Top 10 interesting energy questions and answers

1. Why is renewable energy called renewable, what does this mean? This means that renewable energy (unlike fossil fuels) can be replenished in relatively short periods of time, and thus cannot be depleted.

2. Which fuel is the most common source of electricity in the world. The answer is coal. Coal despite being very dirty fuel is also the cheapest energy option in much of the world. For instance, 49% of the electricity in United States comes from coal.

3. Why solar energy, despite the enormous potential still counts for such a small share of global energy supply? Solar energy, indeed has enormous potential but solar power technologies are still very expensive, and also do not provide adequate efficiency to be used on a wider scale. This means that solar energy sector definitely needs cheaper and far more efficient solar cells in order to compete with fossil fuels.

4. What exactly is the electricity? The simplest definition would be the movement of electrons but this is in fact more general term that encompasses a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge.

5. How to solve the intermittency issue of wind and solar energy? By finding cheap and efficient energy storage solution, some researches have shown tremendous potential to solve this issue but we are yet to see some commercially viable solution to this problem.

6. How long will fossil fuels last? Difficult to tell as there are different reports about current fossil fuel reserves but to make things simple lets say about 150-200 years. Unless, of course climate change issue speeds up things a bit.

7. Why is using renewable energy good for environment? Simple, because the more renewable energy we use the less we need fossil fuels, and less fossil fuels means less carbon emissions, and lesser impact on climate change and air pollution.

8. Are large wind farms big threat for birds? There have been some cases of bird deaths that were caught between gigantic blades of the large wind turbines but this issue can be solved with the introduction of radar that can spot the colony of birds flying towards turbines, and temporarily stop the blades until the birds reach a safe distance.

9. What is better energy option, solar or wind? There is no exact answer to this question, and it all depends on area you live in. Generally speaking, wind energy is currently more cost-competitive compared to the solar energy, but as said before the economy of going wind or solar will primarily depend on area you live in.

10. What is the current US position in global clean energy race? Not very good, Chinese are far ahead (top producers of both solar panels and wind turbines, more than million renewable energy jobs), and US needs to significantly increase its current efforts to become more competitive. The national renewable energy policy would make a good thing to start with.

Current wind energy development - US vs Germany

Offshore wind energy is becoming increasingly popular around the globe, and the latest example is Germany, especially after Norbert Röttgen, German Federal Environment Minister, announced that offshore wind power companies can rely on debt guarantees from the government to secure the financing of "10 mega projects" wind turbines in the North and Baltic seas up until the end of 2011.

This may seem as a surprise because very few energy experts expected such a strong support for offshore wind energy in Germany.

According to this new plan, 10,000 MW of offshore wind farm capacity should be built within the next 10 years, and 25,000 MW in the next 20 years, meaning that wind power should play key energy role in ensuring clean energy future for Germany.

This was confirmed by Röttgen's words when he said how he believes that Germany can "reach nearly 100% renewable energy by 2050, and wind power will provide about 50% of this".

This will no doubt attract many investors in Germany, and Germany looks set to become one of the leaders in global clean energy race.

As said above, offshore wind energy is becoming increasingly popular around the globe, and Europe currently leads the way by constantly adding new offshore wind projects. According to the latest reports this year was exceptional for offshore wind energy in Europe as European offshore wind farm installations have exceeded all expectations since more MW have been installed in the first half of this year than in the same period in 2009.

The same cannot be said for United States, and latest reports indicate that US wind energy sector is somewhat stagnating, with latest reports showing how only 1.24 GW of wind energy capacity was added in the first half of this year, less than half of the capacity installed in the same period in both 2008 and 2009.

Many energy experts agree that this slowdown in adding new wind energy capacity is mostly connected with the lack of adequate renewable energy policy that would show more support for new renewable energy projects in United States.

As AWEA chief executive Denise Bode said "strong federal policy supporting the US wind energy industry has never been more important, and Congress has to act now - before time runs out this session".

Quick electric car statistics

Here is some quick electric car statistics with some rather interesting numbers:

Electric cars have lately attracted significant funds with United States to ensure US$2.4 billion in federal grants for electric cars and batteries, and China to ensure massive 15 billion to start an electric car industry.

