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89 comments on Oil Prices Below $40 per Barrel

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calgarydude on December 17, 2008 - 5:36pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Thanks for an excellent post.

The Danish study is the best that I have seen for wind turbines because it includes the energy calculations for decomissioning and recovery of recycled materials.

Within its 20-year design lifetime a wind turbine will supply at least 80 times the energy spent in its manufacture, installation, operation, maintenance and scrapping.

IIRC, that would compare favorably to the most productive oil fields.

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Kiashu on December 17, 2008 - 9:10pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Well, I am bit uncomfortable with citing recycling as a gain in energy. This is a bit like the "emissions saved" nonsense that lets us pay for someone else to reduce emissions and claim it against our own.

Yes, energy or emissions were avoided, but others still happened. I think it's better not to talk of energy gain from recycling, but to think of it all as an ongoing process - the old turbines are scrapped and recycled into new turbines, so that over time the material required per kWh declines, and the EROEI improves.

Still, they give all their figures and you can make of them what you will. It seems that like anything else, different countries have very different efficiencies in things.

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89 comments on Oil Prices Below $40 per Barrel

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