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The US Geological Survey released a report estimating that 85 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of technically recoverable gas hydrates are accessible on the Alaskan North Slope. If produced over 20 years and combined with the conventional gas supply from the North Slope, which has been waiting for a pipeline south for many years, this deposit could supply up to a third of total US natural gas consumption. But that barely scratches the surface of the overall potential of gas hydrates.
The reason this announcement is so significant lies in the words “technically recoverable.” Geologists have known about gas hydrates for a long time, and estimates of global hydrate deposits have been refined to a range of between 100,000 and a million TCF, with the best estimate of US hydrate deposits currently at 200,000 TCF. To put that in perspective, one TCF of natural gas represents about 1% of US annual total energy consumption and contains the same energy as 180 million barrels of oil or 10 billion gallons of ethanol. In other words, that 200,000 TCF estimate is the equivalent of a 2,000-year energy supply for the US, at current consumption levels, of a fuel with half the greenhouse gas emissions of coal.
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A high-tech network cuts down on electricity use – Nov. 19, 2008
Reliant operates in a competitive, deregulated electricity market. If homeowners get cool technology that helps them avoid the unpleasant surprise of a big electric bill, Jacobs believes Reliant will retain more customers. And then there’s the green angle. “We as an industry are the single largest emitter of greenhouse gas, and our goal is to help our customers use less, spend less, and emit less,” says Jacobs
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Tubercle Technology and wind turbines were made for each other. Tubercles allow turbines to overcome the three major limitations of wind power:
* poor reliability when winds fall or fail
* noise – especially tip chatter caused by tip stalling
* poor performance in unsteady or turbulent air -
The Auto Execs didn’t walk!!! But don’t ask about their pay…
The chief executives of General Motors Corp. (GM) and Ford Motor Co. (F) said Wednesday they wouldn’t accept a $1 salary in exchange for government aid to their imperiled companies, as the head of the former Chrysler Corp. did a generation ago.
During a hearing Wednesday, a member of the House Financial Services Committee told Rick Wagoner of GM and Alan Mulally of Ford that reducing their annual salaries to $1 would be an important symbolic gesture as they lobby for $25 billion in loans funded by tax dollars. Chrysler’s Lee Iacocca worked for that wage when his company was bailed out by the government in the 1980s.
I am so hoping the methane hydrate route does not become economically viable any time soon as I have little confidence that if methane is seen as a replacement for oil and gas, we will not change our infrastructure to renewables, and in our haste won’t deal effectively with the far higher greenhouse gas emissions.
Interesting article here:
http://robertkyriakides.wordpress.com/2008/03/12/methane-hydrate-another-fossil-fuel-and-another-theory-of-global-warming/