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UK energy flows 2012

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I am on holiday this week, but want to try and keep Energy Matters ticking along with a couple of very short posts with complicated charts. The above chart is called a Sankey diagram produced by DECC. Sankey diagrams are … Continue reading

Ukraine: Russia holds all the aces

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Ukraine is also of major strategic importance to Europe since several gas pipelines cross the country transporting Russian gas to Europe. Europe is also heavily dependent upon oil and coal imports from Russia. And so, when Americans talk of sanctions on Russia they had better come up with a plan B for European energy supplies at the same time. Continue reading

Egypt – energy, population and economy

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Decline in oil and gas exports and increasing cost of food imports resulted in Egypt's trade deficit with the rest of the world growing to £12 billion in 2012 [2]. Debt : GDP stands at a manageable 81% but Egypt can ill afford to allow this to grow indefinitely [3]. Egypt needs a plan to boost exports and to use its energy resources to produce higher value GDP. Continue reading

Ukrainian Death Spiral

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Russia has raised natural gas prices to Ukraine twice this week. There is a risk of mounting chaos. Continue reading

Turkey – on its way to a mature economy

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Turkey is energy poor, has essentially no oil and gas production and imports significant amounts of oil, gas and coal. It has broken free of developing nation status and is on its way to becoming a mature economy. The country has seen an enormous uplift in per capita GDP since 1970 that now stands at $8,500 per annum. Continue reading

Belarus grows while Ukraine withers

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Since the mid 1990s the Belarusian economy recovered, showing strong annual growth and is now on a par with Turkey. This is a very different story to Ukraine where the economy, that was showing feeble growth, collapsed again in 2009 and has not yet recovered. Economic malaise will no doubt underpin the civil unrest in Ukraine. Continue reading

China – the coal monster

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In 2012 China consumed 50.4% of all coal produced on Earth. Most, but not all of that coal was produced in China, mainly from deep underground mines. Like Europe and the USA before it, China's industrial revolution has been founded on coal that accounts for 68% of all energy consumed. Continue reading

Energy and Mankind part 1

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FF and to a lesser extent nuclear power created the developed world that most of us live in; they created society's surpluses we know as savings, pensions and wealth; they created prosperity beyond the wildest dreams of 19th Century citizens; they have created health, longevity, security, well-being and comfort for billions. Continue reading

Fossil Fuels and Mankind

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It has become popular to demonise fossil fuels (FF). Pop stars, press, politicians and now Pontiffs speak with a single voice: Continue reading

Decoupling wealth creation, energy consumption and CO2 emissions

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Some recent media articles have claimed that global GDP growth is no longer being accompanied by growth in energy consumption and CO2 emissions, or in other words that wealth creation and energy have become “decoupled”. Here we look into the question of whether this is the case and find that it isn’t. Continue reading

The Externalities of Energy Production Systems

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The economics term externality is a cost or benefit accrued by a third party from the actions of others where the third party did not choose to acquire said costs or benefits. The term has been widely adopted by the environmental lobby to describe negative impacts of energy production systems. What is all too often overlooked are the externalised benefits the same energy production systems provide. This post aims to summarise both internal and external costs and benefits of 12 electricity production systems employing 12 different measures. Continue reading

Energy Externalities Day 2: Gas-fired-CCGT

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Day 2 of The Energy Externality Game and we are assessing gas fired power generation using a combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT). In scoring gas we need to take into account the whole of the gas exploration and supply side of the business (which is complex, see below), transportation of gas and the CCGT operation itself. I was a little disappointed in the level of audience participation yesterday, with only 11 participants in total, although the results are very interesting. It would be really good if we could push that beyond 20. Hopefully all of yesterday's players will play again. Once you get in the swing it takes Continue reading

Energy and Man part 1

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Much of the energy debate at present is based around the risks associated with energy procurement systems; emissions from burning fossil fuels (FF) and radiation hazards linked to nuclear power. New renewables (wind, solar and wave power) are presented as a risk free alternative to FF and nuclear. However, what is systematically overlooked by renewables advocates are the risks associated for individuals or for society not having access to affordable energy when it is needed. Continue reading

Energy and Man part 3

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If you look back at the history of Energy and Mankind,  in 1950, nuclear power was the energy source of the future. The only power source that could not just rival FF but was superior to it. The future has not yet arrived and we need to hope that it has not been cancelled altogether. My essay on Energy and Mankind grew to over 5000 words. In this the third and final part I look into: The concept of energy slaves Past energy transitions No such thing as a free lunch in the energy world Continue reading

Entropy, Energy and Order in the Universe

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Guest post by Geo who posted this comment on my recent post on Energy and Man Part 2. It is easy to get caught up in discussions over what types of energy we should use, and how we should use … Continue reading

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