• Olie: 3.927,9 Mtoe --- 35%
• Gas: 2.726,1 Mtoe --- 24%
• Kolen: 3.303,7 Mtoe --- 29%
• Nuclair: 619,7 Mtoe --- 5,5%
• Hydro: 717,5 Mtoe --- 6,5%

• Primaire energie = energie zoals ze voorkomt in de natuur (fossiele voorraden)
• Eindenergie = de energie die we geleverd krijgen (stookolie, electriciteit, warmte, ...)
• Nuttige energie = is enkel die fractie v/d eindenergie die we nuttig gebruiken

• Amory Lovins on winning the oil endgame (gefilmd feb 2005)
• Bill Gates on energy: Innovating to zero! (gefilmd feb 2010)

TerraPower emerged from the invention sessions the company runs. Intellectual Ventures gathers scientists from universities like MIT, independent researchers and private enterprise to come up with ideas that can be turned into inventions and companies. Typically, the group shoots for ideas that might have a major impact on society several years from now.

Intellectual Ventures then applies for patents on these ideas and forms companies when possible. Intellectual Ventures is somewhat controversial in technology circles. Critics say that the company files for patents (and buys patents from ailing companies such as Transmeta) to sue corporations and/or extract royalties. The term "patent troll" is often applied to the company.

Limits on Energy Production

Although the earth intercepts 170,000 TW of solar energy, only 89,000 TW makes it to the ground. Of that, perhaps 20,000 TW is intercepted by plant life, and converted into plant-usable energy by 3% efficient photosynthesis. Of the resulting 600TW, 2/3 is used by the plant for metabolism, resisting disease, etc. The remaining 200 TW is "fixed" as consumable structure - food for animals, bacteria, and other dependent lifeforms, on and under the land, and in the sea. Humans consume about 1 TW of that directly as food, a lot more of that as wood and fiber, and a great deal more primary energy to cultivate and process the crops that produce that food with current energy-intensive methods.

Supporting a world population of 10 billion with western European levels of consumption (an optimistic goal, since western Europe draws on energy-intensive primary production elsewhere) requires 50 TW of primary energy. It is unlikely that we can extract that out of the total 200 GW produced by plants without completely destroying the remnants of wilderness. Much of the "waste" energy in nature is not actually waste at all. It drives the scavengers and soil bacteria that close the cycles of biomass that permit plant growth in the first place. We may already be extracting more energy from nature than is available long term, and causing irreversible damage to the biological carrying capacity of the Earth.

Perhaps the only likely source of additional "natural" energy is biotechnology, creating extremophile plants adapted to polar and desert conditions. Most of the ocean is devoid of nutrients or laden with pathogens that attack plankton, limiting plant growth there. Adding nutrients for genetically-engineered disease-immune plankton might boost the oceanic production of biomass. Or it might destroy existing plankton communities and kill the oceans. We don't know enough to do this kind of global-scale bio-engineering safely.

Photovoltaic, wind and ocean power are touted as saviors, but these are intermittent and unconcentrated sources. A parallel infrastructure, driven by natural gas, is needed to match the peaks and valleys in the supply to the demand. Nuclear fission with fuel recycle and long-term waste storage is a long term option favored by some, but the political climate (at least in the US) is hostile.

(lees meer hier)

• voor energie: in miljard vaten olie-equivalent
• voor wereldbevolking