A Report Card on Transportation Spending
May 17, 2011
Pew Centre and Rockefeller Foundation hands out grades.
Full Story [greenblognytimes.com]
Climate Panel Signs Off Reforms – But How Ambitious?
May 17, 2011
This is the group that provides global assessments to help governments develop their climate policies.
Where Does Your Gasoline Dollar Go?
May 17, 2011
There are three major components to gasoline pricing: crude costs, marketing and refining margins and taxes. And they vary according to world demand for, and supply, of oil; North American demand for, and supply of, gasoline; and where you live in Canada.
In 2009, when Canadian Par crude oil averaged $65.19 per barrel, crude costs accounted for 43.7 per cent of the cost of gasoline, taxes accounted for 33.2 per cent and refining and marketing accounted for 23 per cent. As oil prices rose in 2010, crude costs accounted for 47.3 per cent of the cost of gasoline, taxes for 33 per cent and refining and marketing 19.7 per cent. Thus far in 2011, Canadian Par prices have averaged $95.40 per barrel, and crude costs have risen to 49 per cent of the cost of gasoline, taxes for 30.8 per cent and marketing and refining 20.2 per cent.
The reason taxes have fallen as a percentage is that most of the tax is a fixed amount per litre. For example, the federal excise tax in gasoline is a flat 10 cents per litre, no matter the total pump price. The same is true for some provincial taxes.
Most of the regional differences in price are due to taxes varying from province to province and at time from city to city. In Edmonton, as in all of Alberta, there is no provincial sales tax. In cities such as Montreal, Vancouver and Victoria, there are municipal taxes and in Vancouver, there is a carbon tax.
Where Electronics Go To Die, Responsibly
May 17, 2011
How many electronic items do you and your family have?
Using Wind Power, Audi Aims for Carbon-neutral Motoring
May 16, 2011
It’s all about choices – wind, hydrogen, fuel cells,e-gas, waste biogas, natural gas and conventional gasoline.
More Speculation on Gasoline Prices
May 16, 2011
You know gasoline prices must be getting out of hand when the federal government promises to “look into it”. But don’t hold your breath. The government has investigated collusion in gasoline pricing six times since 1990 and has found no evidence to support it.
But it’s not only that gasoline prices are high, it’s that over the past week prices have fluctuated as much as 4.5 cents over night. And to many people, that just doesn’t make sense.
We all understand that gasoline prices are heavily influenced by crude oil prices, as shown in the graph below. And we’ve all been told that oil prices are at near record levels because of political instability in the Middle East and North Africa.
We’ve also been told that recent flooding on the Mississippi River in Tennessee has caused refineries in that area to shut down, causing gasoline shortages.
But a closer examination of the unrest in the Middle East and North Africa reveals that the countries where the protests are occurring export about 1.9 million barrels of oil per day, or about 11 per cent of the region’s total, an amount that Saudi Arabia can more than accommodate merely by opening the taps a quarter of a turn.
And according to Reuters, there are concerns that refineries may have to shut down, but as of Thursday, May 12, none have done so.
One has to wonder what is really behind the price increases. And one has to really wonder hard about paying $1.32 per litre Monday and $1.36 per litre Tuesday when Tuesday’s gas was in the service station’s storage tank on Monday with Monday’s gas.
The government’s investigation will probably take several months. Meanwhile, there’s plenty of time for speculation.
High Temperature Geothermal – Not Just a Flash in the Pan
May 13, 2011
It’s not a flash in the pan for two reasons. Firstly, geothermally heated water has been used by humanoids since their emergence; hence it’s had a long history. Secondly, the flash isn’t in a pan, it’s in a low-pressure chamber.
It works like this: water reservoired deep in the earth’s crust is heated, and because it is often five to six kilometres deep, the pressure is so high that the water remains liquid well beyond its normal boiling point of 100˚C. When used to generate electricity, the water is brought to the surface where the pressure is suddenly released. The super heated water immediately “flashes” into steam with enough force to turn a turbine which turns a generator and electricity is born. The steam is condensed and returned to the reservoir.