Recent independent study claimed that by 2020 electric cars, together with other "green" cars will account for a third of the total of global car sales.

Electric cars are more expensive than conventional cars, and many people are still not ready to pay more for "green car". In fact, according to the recent Financial Times survey 65 percent of Americans and 76 percent of Britons are not willing pay more for an electric car above the price of a gasoline car.

US currently has around 500 electric vehicle charging stations. This number should increase up to 20,000 by 2012.

The global electric vehicle market should grow to 2.7 million cars by 2015, with around around 885,000 located in North America and around 780,000 in Europe.

According to a report by Pike Research the electric car market should rise to $1.5 billion by 2015.

According to the data from Germany’s Federal Ministry of the Environment there should be one-million electric cars on Germany’s roads by 2020.

An electric car emits in average 115 grams of CO2 per kilometer driven compared to 250 grams of CO2 emitted by conventional gasoline powered car.

Electric cars have an average efficiency of 80%, which is much better compared to conventional gasoline engines that can effectively use only 15% of the fuel energy content, and diesel engines are not much better either as they can achieve efficiency of around 20%.

It is expected that by 2015, global electric car market value will be 7,3 times bigger compared to the 2005's value.

Currently, 66% of the manufacturers of electric vehicles in the world are in China, with over 90% of the world's electric vehicles being made in China.

In 2010 there were around 29 million electric vehicles sold on global level.

Wind power industry in Nebraska likely to struggle

Nebraska is ranked among top 10 US states in the nation with the greatest energy potential from wind power but its current wind power capacity is only around 153 megawatts. Given Nebraska's wind power potential this is indeed very small number as theoretically Nebraska's wind power could satisfy around 90% of US electricity needs.

Things will likely not significantly improve in years to come because Nebraska plans to add only around 300 megawatts by the end of 2012.

Nebraska is missing lot of different factors that would ensure fast development of wind power industry such as adequate financial incentives, transmission lines,lack of demand for excess power production, and most of all renewable energy portfolio standard. Without renewable energy portfolio standard and adequate renewable energy legislation Nebraska will fail to attract renewable energy investors despite its excellent renewable energy potential.

Wind power is currently meeting only around 1% of Nebraska's electricity needs. The largest wind farm in the state is operating near Bloomfield, and has a maximum capacity of around 80 MW, with 27 wind turbines, each capable of generating nearly 3 megawatts at full capacity

Many people in Nebraska are still not convinced about wind power because wind is intermittent energy source which means that it can't consistently meet base load demands.

The entire US wind power industry will have tough time in the next couple of years because it will have to compete with natural gas. Natural gas prices are expected to continue with their current falling trend, and this will make things very difficult for wind power development because even Obama recently said that natural gas is "terrific energy resource".

It certainly looks like wind power industry in Nebraska is in for a rough ride. At least for the next couple of years.

Photovoltaic market growth 2010 statistics

Germany is still the largest photovoltaic market in the world, and photovoltaics are still one of the fastest growing renewable energy sectors. Worldwide photovoltaic installations were expected to rise to 14.2 GW by the end of 2010, but as it turns out this number will likely be around 15,8 GW at the end of 2010.

At the end of the 2009 the total worldwide installed photovoltaic capacity was at 7,2 GW, which means that year 2010 will represent a staggering growth of 119 percent compared to 2009.

The main reason for such tremendous growth was Germany, mostly because German photovoltaic sector grew exceptionally well during the first half of the 2010, when Germany alone installed around 3,9 GW of photovoltaics.

In 2011 things should slow down, and the latest predictions forecast 19.3GW in the beginning of 2011, which is slightly down from previous forecasts that predicted 20,2 GW of photovoltaic installations.

Many energy experts are saying that this slowdown will be actually good thing because it will drive down prices of solar panels, and stimulate bigger demand in the second half of the year. The slowdown in first quarter of the year is actually very common thing for global photovoltaic market, and 2011 will just be following the trend.

Energy analysts predict that this slowdown will cause the decrease of average price for crystalline solar module by around nine percent in the first quarter of 2011, and further six percent in the second quarter.

