Tag Archives: green
Energy Consumption In The U.S. By Source & Sector
By Kolby Hoagland | August 09, 2013 Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory recently released an energy consumption chart categorized by source and sector. Copied below, the chart details the quantities of energy of the various primary fuels and the derived usable energy delivered to the residential, commercial, industrial, and transportation sectors. The chart also specifies the amount of energy that the generation of electricity consumed and where the electricity was ultimately used. In total, the U.S. consumed 95.1 Quads of energy (1 Quad = 1,000,000,000 MMBtu) in 2012, down 2.2 Quads from 2011. Biomass made up 5% of the primary fuels consumed, while fossil fuel made up 82%. The use of renewables in the U.S.’s energy portfolio has grown in recent years, increasing from 7.3% of the total primary fuels in 2008 to 9.3% in 2012. Surprisingly though, the energy infrastructure in the U.S. became considerable more inefficient in the amount of useful energy that was derived from the primary fuels. From 2008 to 2011 , between 42.3% and 42.9% of the bound energy in the primary fuels was converted into usable energy services. The rest of the bound energy that was not used in an ‘energy service’ was lost to heat (out of a tail pipe or smokestack, for example) or via other routes of loss. In 2012, however, the efficiency of the energy infrastructure converted 38.9% of the energy in the fuel to useful energy, representing a decrease of roughly 3.5%. I ntrinsic losses during the production of usable energy are unavoidable, particularly with combustion. There are, however, various technological advancements that allow a variety of proven strategies to improve the overall efficiency that usable energy is produced, for example: CHP plants, hybrid auto-mobiles, super-critical boiler, etc.. The decrease seen in 2012 is hopefully an anomaly, and increases in the overall efficiency will be observed as older, inefficient power plants, automobiles, space heating systems are retired. Biomass and other renewables have a large part play in a more sustainable energy infrastructure. Yet, beyond renewables, gains in the efficiency of how energy is currently produced need to be exhaustively pursued if climate mitigation goals have any chance of being reached. Continue reading
Chris Huhne Appointed European Manager Of US Biomass Firm
Saturday, August 10th, 2013 By Alex Blackburne Chris Huhne, the former MP who was jailed in March for perverting the course of justice, has landed a £100,000-a-year job at a US biomass firm. The former energy secretary was released from prison in May after serving two months of an eight-month sentence, relating to a speeding case from 2003. And just less than 90 days after his release, it has been revealed that he took a job as European manager of Zilkha Biomass in July. Huhne, who was MP for Eastleigh between 2005 and 2013, began his career as an entrepreneur and journalist, writing for such titles as the Guardian , where he was also economics editor for a short period. He was jailed alongside his ex-wife Vicky Pryce, who in 2003 took speeding penalty points on behalf of the former politician, so that he wasn’t banned from driving. Upon his release from Leyhill prison, he stressed that he wouldn’t be returning to frontline politics, and was rumoured to have begun writing his memoirs . The job at Zilkha sees him receive £100,000 a year for two days work a week. Zilkha says on its website that it is “ dedicated to innovative sustainable energy solutions “. It adds, “ Our prior company, Zilkha Renewable Energy, made it possible for more than 400,000 households to switch to green wind power by the time it was sold to Energias de Portugal .” According to the website Who’s Lobbying , Huhne met with representatives of Zilkha in 2010, while he was energy secretary, to discuss biomass. Huhne’s online biography for Zilkha confirms he was appointed in July, and that his role will be to help increase the firm’s stature across the EU. He is described as “ one of the pioneers in calling for political action to deal with global warming “, but his prison sentence is not mentioned. Continue reading
