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Energy Crisis! What Energy Crisis?

By Sam Davis on May 22, 2008 filed under Coffee Break, Featured | Comments

sun energy equal to one barrel of oil

With oil approaching 140 dollars per barrel, there is a lot of talk of peak oil production and the end of civilization as we know it. Well, maybe civilization will come crashing down, but I don’t find this very likely. Read on to see why.




Basically, regardless of what you’ve heard, there is no shortage of energy on planet Earth. Those who say there is have forgotten about that little brilliant yellow ball overhead. That’s right, Mr. Sun. Consider that the chemical energy in one barrel of oil is about equal to the amount of solar energy that directly strikes a 100 square meter section of the Earth in 12.4 hours (see the illustration above). That’s a lot of energy. Isn’t the Sun cool (actually it is quite hot). This means that the total amount of solar energy that strikes the Earth in a given year (taking changes in the angle of incidence due to varying latitude into account) is equal to the chemical energy contained in about 895 trillion barrels of oil (that’s 895 followed by 12 zeros).

annual sun energy in barrels of oil

To put this number in context, the world uses about 30 billion barrels of oil a year or about 0.003 percent of the energy given to us by the Sun. Even if only 1 percent of solar energy is recoverable, that is still about 300 times the energy contained in the oil the world consumes every year. It is worth emphasizing at this point that this analysis doesn’t even include energy derived from geothermal, tidal, and nuclear sources which do not originate from solar fusion.

So, do you still think there is an energy crisis? Well, maybe there is. While the Sun’s energy is way more abundant than the energy we could ever hope to recover from fossil fuels, it is in a diffuse form that is not readily usable for many applications. In other solar farmwords, the energy density of oil is much greater than that of sunlight, and the energy in oil is easily retrieved (by burning the stuff). This is why oil derivatives are so great for use in automobiles, planes, and trains. Thus, the crisis (if one exists at all) isn’t so much a lack of energy but a lack of means to collect and store the Sun’s energy. But, we have the technology to engage in “Sun harvesting” activities today. We can collect solar energy directly using photovoltaic cells (i.e., solar panels). We can harvest the Sun’s heat energy (which is the source of all of the Earth’s weather) using hydroelectric power plants and wind farms. And, we live on a planet that abounds with organisms that conveniently turn solar energy into stored chemical energy through photosynthesis. Turning this biomass into ethanol, biodiesel, and other biofuels is just starting to emerge as an economically viable alternative to drilling for black gold. Having said that, hopefully we (i.e., our governments) will learn soon that we shouldn’t encourage turning our food (like corn) into fuel. After all, we still need Fritos to eat.





This brings me to my final point. The important thing to remember is that it is economics, not lack of technological know-how, that is the reason alternative energy has not yet come online en masse. Until recently, fossil fuels where so cheap that they priced alternative energy sources out of the market. But with sky high energy prices, all of this will change (and change in a hurry). While the incredible price hiccup we are currently experiencing may not last, algae bioreactorseven oil priced at 70-90 dollars a barrel makes a host of alternative energy sources economically viable. So in the short term, don’t get mad at market speculators, they are just leveraging the power of the free market price system to ensure a more speedy and smooth transition to alternative energy. In the long term, get ready for all the wonderful things that the end of cheap oil will bring, like carbon neutral energy, reduced pollution, a more decentralized power grid, and electric cars (see this post). Perhaps the most enjoyable thing the coming revolution in “Sun harvesting” will bring is the ability for the free countries of the world to stick it to the nationalistic governments who control the major portion of the world’s remaining easily retrievable oil reserves. They don’t want to share, so they will be left in the proverbial dust.

If you would like to check the calculations in my figures, most of my data came from here.




Have something to add? Send me a message on twitter or leave a comment below.

