Chapter 19: Conventional Energy

19.1 Energy Resources And Uses How do we measure energy? Fossil fuels supply most of the world’s energy What are the current sources of U.S. energy?

Measuring Energy Joule = Energy to raise 1 kg 10 cm – Energy to Move 500 g (a Pound) 1 m/sec calorie = Energy to heat 1 gm Water 1 C Calorie = Energy to heat 1 kg Water 1 C – 1000 calories – Food Calorie – Equals 4200 joules Watt = 1 joule/second Human body outputs about 100 watts

Quads Btu = British Thermal Unit = Energy to heat a pound of Water 1 Degree F 1 Btu = 1055 J Many Energy Reports use Quads = 1 Quadrillion (10 15 ) Btu 1 Quad = x J

World Energy Use Total about 150,000 TWh = 540 x J = 128,000 Megatons

U.S. Energy Use Total about 27,000 TWh = 97 x J = 23,000 Megatons

What U.S Uses Energy For

Energy Use, California, 1972

Energy Use, California, 1979

Energy Use, California, 1993

Energy Use, California, 1994

Energy Use, California, 2003

All You Need to Know

Economics 2000 WINNEBAGO CHIEFTAIN SERIES M-36LP-DSL Average Retail Price: $51,600 Suggested List: $140,851 Source: NADAGuides.com (23 April 2010) Ten-Year Cost: = 297 days = 30 days/year

19.2 Coal Coal resources are vast Coal mining is a dirty, dangerous business Burning coal releases many pollutants Clean coal technology could be helpful

19.3 Oil Oil resources aren’t evenly distributed Like other fossil fuels, oil has negative impacts What Do You Think? Oil Drilling in ANWR Oil shales and tar sands contain huge amounts of petroleum

Petroleum A hydrocarbon molecule What organisms make these? Answer: None

Petroleum Lots of organisms make these, however Fatty Acids Probable source: Marine plankton

Petroleum Traps

Where the Oil Is

The Geography of Oil

Hubbert Curves In 1956, Oil geologist M. King Hubbert noted that rates of oil production follow a bell-shaped curve. Cumulative production follows a slanting S- curve Production lags discovery by about ten years.

Hubbert’s 1956 Prediction

Where We Stand Today

What if We Find More Oil? Even a huge increase in total oil has very little effect on the peak and decline of production. Why? We waste most of it on inefficient uses.

One Solution: Limit Production

Is There a Lot More Undiscovered Oil? 80 per cent of oil being produced today is from fields discovered before In the 1990's oil discoveries averaged about seven billion barrels of oil a year, only one third of usage. The discovery rate of multi-billion barrel fields has been declining since the 1940's, that of giant (500- million barrel) fields since the 1960's. In 1938, fields with more than 10 million barrels made up 19% of all new discoveries, but by 1948 the proportion had dropped to only 3%.

Oil Discovery Rates

U.S. Petroleum Use ,121,644,500 barrels ,257,125,000 barrels ,384,780,000 barrels ,470,457,000 barrels ,410,770,000 barrels ,175,244,000 barrels ,945,585,000 barrels = 19,498,000 barrels a day = 1 billion barrels in < two months

Global Petroleum Usage 2008 projection: 87 million barrels/day = 31.8 billion barrels per year = 1 billion barrels in 11.5 days = 1000 barrels/second U.S. = 25% of total

Oil Fantasies “America is sitting on top of a super massive 200 billion barrel Oil Field that could potentially make America Energy Independent and until now has largely gone unnoticed. Thanks to new technology the Bakken Formation in North Dakota could boost America’s Oil reserves by an incredible 10 times, giving western economies the trump card against OPEC’s short squeeze on oil supply and making Iranian and Venezuelan threats of disrupted supply irrelevant” (Next Energy News, 13 February 2008)

Realty Check 200 billion 20 million barrels a day = 10,000 days = 27 years Then what? Reality: maybe 10% of the oil is recoverable with known technology The Bakken is a “tight” formation Horizontal drilling can increase yields

Canadian Oil Sands 170 billion recoverable barrels 10 x larger total amount Current production: 1.2 million barrels/day Projected production in 2015 = 3 million barrels per day 3 million barrels = 4 hours of U.S. petroleum consumption

19.4 Natural Gas Most of the world’s known natural gas is in a few countries There may be vast unconventional gas sources – Coal-Bed Methane – Fracking – Methane Hydrates

Methane Hydrate

Gas Hydrates Hydrocarbons trapped in cage of water molecules Freeze above 0 C under moderate pressure Solid gas hydrates occur in marine sediments (“yellow ice”) Potentially huge energy resource Possible role in climate change?

19.5 Nuclear Power How do nuclear reactors work? There are many different reactor designs Some alternative reactor designs may be safer Breeder reactors could extend the life of our nuclear fuel

19.6 Radioactive Waste Management We lack safe storage for radioactive wastes Decommissioning old nuclear plants is expensive

19.7 Changing Fortunes Of Nuclear Power Nuclear Explosives Once Envisioned For: – Mining – Deepening Harbors – Large Excavations – Anything that Required Large Amounts of Explosives We Were Going to Have Nuclear – Cars – Airplanes – Trains

We Had a Long Range Energy Plan Before Fossil Fuels Ran Short, Nuclear Power Would Take Over By About 2000, We’d Have Fusion Power