The effects of Japanese Tsunami and Nuclear Problem

3:02 PM Reporter: Baris Sanli 0 Responses

Demand Side:
1.
“At least five Japanese-owned refineris with total capacity 1.5 million b/d (1/3rd of Japanese capacity is shutdown)” (Ref:1)
2. “Some 9.7 Gw of nuclear power generation—30% of Japan’s total nuclear power capacity and 7% of Japan’s total power generation capacity—were shut down” (Ref:1)
3. 9.7 GW= 9.7*8.000=77.6 TWh of nuclear energy should be substituted by natural gas and coal. Assuming 50% of this lost capacity to be substituted by LNG = 38.8 TWh. That much of electricity can be obtained by at least 7.09 bcm of LNG (Sources claim as much as 10 bcm)
4. Estimated additional demand of coal can be 5m-30m tonnes (Ref:2)

International Markets:
1.
Natural gas prices : up 7.7% (Ref:2)
2. Oil : down 1.94% (Ref:2)
3. Coal: By April 1, previous record of $125/ton (Australia) may be topped. (Ref:2)

European Nuclear Firms:
-
European energy firms like EON(-8.52%) , RWE (-%7.95), EDF (-11%) (Ref:3)
- Also check mining firms from here : Ref:3
- "German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday that all seven of the country’s nuclear power plants which began operation before 1980 would be provisionally shut down." (Ref:5)


Finance:
- There is probably more uninsured damage in the destruction of North East Japan than in any other event in history – and uninsured damage falls sharply on banks. (Ref:4)

Ref:1
http://www.cges.co.uk/media/articles/2011/03/15/japan-quake-scrambles-market
Ref:2 http://blogs.ft.com/energy-source/2011/03/14/energy-market-disruption-in-figures/
Ref:3 http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2011/03/15/514546/euro-nuclear-paralysed-and-paralysing/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
Ref:4 http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2011/03/14/513446/super-catastrophe-and-super-banking-risk
Ref:5 http://blogs.ft.com/energy-source/2011/03/15/germany-shuts-down-all-pre-1980-nuclear-plants/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter


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If a human slave is 80 Watt/hour, energy algebra of modern life is…

3:52 PM Reporter: Baris Sanli 1 Response

Yesterday, I was reading that new book titled “Energy for a Sustainable World: From the Oil Age to a Sun-Powered Future” by Nicola Armaroli and Vincenzo Balzani.

The book looks pretty interesting, and the figure from “De Rebus Bellicis”( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_rebus_bellicis) is quite interesting. However what was the funny and witty(or weird) thing was the human-energy algebra done by the writers.

In Chapter 3, “Energy in History”, the writers compare the Roman society and modern society.They first assume human power like a traditional source of power in Watts(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watt) , like Watts in CFL or light bulbs. They claim:

  • A (slave) people can work constantly at a rate of 50-80 W (in short bursts 800W momentarily p.29)
  • Working animal ranges from 300W (oxen) to 700-800W (for good horse, p.27)

So what is the cost of modern life in terms of slaves? Answers are:

  • Washing machine: 800W : 10 human slaves
  • Electrical heating: 2.5 kW: 30 human slaves
  • A small European Cutter: 3.5kW (work done with this cutter for one hour equals to a work done by 4 human slaves in whole day-10-12 hours I guess)
  • A medium sized car: 80 kW consumes the energy equivalent to 1000 human slaves
  • A Boeing 747-400 needs 80 MW to take off = 1 000 000 human slaves

And it claims, an average Italian citizen has as many as 55 energy slaves 24/7.

They also carried out a cost of energy by slave and gasoline. Since a slave can produce an amount of 800Wh in one day (in 10 hours constantly) and one liter of gasoline’s energy content is 12.9 kWh. So 1 liter of gasoline’s energy = 16 human slaves in all day. That means €0.03 for one human slave/day.

See how cheap the services granted by fossil fuels and modern technology.

Reference:

Energy for a Sustainable World, Nicola Armaroli and Vincenzo Balzani, Wiley -VCH. , 2011

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/3527325409/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=1278548962&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0470209836&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=01TSXV71YMTZMH8Q2R6D


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Energy Vision 2011 - A New Era for Gas

10:20 AM Reporter: Baris Sanli 0 Responses
World Economic Forum's report is an interesting piece to read. There are numerous high profile comments in it. However as the #ceraweek suggests, some personal comments contradict with what is inside this report. One of the interesting maps in the report is this:
Also, 2010 gas figures can be found:
2010 Natural Gas Production by Region
Europe, 286 bcm
Middle East, 407 bcm
Africa, 213 bcm
Latin America, 148 bcm
North America, 749 bcm
Former Soviet Union, 751 bcm
Asia, 414 bcm,

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CERA Week notes from Platts

9:41 PM Reporter: Baris Sanli 0 Responses
Quick Summary
  • "An energy crisis is coming -- likely to be triggered by oil," Hess said.
  • we have already produced 1 trillion barrels and have approximately 2 trillion barrels remaining
  • The energy density of today's best battery is 200 watt-hours per kilogram versus the energy density of gasoline which is 13,000 watt-hours per kilogram
  • steam to oil ratio at many of the oil sands' in situ projects has dropped to 2-2.5, meaning for every unit of oil produced
http://www.platts.com/weblog/oilblog/2011/03/07/cera_week_a_run.html

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