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27 comments on Trying to stay afloat in deepwater

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Donal on October 26, 2005 - 10:55am Permalink | Subthread | Comments top
I found this on www.f**kedcompany.com

"Rumor has it Green Mountain Energy terminated 1/2 of its staff earlier this month, this after having pulled out of Ohio and Pennsylvania."

www.greenmountain.com

As the largest retail provider of less-polluting electricity to residential and commercial customers in the U.S., Green Mountain Energy Company offers electricity that is:

Cleaner - All of our electricity comes from less-polluting sources like wind, water, solar, biomass, geothermal, and natural gas.

Reliable - The source of the electricity you pay for changes, not how electricity is delivered.

Shouldn't alternative energy companies be doing well now?

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GreyZone on October 26, 2005 - 11:23am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Not necessarily. People fail to realize how truly "energy dense" fossil fuels are compared to alternatives. Of the non-fossil fuels, only nuclear comes close to the fossil fuels and just about all of the alternatives, including nuclear, tend to be higher at the current time.

Remember, we are either just at peak or approaching peak, not past the peak. And remember further, that we are not near the peak of coal, a far dirtier but still very cheap energy source if we choose to pursue it.

In the end, people talk about environment but when push comes to shove, when the choice is dirty power or no power, most people will choose fossil fuels first. This is precisely why so many observers believe that the energy situation must become far worse before alternatives begin to really take off.

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NC on October 26, 2005 - 12:10pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
I agree with your post and add these thoughts.

Non fossil fuel energy will require more smaller production sites to replace an equal amount of energy.  This means lots of capital investment.  To replace a large percentage of oil/NG/coal it will have to be a mix of alternative energies spread all over the country, rather than a relatively few refining sites.  Lots of small integrated wind, solar, hydro coordinated into the grid with some going to transportation.  This will require a huge building boom.  In a climate of cheap oil there is not going to be enough return on investment (compared to other uses of the money) for capital to flow to those projects in any meaningful way.  They will be proof of concept, or additional, rather than replacement of fossil fuels.

Without some incentive I don't see the market shifting away from fossil, even after peak oil.  There will still be more ROI bringing small oil fields online.  This will be true even as supply continues to drop.  No one has been able to beat the energy density of fossil fuels with any alternative source.

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peakearl on October 26, 2005 - 11:52am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Not sure if this is part of the problem, but I have two friends working in major CA solar companies who tell me the silicon backlog has severely hurt their business. The wait for panels is in months, customers are unhappy and they can't market their product.
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27 comments on Trying to stay afloat in deepwater

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