What causes the water to heat up? The temperature at the inner core of the earth is greater than 6,000˚C. Most of this heat is primordial heat, generated from the energy of the accumulating matter that eventually formed the planet earth. As the outer surface of the planet cooled, primordial heat was trapped and remains to this day. Because the earth is cooling from the outside in, a geothermal gradient exists, which averages about 30˚C per kilometre of depth. The geothermal gradient is much steeper near tectonic plate boundaries where molten material is closer to the surface. The other heat source is radioactive decay of unstable elements.
If water isn’t naturally occurring at depth, injection wells are drilled to deliver water. Once heated, the water is brought to the surface through other wells to the generating station, then returned to depth.
Although Canada doesn’t have any commercial geothermal generation at present, about 53.15 terawatt-hours of geothermal electricity were generated world-wide in 2009. The United States led the way with 15.2 TW-h, or about 28.6% of the world total.
Geothermal Energy – What’s in a Name?
May 13, 2011
Recently, use of the term “geothermal energy” has become somewhat confusing. For the longest time, geothermal energy implied deep-seated, super hot (+180˚C) water, brought to the surface to provide heat for space heating or electricity generation. It is the energy behind geysers and hot springs. Think Old Faithful and Banff Hot Springs.
But with the advent of heat pumps, shallower, much cooler water could be used for space heating. Purists insisted on calling the new technology “earth energy”, or “geo exchange” or “ground-source energy”. The debate intensified to just short of rioting in the streets, but new subdivisions, advertised as economical and environmentally friendly due to “geothermal heating”, sprang up across the country. And people oblivious to the debate began to see geothermal only as a method of home heating that involved heat pumps and a bit of tubing.
So which side is right? Etymologically speaking, they both are. The term geothermal is derived from two Greek words: geo, meaning earth; and thermos, meaning heat. Earth heat. There is no reference to either temperature or depth.
Practically speaking, there is a big difference. In most parts of Canada, deep geothermal requires wells more than five kilometres deep, and that is prohibitively expensive for someone who just wants to heat their home. And shallow geothermal can’t deliver the heat required to create steam to drive turbines, so it won’t be used by utilities.
Regardless of what you consider is the real geothermal, both are among the cleanest sources of energy, and, over the long term, economical.
Energy BOT Squad’s Newest Member
May 9, 2011
Energy doesn’t get much more underground than geothermal power, which unlocks the heat trapped below the surface of the earth. But when it comes to Canada, geothermal energy is still “underground” in more than a few ways — just ask GeothermalBOT.
At the moment, GeothermalBOT mainly has to keep himself warm using the heat pumps that use the differences in temperature between the ground and the air to cool or heat homes. They’re small and localized, and the only game in town for a BOT that wants to keep nice and toasty. In fact, there aren’t currently any large geothermal power plants in Canada. But that doesn’t mean that GeothermalBOT will be stuck in Canada’s energy underground for the rest of his days.
In fact, Canada has considerable geothermal potential, with near-surface resources found across the country in areas as far apart as British Columbia and Saskatchewan. There has even been talk of developing these resources — just look to the Canadian Geothermal Energy Association (CanGEA) — though so far Canada still has no geothermal plants. Around the world, though, it’s a slightly different story.
To find areas where geothermal power has already heated up, GeothermalBOT would need to take a look at Iceland, where geothermal plants produce almost a quarter of the country’s total electricity. Because of the area’s high concentration of volcanoes and other heat sources near to the surface of the earth, the country has a natural wealth of geothermal energy that it’s used since 1908, when a farmer piped in water to heat his home. Other countries that use geothermal energy include the US, the Philippines and Indonesia.
But GeothermalBOT’s not likely to be heading to Reykjavik any time soon. For now, he’s fine being part of Canada’s energy underground, because a nice hot water tank is still a fine place to spend your time.
Plane Truths
May 9, 2011
Good article on the challenge of greening air travel.
