I’ve been working on a few more involved projects but thought it would be good to put down my thoughts on recent energy developments. Gas storage levels are high and continue to grind higher with gas prices now back to mid year lows and falling further. Expiry on the October TTF contract is going to be interesting - what happens if storage is at close to its limits as was the case for oil in April 2020? I do not expect this to quite trade at a negative price but a very mild weather forecast and high storage levels can lead to strange things happening.
About energy storage without expensive materials: consider pumped thermal energy storage. Up to 75% round trip efficiency in a system operated below the creep temperature limit of cheap mild steel.
Interesting article with some welcome questions. Unfortunately we don’t seem to get past some key constraints which are not mentioned (low historical fossil fuel and refining investment in capacity cannot be wished away). Further, the EROEI point sounds wrong, do you have a source for us? Last I checked it was hard to beat coal and gas on a fully loaded EROEI basis apart from nuclear.
If Putin is indeed about to play his last chip and lose, that financialzed capital in energy markets is leaving quickly imo. Which would be a nice cherry on top
Alex Turnbull? No chance. Unsubscribed. Bye. 👋
Very interesting, good to hear some optimism for a change, and you bring up some good data points.
FYI, I linked your post here: https://www.libertyrpf.com/i/78417137/optimistic-take-on-europe-energy-crisis
Cheers 💚 🥃
About energy storage without expensive materials: consider pumped thermal energy storage. Up to 75% round trip efficiency in a system operated below the creep temperature limit of cheap mild steel.
https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.4994054
Interesting article with some welcome questions. Unfortunately we don’t seem to get past some key constraints which are not mentioned (low historical fossil fuel and refining investment in capacity cannot be wished away). Further, the EROEI point sounds wrong, do you have a source for us? Last I checked it was hard to beat coal and gas on a fully loaded EROEI basis apart from nuclear.
Alex great post, thanks. Is your math on projected annual lithium demand off?
If Putin is indeed about to play his last chip and lose, that financialzed capital in energy markets is leaving quickly imo. Which would be a nice cherry on top