We need to learn quickly to keep up with the massive change around us so we don't get run over. We need to outrun change.
I’ve been referring to solar farms as wing-toasters and wind farms as slice-and-dicers for some time.
Found a few articles that explain why wind turbines have earned that well-deserved title:
4/30 The ECOreport – How Much Wildlife Can USA Afford to Kill? – Lots of footnotes.
Don’t go to the link unless you can stomach photos of large raptors sliced into pieces. Staff at wind farms are picking up chunks. One eagle was beheaded.
If you want to see what a radical change is underway in the energy field, check out this graph of combined oil production from the three biggest plays, Bakken, Eagle Ford, and Permian:
That’s from America’s Amazing Shale Revolution in one chart by Carpe Diem and is used with permission.
I read most of the posts from Million Dollar Way but just browse the production reports. Check out this one: Random Updates on Privratsky Wells: Different Fields; Different Operators
I dropped my jaw on first glance. Dry holes!
In my minimal understanding, historically getting a dry hole when looking for oil is a serious risk. You pour a bunch of time and money into drilling a spot and you get……nothing. I’ve read that in Bakken over the last five years there aren’t any dry holes.
Imagine my shock when I browsed the linked article glancing at the initial production rates in barrels per day and saw DRY.
Continue reading “Dry holes in Bakken? Oh, wait. Look at the completion dates.”
A few articles on technology, education, energy, and publishing that are worth a read. The frontier is wide open in those areas. Just a brief comment from me.
Innovation, inside the box
7/1/13 – Wharton – How LEGO Stopped Thinking Outside the Box and Innovated Inside the Brick – LEGO started losing money when their innovations needed a completely new set of parts for every innovation. They regained their 20%+ growth curve and 40% profit increase when they innovated new toys using existing pieces. Their outside-the-box innovation almost sank them. Staying inside the box returned them to growth and profits. Hat tip: Emproprise-BI: Structured innovation, via LEGO.
Lesson from my grad school classes: stay inside your competencies. LEGO makes bricks, not video games, TV shows, or bendable action figures. They thrive when they do what they do best.
Education
4/30 – Wall Street Journal – With Free Web Courses, Wharton Seeks Edge in Traditional Programs – Continue reading “More good stuff on the open frontiers – 5/28”
The count of toasted birds at the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System doubled in April. Two possibilities for the accelerating death count.
First, the wing-toasting solar tower was in operation a higher number of hours in the month. Second, staff from the U.S. Geological Survey were on site a lot during the month giving a more accurate count.
Check out April Was Bad Month for Birds at Ivanpah Solar, by Chris Clarke at ReWire.
Mr. Clarke says the Ivanpah monthly compliance report lists 100 birds as either killed, mortally wounded, or injured during April. That consists of 40 that were scorched, singed, or had melted feathers and 12 showing signs of collision with heliostats. That is 52, so that leaves 48 decomposed enough that the cause of death couldn’t be determined. By biologists. Who know what they are looking for.
Actual deaths are a large multiple of the reported number
Check out these astounding pieces of info from the 2014 Williston Basin Petroleum Conference, as reported by Amy Dalrymple (who else would it be from?): Hamm sees 2 million barrels per day potential for North Dakota: Continue reading “Mind bending tidbits from ’14 Bakken conference”
Does fracking a well to generate huge amounts of crude oil and natural gas so we can drive our cars and heat our homes take a lot of water?
You bet.
Add up all the water we use across the country for fracking. It’s a lot. However, we use more than that for irrigating golf courses or watering the lawns at our homes.
Compared to what?
Brace yourself for this chart, used with permission from Carpe Diem: Energy chart of the day: America’s shale oil revolution will reverse a 40-year decline in crude oil output in just 5.5 years.
US energy production grew from around 1 million barrels of oil per day (1M bopd) in 1920 to a high point of 10.04M bopd in November 1970. A 40 year decline dropped production to around 5M or 5.5M bopd in 2010.
The shale boom has skyrocketed production to 8.3M bopd in April 2014. The EIA projects production will be pushing 10M bopd at the end of 2015.
Astounding.
What Peak Oil?
Continue reading “Shale oil revolution drives surge in domestic production – Peak oil #34”
Here’s another data point for the cost to build out a large wind farm along with the 700 mile transmission line. Can’t have a huge slice-and-dice operation without a way to move the electricity to a buyer.
The Denver Business Journal reports Anschutz-backed Wyoming wind far, biggest in North America, files for permit.
Here is one key paragraph with lots of data:
The Chokecherry and Sierra Madre Wind Energy Program wind farm is being developed by the Power Company of Wyoming LLC, a subsidiary of The Anschutz Corp. It involves 1,000 wind turbines capable of generating up to 3,000 megawatts of power — enough to support the electricity demands of about 900,000 homes.
Cost of the constructing the turbines is $6B per the article, and is based on 2008 plans.
In addition, a 725 mile transmission line will carry the power across Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and end up in southern Nevada. Cost of building that line is $3B per the article.
Key info for future reference: Continue reading “Cost to build a 1,000 turbine wind farm and associated transmission line”
Here’s a few quick notes on interesting news that I won’t cover in a separate post: infrastructure starting to catch up, regs won’t fix flaring, growth continues strong, interpreting the high count of wells awaiting completion.
5/3 – Million Dollar Way – Women in the Bakken – Just a Casual Observation – Bruce Oksol has a number of observations comparing Williston in 4/13 to his visit in 2011.
Forbes has a superb article on the shale revolution in North Dakota and one of the drivers of said revolution: Harold Hamm: The Billionaire Oilman Fueling America’s Recovery.
For some great background why the Bakken field is producing nine times more oil than five years ago, check out the article.
There is great discussion of Harold Hamm and his role in creating the oil boom.
What has the shale boom done for the US?
Check out the benefits to the US of the shale oil boom: Continue reading “Background on Bakken and Harold Hamm”
Oil production in North Dakota hit 977,061 barrels per day (bopd) in March. Looking at the top of the trend line takes a bit of care. The initial report for November 2012 was 973,280 bopd. When another dozen wells reported results, the average production was 977,599 in November. The updates increased production data by 4,219 bopd. That means the March data is the record high for the initial report, but is still about 500 bopd behind the updated record high.
Here is a graph of the production with updated data, not the initial reports:
Background info:
Continue reading “N.D. oil production in 3/14 recovering from winter slump”
Here’s a few articles on the environmental issues with solar and wind energy. Since the uncontained, unresearched, unquantified environmental damage from slice-and-dicers and wing-toasters is not particularly good, I can’t call this series more good stuff like the other updates on this blog. So here are a few updates including more consequences of wind power, impact of natural gas, and two articles on solar facilities in California:
4/28 – Syracuse, byline AP – 4 dead after small plane crashes into South Dakota wind farm in fog Continue reading “Update on solar and wind power, 5/9 – solar #20”
A new study funded by the federal government reached the conclusion that ethanol made from residue after corn harvesting releases 7% more greenhouse gases that straight gasoline.
The reason for the surprise is that the study considers the ancillary effects of biofuels. For example, when the residual is left on the ground, it improves the soil’s ability to absorb CO2. When the increased CO2 from non-absorption into the ground is considered, biofuels make the environment worse.
You can read more:
Doubling greenhouse gas
It’s a wide open frontier in energy & education: why shale unlikely to boom elsewhere, U.S. getting greener because of shale, & one stat to show why higher education is in economic distress.
Energy
Continue reading “More good stuff on the open frontiers in energy & education – 4-29”