Categorie: energy
Basing our current lifestyle on 100% renewable energy is not going to work, (see two episodes earlier [1]) What then if we adjust our lifestyle now to the amount of renewable energy cq electricity available today, and distribute it fairly, with some creativity? Then we are done installing and investing….
The debate whether or not 100% renewable electricity supply is feasible, is ongoing. 100% at the current standard of living, that is. The standard of us, here in the rich countries. There are quite a few snags in that. It has to be built more or less from scratch, (we…
I was forwarded an interesting column, written by a researcher from Ourworldindata, with a comparison in quantity between fossil fuels, and materials extraction. And then the thesis is more or less that the extraction of raw materials to build a renewable energy supply costs many times less raw materials as…
I recently was triggered a few times by the term: ‘Energy Poverty’ in all kinds of reports and tweets [1-4] . Usually referred to as having little access to oil, gas and coal, in what is then called the poorer part of the world. But does that exist, energy poverty?…
Our kitchen was far gone. Much damage, doors were crooked, still cooking on gas, a tile floor with pits, etc. so something had to be done. You can still cook there, its not that we are condemned to raw food, but there are limits. Moreover, if we want to sell…
Before we hurry covering everything with solar panels, let’s reason a bit further, because since my first experiences with renewable energy, many new insights have emerged. Those first experiences I had when building a “Bicycle wheel windmill”, as described in the “Windwerkboek” of the time. [1] ( Wind Work Guide)….
As we want to get rid of fossil fuels, we will at least have to develop everything now without fossil fuels. And in any case the operational energy. In the case of new buildings this leads to “0-energy buildings”, which generate as much renewable energy as required, locally, and thus…
Biobased resourcing is hot. Which is understandable, of course, they grow by themselves, (its solar energy), they capture CO2, require little energy to process, and know multiple uses. You can built with then, heat, or create high-value resources, like in biochemistry. The high value by the way is relative, its…
So I went to Eigg. I had already heard about it, and also wrote about it, on the basis of information collected at a distance. But I wanted to know what was really behind it, and why it had happened. Where? On the island of Eigg, off the West coast…
It has been a year since the Dutch version of the book was published, Gebroken Kringlopen (Broken Cycles). I handed out the first copy to Marjan Minnesma, who is on top of the required transition with NGO Urgenda. The English translation came out last month under the name “People vs…
