Preparing for the end of Cheap Energy

We all know it's coming, and there is likely no chance to stop it. Write your congressman and all that, but this blog is about SURVIVING through and THRIVING throughout the end of cheap energy. Let's toss in global warming, economic upheaval, and various other major calamities facing civilization.

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

alternative energy drilling equipment

Does anyone know of an oil services company that leverages wind or solar as part of their drilling process? In other words, they have an electrical drill & other equipment that can be powered by wind or solar.

Why do I ask?

Some folks talk about "net energy" extracted from oil drilling and what-not. This is important because they reason, "if it takes a barrel's worth of energy to extract a barrel, then it no longer makes sense to extract the energy." If it takes that much energy to extract the hard-to-extract oil, it no longer makes sense to try to suck the oil out of the earth.

Well, this would be true if oil wasn't such an incredible "battery," in that it can store energy basically forever. A regular battery can't even come close to doing this - the electricity will dissipate over time, and the battery will fail - all within a few years. Contrast this to oil being created and "stored" for literally millions of years.

That means it makes sense to use fleeting energy (e.g. solar or wind) to extract permanent energy (ie. oil or gas), even when it takes more than a barrel's worth of fleeting energy to extract a barrel's worth of permanent energy.

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