Shale gas is booming in the US and Canada and according to some sources is bound to become to most important source of primary energy. There are however some real concerns, concerning both its ecological and economical viability. Behind the overly optimistic assumptions, some insiders reveal worrying figures about rapidly falling production in many wells…
Tag Archive: Energy
China – Power Stations Reduce Output
China’s generally very effective development machine faces new challenges. With inflation on the rise and heavily relying on export oriented low cost and energy intensive industries, China’s bureaucracy scrambles to keep electricity costs down. One might consider this to be an easy task. After all, utilities are state controlled and basically have to follow orders….
Nuclear Energy – Russian Nuclear Recycling Plant Mayak Inaccessible
The nuclear meltdown in Fukuyama delivered live pictures of the statistical remaining risks of nuclear power plants but there are other subtler and more distant issues with nuclear energy. Just like other European states, Switzerland uses the Russian nuclear facility of Mayak for recycling its used nuclear fuel elements. This is without any doubt matchlessly…
Wind Energy – Too Much Power for the US North-West
Plentiful and now melting snow has completely filled many reservoirs in the US North-West. To the extent actually that operators are now forced to produce too much electricity destroying demand for the output of the many wind power stations in the region. In an unprecedented step, wind farms are now regularly taken from the grid…
Coal Power – Micronesia Disputes Czech Power Plant
The Czech republic, which relies on coal for more than 60 percent of its power generation, plans to build one of the biggest coal power stations in Europe. Its CO2 emissions will be 40 times bigger than the total CO2 emissions of the whole state of Micronesia. The small state, situated mostly just one meter…
US-Deficit – Big Tax Breaks for Big Oil
Two figures are relentlessly increasing in the US: The budget deficit, which will reach staggering 1500 billion dollars in 2011and the benefits of oil companies, helped by federal tax-breaks of some 20 billions per year. On the one hand the oil industry causes huge environmental and societal risks (who still remembers and cares about the…
