article319427.ece.
50. Umair Irfan, “Battery Fires Reveal Risks of Storing Large Amounts of Energy,” Scientific American, November 20, 2011, http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=battery-fires-risks-storing-lareg-amounts-energy.
51. Hydrogen has extremely high gravimetric energy density—141 million joules per kilogram, which is three times the energy density of diesel fuel. A mere spark can ignite hydrogen gas. (The most famous example of hydrogen’s volatility is almost certainly the spectacular fire that engulfed the Hindenburg airship in 1937.) For comparison, high-quality coal has an energy density of 32 million joules per kilogram. And that coal requires a robust flame to be applied before it will be ignited. For data on energy density see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_density.
52. Aquionenergy.com, http://www.aquionenergy.com/stationary-energy-storage-batteries.
53. For storage data, see Nissan, http://www.nissanusa.com/leaf-electric-car/versions-specifications?next=ev_micro.section_nav. For weight, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Leaf.
54. Those numbers sound pretty good until you consider that gasoline contains about 12,000 watt-hours per kilogram. The high energy density of gasoline—about 150 times what’s found in the battery used by the Leaf—explains why oil is an essential fuel for transportation. For the energy density of gasoline, see: MacGregor Campbell, “Energy on the Go,” New Scientist, November 30, 2012, http://www.energyrealities.org/content/energy-on-the-go/erp7D81ABF7FC1E4B181.
55. KPCB.com data, http://www.kpcb.com/partner/al-gore.
56. Andrew Herndon, “Bill Gates Invests in Battery Maker Aquion Energy,” Bloomberg, April 2, 2013, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013–04–02/bill-gates-invests-in-battery-maker-aquion-energy.html.
57. Http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/aquion-energys-disruptive-battery-tech-picks-up-15m-loan.
58. A typical 12-volt car battery is rated at 85 amp-hours; 12 volts x 85 Ah = 1020 watt-hours. See: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110116084042AAoie9A. There are about 1 billion cars in the world. Therefore, 1 billion x 1020 watt-hours is roughly equal to 1 terawatt-hour. For auto numbers, see: wardsauto.com, http://wardsauto.com/ar/world_vehicle_population_110815.
59. BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2012.
60. At 22,500 TWh per year, we use 61 TWh per day, or about 2.5 TWh per hour. Thus, the world’s auto batteries, with 1 TWh of storage, would only be able to provide less than 30 minutes of electricity for the world.
61. In 2012, total electricity sales were 22,500 terawatt hours, which is 22.5 trillion kilowatt-hours. Multiplied by $0.10 per kilowatt-hour (the approximate price of electricity in the US) equals $2.25 trillion.
Notes to Chapter 20
1. For height data, see these Wisconsin wind turbines, which are 500-feet tall. That’s right at 150 meters. See: http://media.journalinteractive.com/images/BIGWIND10G.jpg.
2. Siemens.com data, http://www.swe.siemens.com/spain/web/es/energy/e
nergias_renovables/eolica/Documents/6MW_direct_drive_offshore_wind_turbine.pdf.
3. Chris Callaway, “Dimensions of a UEFA Soccer Field,” Livestrong.org, May 26, 2011, http://www.livestrong.com/article/384541-dimensions-of-a-uefa-soccer-field/.
4. K. Shawn Smallwood, “Comparing Bird and Bat Fatality-rate Estimates Among North American Wind-energy Projects,” Wildlife Society Bulletin, March 26, 2013, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wsb.260/abstract.
5. Http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/images/windmaps/installed_capacity_2007.jpg.
6. Capacity figure here: http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/images/windmaps/installed_capacity_2011.jpg.
7. This document—http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/protecting_birds_of_prey_at_altamont_pass/pdfs/factsheet.pdf—puts the death toll at Altamont at 116 golden eagles per year. Golden Gate Audubon says it is up to 110. See: http://www.goldengateaudubon.org/conservation/birds-at-risk/avian-mortality-at-altamont-pass/.
8. Department of Justice, press release, http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2013/November/13-enrd-1253.html.
9. RTE News, “Over 2,000 Protest over Wind Farms in the Midlands,” July 27, 2013, http://www.rte.ie/news/player/2013/0727/3568500-over-2000-protest-over-wind-farms-in-the-midlands/ For the number of turbines, see: http://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/protesters-oppose-1–150-wind-farms-in-midlands-1.1377697.
