The Oil Drum: Australia/New Zealand | How Technology Increases Oil Production

67 comments on How Technology Increases Oil Production

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Stephen Hubbard on July 17, 2008 - 11:11pm

Just to echo your point SamuM,

A simple calculation with Excel shows that we will have to build roughly 16 one Gigawatt nuclear power plants (1-GWNPP) per year to compensate for just a 2.5% drop off after peak oil. For you trivia fans, a 1-GWPP produce roughly the same amount of energy per year as in 4.5 million barrels of crude. An interesting highlight of this is that in just 3 years, we would have to build roughly the same number of power plants and Senator McCain is proposing to build by 2030 as part of his comprehensive solution to the energy crisis. A 4.5% roll off requires around 75 1-GWNPP/year or roughly 1 1/2 per week. I think I'll go take my Zoloft now.

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BlueTwilight on July 20, 2008 - 5:08am

Said by Stephen Hubbard:

... 1-GWPP produce roughly the same amount of energy per year as in 4.5 million barrels of crude. An interesting highlight of this is that in just 3 years, we would have to build roughly the same number of power plants and Senator McCain is proposing to build by 2030....

The comparison of the energy from different sources is not this simple because one must consider the efficiency when it is used. Although I do not know the enthalpy of combustion of crude oil, assuming electricity is to replace 4.5 Mb of gasoline to power cars, I get:

enthalpy of combustion of gasoline: 130 MJ / gallon

130 MJ/gal * 4.5 Mb * 42 gal/b = 24.6 x 10¹⁵ J

Because an electric car is 3 times more efficient than a gasoline powered one, this translates into an electric power plant operating continuously for a year with a power of:

(24.6 x 10¹⁵ J/year / 31,560,000 s/year / 3 = 260 MW

Edit: The CAFE Formula, Forum on Physics & Society of The American Physical Society, David Hafemeister, v36, n4, October 2007; states an electric car is 5.4 times more efficient than a gasoline powered one making my calculation too high.

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