nuclear-news

Energy economics – getting the fuel -oil and nuclear -for continued expansion of capitalism – is costing more all the time

 Dave Elliott: n an interesting article in the Ecologist, Gareth Dale
argues that the rising cost of plundering nature presents major problems
for the continued expansion of capitalism.

For example, he says the ‘energy return on energy invested’ (EROI) for fossil-fuel extraction is
plummeting: ‘In plain English, ever more energy is consumed in squeezing
each drop of oil from the bowels of the earth’. He notes that a recent
study has found that, at present, over 15% of the oil extracted was being
use to extract more oil and that this will rise as easily accessed reserves
deplete.

It’s the same for nuclear – as high grade ore reserves
deplete, the energy cost of mining/processing uranium rise, with EROI
ratios falling from 15:1 as now, to maybe 5:1 or less over time. Meantime
the EROIs for renewables are mostly higher and improving- e.g. solar was
poor in the early days, but is now at around 25:1, wind is around 50:1 on
good sites, and may get to 80:1 offshore, hydro is at around 200:1.

 Renew Extra 18th Dec 2021

https://renewextraweekly.blogspot.com/2021/12/energy-resource-limits.html

December 20, 2021 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, ENERGY