Viewing 7 Comments

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    Energy is needed to manufacture the parts. Energy is needed to ship those parts. Energy is needed to assemble them into the power plant. It all takes energy. If you think that legislating away the ability to drill or dig known and working energy sources to force new sources is going to work, then you have a big absence of common sense and reality. Nobody is going to pay to build these outlandish new and un-tested ideas if they can't afford it.
    ClubPenguinCheats
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    Energy consumption should be reduced. This is important for the development of the country.
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    Energy consumption is increasing day by day. It should be used wisely.
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    Energy crisis is a situation in which the nation suffers from a disruption of energy supplies (in our case, oil) accompanied by rapidly increasing energy prices that threaten economic and national security. The threat to economic security is represented by the possibility of declining economic growth, increasing inflation, rising unemployment, and losing billions of dollars in investment. The threat to national security is represented by the inability of the US government to exercise various foreign policy options, especially in regard to countries with substantial oil reserves. For example, the recent disruption of Venezuelan oil supplies may limit the US policy options toward Iraq.
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    Solar is rather dilute. It will only be an option when you spray painting some pucky on a surface + attach electrodes is the recipe. Silicon is rediculous and CdTe is obviously limited or it would be more visible....its had adequate time to manifest and apparently has not.

    As for me I want my own personal nuclear reactor be it fusion or fission.
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    The square footage analogy with the barrel of oil isn't exactly honest. It is true that much energy is there, but we do not have the technology to extract 100% of that energy in the same amount of square footage

    While voltaic solar power is becoming more and more efficient, it is not nearly ass efficient as what is extracted from a barrel of oil.

    Mirror farms are also not (yet) as efficient per square foot of collected solar energy as that barrel of oil either.

    With all of the ingenious ideas of alternative energy out there, none of them are as practical and as efficient as oil. Want to make alternative energy practical and more desirable than oil? Make it cheaper and more efficient than oil. Oil is only artificially expensive due to the simple fact of its supply being outlawed, not because it's not readily available. There's plenty of energy under the USA alone that makes the Saudi Oil fields seem like playgrounds. The USA has natural gas fields (160 years worth, if harvested), coal (which can be processed and refined into other fuels), actual oil, etc.

    Want oil prices to go down? Simple allow competition. Allow extraction of our own resources to compete. Allow refineries to be built. Allow nuclear to be competitive. This allows for a good economy, and everything rests on energy. Forcing alternative fuels by holding back easily available energy sources just ruins the economy and now nobody can afford to research and build the alternative energy competitive sites. Why? It costs money to manufacture the materials to build an alternative energy plant. Energy is needed to manufacture the parts. Energy is needed to ship those parts. Energy is needed to assemble them into the power plant. It all takes energy. If you think that legislating away the ability to drill or dig known and working energy sources to force new sources is going to work, then you have a big absence of common sense and reality. Nobody is going to pay to build these outlandish new and un-tested ideas if they can't afford it.

    Drill for oil, dig for coal, use nuclear. Allow the country to economically benefit from self-reliance, and then replace those abundant sources of energy with the alternative ones. The biggest key is to show and prove it makes energy cheaper (or as cheap) than oil or coal or nuclear, and prove that a whole new infrastructure is not necessary to deliver it. A good economy breeds innovation. Keep forcing our economy to depend on foreign sources and all you do is weaken its ability to afford to change.

    There is nothing I'd like more than to not have to depend on foreign oil, or oil itself. However, practical intelligence must be exercised in choosing an alternative. How are you going to build the mirrors, glass enclosures, windmills, turbines, etc. if there's no cheap energy to do so? How are you going to pay for the energy to ship this heavy equipment to their destinations? It takes old technology to build the new.

    Good luck on your alternative energy utopia while choking off what we already know that works.
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    I agree that alternative energy should not be subsidized, unless there are clear net social benefits to such a subsidization which there often are not. For example, the subsides enjoyed by corn growers in the US are in my opinion nothing more that handouts for a politically powerful lobby, namely agribusiness. It would be much cheaper to import sugarcane derived ethanol from Brazil than to make corn based ethanol here, but this comparative cost advantage is unjustly negated by tariffs that benefit a few (mostly wealthy) farmers while American consumers pay the premium. The exciting thing about the drive for alternative energy today is that if fossil fuel derived energy prices remain high, then these alternative sources of energy become economical in the free market place, independent of subsides. This is a prerequisite for these alternatives to finally take off. The environmental dividends that will accompany alternative energies is icing on top. I am excited and can't wait to see what happens.

    P.S. I do not assume that 100 percent of solar energy is recoverable. But only a small fraction (less than 0.01 percent) would replace all of the oil energy we currently use.
 

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