Peak Oil

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
13,081
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/california-next-electricity-headache-looming-201332447.html
But California’s grid managers say the risk of a shortfall is real and could be as high as 4.7 gigawatts. Mark Rothleder, with the California Independent System Operator, said the 15% cushion is a holdover from the days before big solar and wind farms made the grid more volatile. Now it may need to be increased, he said.
“We’re not in that world anymore,” said Rothleder, the operator’s vice president of state regulatory affairs. “The complexity of the system and the resources we have now are much different.”
The state’s three major utilities, PG&E, Edison International and Sempra Energy, will be largely responsible for securing new supplies. The commission banned fossil fuels from being used at any new power generators built to meet the requirement -- though it left the door open for expansions at existing ones.
 

SamR

Joined Mar 19, 2019
5,031
The commission banned fossil fuels from being used at any new power generators built to meet the requirement -- though it left the door open for expansions at existing ones.

Why stop there? Go ahead and make it used in the manufacturing of anything used in their construction??? Maybe that would wake them up to reality...
 

Thread Starter

joeyd999

Joined Jun 6, 2011
5,234
From this article: https://resource-recycling.com/plastics/2019/03/27/company-expands-wind-turbine-recycling-operation/

The material is then blended with either virgin or recycled thermoplastics to make a reinforced, filled thermoplastic pellet.
Hmmmm...where does thermoplastic (required to recycle the thermoset/fiberglass blades) come from????
 

Thread Starter

joeyd999

Joined Jun 6, 2011
5,234
Anyone watching oil prices lately? We are now in the low to mid $20s per barrel.

At this point, I feel bad for our wildcatters. They've helped us so much over the last few years, and they're going to be put out of business by this.

Q. Will the Saudis remain standing? How long can they continue to lose on each barrel of oil?
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
29,978
Anyone watching oil prices lately? We are now in the low to mid $20s per barrel.
I can't even count the number of times I've been mocked and ridiculed because every time gas prices shoot up I keep saying that I fully expect them to fall back well below $2/gal at some point and never rule out sub-$1/gal prices. Sure, at some point they will likely rise above $2/gal and never come back down below it ever again just because of overall cumulative inflation, but I still don't think we are anywhere close to that point.

I just paid $1.459/gal and with the 5% cash back I get for gas that's $1.386/gal, which is LOWER than the $1.389/gal that I paid for the first gallon of gas I bought after I got my driver's license just shy of 40 years ago just after the federal minimum wage went to $3.35/hr.

At this point, I feel bad for our wildcatters. They've helped us so much over the last few years, and they're going to be put out of business by this.
On the one hand yes, and the other hand no. They are in a high-risk, high-reward industry and they know it. They reap huge benefits when they hit it right and lose big when they don't. So while I don't begrudge them their profits when they do well, it means I don't lose too much sleep when they don't. They chose to ride that beast.

Q. Will the Saudis remain standing? How long can they continue to lose on each barrel of oil?
My gut feel is that it isn't too long and that, in the end, we have the upper hand if push really comes to shove. Their entire economy is far too dependent on oil and so they can't buffer it nearly as long as we can.
 

wayneh

Joined Sep 9, 2010
17,496
I tend to think that it’s not about us. Thanks to homegrown energy, we can sit back and watch the dogfight between the Saudis and Putin. That’s going to be epic and not entirely about oil, but also about standing in the region.

We need to stay out of it, as I don’t see much point in backing either side over the other. We used to have an interest in playing nice with SA, but now...?
 

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
13,081
https://business.financialpost.com/...the-brink-of-running-out-of-places-to-put-oil
The world will run out of places to store oil in as little as three months, according to an industry consultant.

IHS Markit said that current rates of supply and demand mean inventories will increase by 1.8 billion barrels over the first half of 2020. With only an estimated 1.6 billion barrels of storage capacity still available, producers will be forced to cut output because by June there’ll be no place left to put the unwanted crude, it said.
 
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