10. Http://www.epaw.org/index.php?lang=en.
11. Http://www.countryguardian.net/WAG%20List.html.
12. Http://www.windaction.org/orglist.
13. Http://ontario-wind-resistance.org/member-pages/.
14. Robert Bryce, “Big Wind SLAPPs Critic,” National Review, June 11, 2013, http://www.nationalreview.com/article/350816/big-wind-slapps-critic-robert-bryce.
15. Jesse Ausubel, “Renewable and Nuclear Heresies,” International Journal of Nuclear Governance, Economy, and Ecology 1, no. 3 (2007): 233, http://phe.rockefeller.edu/docs/HeresiesFinal.pdf.
16. David J. C. MacKay, Sustainable Energy—Without the Hot Air (Cambridge, UK: UIT Cambridge Ltd., 2009), 112. For the full text, go to: http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/sustainable/book/tex/sewtha.pdf.
17. EIA data, “Levelized Cost of New Generation Sources in the Annual Energy Outlook 2013,” January 28, 2013, http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/aeo/electricity_generation.cfm.
18. Vaclav Smil, “Power Density Primer: Understanding the Spatial Dimension of the Unfolding Transition to Renewable Electricity Generation, (Part V–Comparing the Power Densities of Electricity Generation),” Vaclavsmil.com, May 14, 2010, http://www.vaclavsmil.com/wp-content/uploads/docs/smil-article-power-density-primer.pdf, 17.
19. Todd A. Kiefer, “Twenty-First Century Snake Oil: Why the United States Should Reject Biofuels as Part of a Rational National Security Energy Strategy,” Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation, January 2013, http://wici.ca/new/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Kiefer-Snake-Oil2.pdf, 33; 68, note 119.
20. ScienceDaily, “Rethinking Wind Power,” February 25, 2013, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/02/130225121926.html.
21. Amanda S. Adams and David W. Keith, “Are Global Wind Power Resource Estimates Overstated?” Environmental Research Letters, February 25, 2013, http://iopscience.iop.org/1748–9326/8/1/015021/pdf/1748–9326_8_1_015021.pdf.
22. Sum for all sixteen projects is 36.605. Divide that sum by 16 = 2.29 W/m2.
23. KCET.org, “Explainer: Capacity Factor,” undated, http://www.kcet.org/news/rewire/explainers/explainer-capacity-factor.html.
24. EIA data, http://www.eia.gov/electricity/annual/html/epa_04_03.html. In 2011, net summer capacity was 317,640 megawatts.
25. Dieter Helm, The Carbon Crunch: How We’re Getting Climate Change Wrong—and How to Fix It (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), 244.
26. James Hansen, “Baby Lauren and the Kool-Aid,” July 29, 2011, http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2011/20110729_BabyLauren.pdf.
27. Https://plus.google.com/104173268819779064135/posts/Vs6Csiv1xYr.
28. Greenpeace.org, “Stop Climate Change,” undated, http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/climate-change/. For details on its budget, see: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/about/reports/#a0.
29. Sierraclub.org, “The Goals of the Sierra Club’s Climate Recovery Partnership,” undated, http://www.sierraclub.org/goals/. See also: John M. Broder, “Sierra Club Leader Will Step Down,” New York Times, November 18, 2011, http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/18/sierra-club-leader-will-step-down/.
30. Christian Azar, Thomas Sterner, and Gernot Wagner, “Rio Isn’t All Lost,” New York Times, June 18, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/19/opinion/rio-isnt-all-lost.html. For EDF’s budget, see: http://www.edf.org/finances.
31. PBS Newshour, “Proposed Keystone Pipeline Prompts Protest March, Heated Debate,” February 18, 2013, http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/environment/jan-june13/keystone_02–18.html. For budget info, see: http://www.nrdc.org/about/finances2012.pdf.
32. Blake Zeff, “Fracking,” Branch.com, March 4, 2013, http://branch.com/b/fracking.
33. BP Statistical Review of World Energy, 2013.
34. Ibid.
35. International Energy Agency, “World Energy Outlook 2011,” 178. Note that this projection is from the current policies scenario.
36. Http://cleantechnica.com/2011/12/30/german-solar-power-production-surges-60-renewables-20-of-total-electricity-supply/.
37. BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2013.
38. Ibid.
39. American Wind Energy Association data, http://awea.rd.net/Resources/Content.aspx?ItemNumber=5097.
40. BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2013.
41. Germany’s land area is almost 350,000 square kilometers. See: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/AG.LND.TOTL.K2. Note that at 500,000 square kilometers per year, we’d have to cover about 1,000 square kilometers per day. Manhattan Island is about 60 square kilometers. Therefore, just to halt the growth in carbon dioxide emissions with wind energy, we’d have to cover a land area 17 times the size of Manhattan Island, and we’d have to do it every day. For the area of Manhattan, see: http://en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan.
42. Http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Blog/2013/11/08/Wind-turbines-killed-600000-bats-in-2012/7591383930587/. For birds, see: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wsb.260/abstract. This report estimates wind turbines are killing 888,000 bats and 573,000 birds/year (including 83,000 raptor fatalities).
43. T.A. “Ike” Kiefer, “Energy Insecurity,” Strategic Studies Quarterly, Spring 2013, http://www.au.af.mil/au/ssq/digital/pdf/spring_13/kiefer.pdf, 137.
44. Ibid.
45. This data comes from my last book, Power Hungry: The Myths of “Green” Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future (New York: PublicAffairs, 2010), 93.
46. Kiefer, op. cit., 131.
47. The first response, written by Adam L. Rosenberg, whose title is Deputy Director for Technology Strategy, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Operational Energy Plans and Programs, has just five paragraphs and no footnotes or references to citations. Rosenberg dismissed Kiefer’s report as offering “interesting but ultimately misleading opinions.” Rosenberg continued, saying the Department of Defense “has a policy of only purchasing operation quantities” of biofuels if they are “cost competitive with conventional fuels.” See: http://www.au.af.mil/au/ssq/digital/pdf/spring_13/DOD.pdf.
The other response, from Zia Haq, whose title is Lead Analyst/DPA Coordinator, Department of Energy Bioenergy Technologies Office, has fourteen paragraphs, and not a single substantive citation. Despite this lack of supporting evidence, Haq claimed that Keifer had “tailored” his report by relying exclusively on studies that had “negative points of views and results for biofuels.” See: http://www.au.af.mil/au/ssq/digital/pdf/spring_13/DOE.pdf.
48. Nick Taborek, “Pentagon Awards Biofuel Contracts in Obama Renewable Energy Push,” Bloomberg, May 24, 2013, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013–05�
�24/pentagon-awards-biofuel-contracts-in-obama-renewable-energy-push.html.
49. CNN.com, http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/25/obamas-state-of-the-union-remarks/.
50. Ken Silverstein, “Barack Obama Inc.,” Harper’s, November 2006, 40.
51. Http://www.kicktheoilhabit.org/phase1/index.php.
52. Robert Redford, “Redford: Kicking the Oil Habit,” CNN.com, May 30, 2006, http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/05/30/redford.oil/index.html.
53. CNN.com, “A Lively Discussion on Rising Oil Prices,” May 17, 2006, http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0605/17/lkl.01.html.
54. Stone Phillips, “A Simple Solution to Pain at the Pump?” NBCnews.com, May 7, 2006, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12676374/#.Tt0sE5hkjGs.
55. Tom Daschle and Vinod Khosla, “Miles per Cob,” New York Times, May 8, 2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/08/opinion/08daschle.html?_r=2&ex=1304740800&en=8193adacb1a73c25&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss.
56. Robert Bryce, “Another Failed Energy Loan,” National Review, December 8, 2011, http://www.nationalreview.com/content/another-failed-energy-loan.
57. David Roberts, “Al Gore, Movie Star, Talks of His Latest Role,” Grist, May 24, 2006, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12743273/.
58. Roy Roberson, “Former CIA Director Says Farmers Leading Terrorism Fight,” Southeast Farm Press, March 8, 2007, http://southeastfarmpress.com/grains/030807-farmers-terrorism/.
59. Robert Zubrin and Gal Luft, “Food vs Fuel: A Global Myth,” Chicago Tribune, May 6, 2008, http://fdd.typepad.com/fdd/2008/05/food-vs-fuel-a.html.
60. Amory Lovins, “Energy Strategy: The Road Not Taken?” Foreign Affairs, October 1976, http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/26604/amory-b-lovins/energy-strategy-the-road-not-taken, 82.
61. RMI.org, “Blueprint to the New Energy Era,” undated, http://www.rmi.org/rmi/ReinventingFireInfographic.
62. This figure is from 2011. See: BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2012.
63. Oak Ridge National Laboratory, “Biofuels from Switchgrass: Greener Energy Pastures,” undated, http://bioenergy.ornl.gov/papers/misc/switgrs.html.