Pharoz

Quote from today’s Editorial from the online version of The Australian (copied at 12:50):

“Politics, oli [sic] and war
Stable oil supplies are crucial to world order

THAT resource security, particularly oil, represents the greatest strategic issue facing a world struggling to manage the rapid simultaneous economic expansion of China and India is nothing new…

Mr Howard’s critics, by seizing on these comments as evidence the Iraq war had always been motivated by oil, are offering a superficial analysis that does them no credit. The reality of this is acknowledged in comments by Kevin Rudd. The Opposition Leader said there were grave consequences for global oil supplies from instability in Iraq and the extension of Iran‘s strategic leverage across the wider Middle East region. The extent to which the coalition campaign to this point has exacerbated those threats is open to debate.”

Well, yeh, it is something that should be debated.

“…At the same time, there is an urgency on the part of Western governments, most notably the US, to find ways to break the dependence on Middle East oil. Concern over the threat posed by climate change has promoted a new flush of enthusiasm for and research into sources of non-fossil fuel energy such as ethanol and solar. Oil replacement, including the greater use of nuclear energy, also remains an urgent part of any solution to the so-far intractable conflict in the Middle East.”

 

Greater use of nuclear power could never keep pace with the growing need for electrical power sourced mainly from coal power stations, let alone the energy requirements that oil meets, especially for transport vehicles. To suggest that nuclear power could provide a replacement for oil is unrealistic.

Again, oil and fossil fuels combine a number of issues to do with energy that really would best be separated out and dealt with independently. Oil is both a source of energy and a means of transporting that energy with a high energy density. Energy is stored in oil. That stored energy is used as thermal energy which is of a relatively low quality – thermal energy is low quality. To solve the problem of energy security you need to solve both the problems of a renewable and reliable source of energy in qualities that are sufficient for our needs AND you also need to solve the problem of storing energy. The key problem is energy storage. Solving the energy storage problem will also solve the energy security problem, after an initial transition phase.

The dominant mindset of the rusty old men in power seems to be fixed in the second half of the twentieth century. They see energy primarily as oil and oil as energy. Oil is useful because it is a medium for energy. The source of the energy in that oil is from solar energy of long past. That medium, the storage capacity, for the energy in oil is also destroyed in the use of that energy, and that might be why with the issue of oil both the source and the storage of energy are fused conceptually.

You can also design reusable STORAGE for energy and that is an important component that needs to be used in conjunction with renewable energy SOURCES. The storage can be reusable and remain physically persistent even as it is filled and discharged with energy thousands of times. Energy security is about having energy storage to such a capacity to meet your energy needs, as well as a way to replenish the energy that is used in a timely manner. A superficial analysis of energy needs and energy security would fuse the issues of energy storage and energy sources. This may be just an oily habit of mind. Electrical energy storage is the key issue for resource security, not oil.

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