At the end of 2011 Germany should add 9.4GW of new photovoltaic installations. However, Germany despite being the world's largest photovoltaic market isn't also a world's fastest growing photovoltaic market. UK is currently the fastest growing photovoltaic market in the world, with a total increase of massive 1500% compared to 2009. In 2009, UK had just 6 Megawatts (MW) of PV systems, and this number is expected to grow to 96 MW by the end of 2010.

US natural gas statistics

In 2008 natural gas accounted for 23,8% of US primary energy consumption.

More than 50% of US homes are heated with natural gas.

It is estimated that there are around 1.3 million miles of underground gas pipelines across the United States.

In 2009 in United States, the price of natural gas was little over $4 per thousand cubic feet while in 2008 natural gas had biggest price of more than $13 per thousand cubic feet.

In 2009 United States increased its natural gas production more than any other country in the world. In fact, in 2009 US even managed to overtake Russia as the world's leading natural has producer. According to the EIA, 21 trillion cubic feet of natural gas was produced in the United States in 2009 which accounts to around 90% of total domestic natural gas consumption.

According to EIA there are 2,587 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable natural gas in the United States. U.S. natural gas reserves have been historically concentrated around Texas and the Gulf of Mexico but with the recent shale gas discovery some other US states are expected to play big role as natural gas producers such as New York, Pennsylvania, Arkansas and Oklahoma.

According to the most recent calculations US accounts for around 3 percent of the world total natural gas reserves.

It is estimated that around 59 percent of the U.S. undiscovered natural gas resources is located on federal lands and offshore waters.

The top natural gas consuming US states are Texas, California and Louisiana.

Natural gas accounts for around 21,5% of electricity generated in United States.

Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and Wyoming are the top US natural gas producing states accounting to around 80% of total US natural gas production.

95 percent of U.S. natural gas imports are coming from Canada.

Five US states have around one-half of the total US natural gas reserves: Alaska, Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico and Oklahoma.

If US continues with current production rates it will have enough natural gas for about a 65-year supply.

There are currently around 288,000 wells in US that are producing natural gas.

In 2008, according to the data from the Natural Gas Supply Association there were approximately four million Americans employed either directly or indirectly by the US natural gas industry.

Natural gas vs wind energy in US

US president Obama was seen by many as the main driving force that will shift US energy policy towards renewable energy sources such as wind power, but after the recent election results, it can be clearly seen that Obama is first of all politician, and not environmentalist as some hoped he is.

After being asked how will US tackle environmental issues at the post-election conference Obama suddenly started mentioning natural gas as a "terrific natural resource" for United States. This was really the last thing that wind energy sector needed, and many wind energy supporters were left bitterly disappointed, not only by Obama's latest view on energy and environment but also about the fact that US can now might as well forget about cap and trade policy.

US solar energy sector is so far looking very good but this cannot be said for wind power industry which is somewhat stagnating. The US wind power industry, despite achieving tremendous growth in the last couple of years, is still standing on shaky legs, and the last thing US wind developers need right now is more focus on natural gas.

Can natural gas really have such a negative impact on further development of wind industry in United States? The answer is yes it can.

First of all natural gas is significantly less polluting compared to coal, and in general the cleanest fossil fuel. Second, a big new shale gas discoveries are coming on line across the US. Third, natural gas can be moved easily through existing pipelines, and their is no need for new expensive transmission infrastructure, and it can be also stored in underground formations.

Wind energy desperately needs new transmission lines in many parts of the US, which comes anything but cheap. Generally speaking transmission system is the main obstacle which wind energy sector will need to overcome in order to continue its rapid growth in years to come.

Wind energy also requires adequate storage solution(s) because wind-generated electricity still cannot be stored. Wind power also suffers from intermittency because wind doesn't blow all the time.

It will be very interesting to see whether federal and state governments will ensure adequate funds to create better transmission system for wind-generated electricity.

Without big money US wind power industry will not be able to compete with natural gas, regardless of environmental benefits. Therefore, it's really no wonder that Obama has jumped on natural gas bandwagon, after all he's politician, and from political point of view natural gas currently seems as the more acceptable option.