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This post presents a critical review of the Western Wind and Solar Integration Study (WWSIS) published by NREL and GE Energy earlier this year. The goal of this multiyear study was to determine the feasibility of incorporating...

For the past 5 years, The Oil Drum has been a home base for many high level discussions about the details and implications surrounding an early peak in global crude oil production as well as topics on society and energy in...

For the past 5 years, TheOilDrum has been a home base for many high level discussions about the details and implications surrounding an early peak in global crude oil production as well as topics on society and energy in...

During the past 5 years we have had a continuing stream of energy-related content appear on these pages (Super G tells me 6,366 individual pieces). In the busiest of times, with a staff of over 20 volunteers, we were posting...

It has been interesting to watch the flurry of ethanol rhetoric since the recent elections. With the $0.45 per gallon subsidy (called the VEETC) and the ethanol tariffs both set to expire at the end of next month, both sides...

There has been a growing trend toward predicting an imminent peak to the production of coal. Just this last week Nature carried an article that précised Richard Heinberg’s recent book on Coal production, which I...

There is an aspect of coal mining that gets relatively little attention, even though it is growing in popularity, It is with this method that I will conclude this series on mining, and its precursor on oilwell production...

In July of this year I wrote a story called The Chinese Coal Monster drawing attention to the fact that China would soon account for 50% of global coal production and consumption...

Bintulu. For many people involved with gasification, that word often invokes a specific image. In fact, colleagues know when I say “Bintulu” that’s shorthand for Shell’s Bintulu, Malaysia gas-to-liquids...

People sometimes ask which biofuels are competitive head to head with crude oil. By competitive, I mean those that can actually compete favorably with oil prices on a level playing field (i.e., they don’t require big subsidies...

There is a growing concern, as fossil fuels are recovered from the ground, that the cost of the energy required to extract and process them is rising, and that a point may be reached where it is no longer energy-cost effective...

The World Energy Outlook 2010 makes quite a number of assumptions that seem wrong, and omits important ideas. Here are a few that Oil Drum staff members have mentioned. You may have others you think should be added to the...

Can the IEA really be expected to be objective? I tried to look at this issue two years ago, when the World Energy Outlook 2008 was released. The organization of the IEA, its close ties to the OECD, and the significant funding...

The International Energy Agency issued its annual energy forecast today for 2010. It consists of a three volume report, plus an executive summary and a press release. The website can be found here.

One of the keynote speakers at the recent ASPO-USA conference was Jeff Rubin, former Chief Economist with CIBC World Market. Rubin talked about why he believes high oil prices caused the recent recession. He also talked about...