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Shell dumps wind, solar for biofuels.
Shell makes an interesting 180 degree turn:
Now Shell has announced that its dumping wind, solar and hydro power in favor of biofuels. Here's the recent Reuters article in which Shell says that wind, solar and hydro are just not economical.
Clearly, the global financial crisis and the gigantic drop in oil prices, and talk of Obama's cap and trade policy has oil companies trimming out long term vision for shorter term profit sustainability.
What do you think?
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I think we should write Shell and for those who have the option, boycott their products. We should blog about this daily - here and elsewhere! E-mail your friends, family, etc.
This is important and I appreciate your posting this information.
Rec'd.
March 18, 2009 5:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Contradicting the last-year stance is the fact that they did have a position in an ethanol project, Iogen, as of last summer.
Must be close to breakout with their cellulosic ethanol process, so they are trash-talking proven systems. Not that I am opposed to ethanol from waste plant matter and paper.
March 18, 2009 5:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Lot of movement in ethanol, biofuels this week.
Just read that Valero Energy just bought up seven ethanol plants from VeraSun. And Poet, the ethanol giant, just joined a 3.5 billion pipeline project to gather ethanol from Iowa, South Dakota, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio to serve terminals in major Northeastern markets.
Seems like the race for creating more advanced, energy-efficient biofuels is off. And the race to profit from federally mandated ethanol production is on.
March 18, 2009 5:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
That seems like some good news Gary
March 18, 2009 6:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Would a Major Oil company tout environmentally sound practices as a PR gimic too hoodwink the public?
Yes! A Major Oil Company would!"
March 18, 2009 5:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
To add - algae-based biodiesel is already working in several labs. Whether it scales to commercial quantities is probably still something of an open question. I'm sure it's being watched, very, very closely, by most if not all energy companies, and if it does hit, it has the potential to generate a petroleum replacement that has a biological origin, burns cleaner, and can be fed from just about anything digestible by "engineered" algae, that can themselves be recycled into "food" for the next generation.
Ethanol isn't the only biofuel out there, just the best known.
March 18, 2009 5:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Soylent Green is... people!!!!!!!!!!!"
March 18, 2009 5:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
hahahahahha. Poor Edward G. Robinson
March 18, 2009 6:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
If it works great, but the scalability is, as you say, questionable. Here's Robert Rapier on the subject:
http://i-r-squared.blogspot.com/2009/02/more-reality-checks-for-algal-biodiesel.html
March 18, 2009 5:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's still very, very early in the development of the process(es). As I recall, the kid at Augsburg in Minneapolis got a ton of press for a small pilot project and that was just last year.
Still, a nearly closed-loop biodiesel process? And if it's the right type of algae, there may even be an oxygen byproduct. Bonus! (In the very best sense!)
As for the blog post - lots of discussion, true, and the stuff clearly is not ready for prime time tomorrow. Has any technology not been improved as it becomes better understood?
Bottom line, we're going to have to do a large number of things on multiple fronts to deal with a world soon (by around 2050) populated by 9+ billion people, most of them wanting a first-world standard of living, the rest merely being satisfied with three squares a day and drinkable water. Some of it is not going to be cheap or easy.
March 18, 2009 6:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
"has any technology not been improved as it becomes better understood?"
What happens when technology is improved becomes better understood but threatens older captains of an industry?
March 18, 2009 7:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Conflict. Depending on your distance, it's either entertaining or dangerous.
March 18, 2009 7:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Short Answer: Captains of industry buy your patent through a holding company in Hong Kong and set it on a shelf.
Long Answer: A lot of solutions have been shitcanned because they don't meet the one requirement nobody seems to be articulating: No solution can be implemented without the ability to levy a per-unit cost on consumers. You can't just make a car run on water or it's own generated electricity (you CAN, but it won't be brought to market). You've got to figure out how to ensure that the consumer can not acquire "go-juice" unless they make repeated retail purchases.
I call it "mega sources and recepticles". We bring our cups to the well and someone charges us to fill them. It hamstrings inventors from solving the problem because the specifications are improperly stated (for obvious reasons). So-called "free" energy (a total misnomer) is far easier to pull off than "alternative" energy. "Alternative" by definition is an economic analogue - not a structural change.
For example, what if the government were to subsidize individual solar/wind (or other geographically appropriate) power generation units for each property owner - providing their homes with a base line of energy and feeding any excess to the national grid for sale to commercial customers or heavy private consumers? I imagine getting $20bn cash for a nuclear reactor and the ability to bill the customers for every iota of power (and a government agreement to handle their waste for 20,000 years) is far more attractive to the power companies.
We're addressing a socioeconomic problem as if it were technological.
March 19, 2009 2:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
what happens when capitalism and social responsibility butt heads?
March 19, 2009 3:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Shell was always crap at wind. They'd come in with proposals at costs waaaaay higher than other companies. It's a pretty sophisticated, crowded and diverse sector now, so what was their edge? they kept babbling about "We're Shell" - but then, truth was, they had NOTHING to add to the equation. Everyone's know they were greenwashing there for a long time. And when they changed bosses, it was only a matter of time.
Whereas with ethanol, they can walk in, buy plants that crashed as global oil prices went through the rollercoaster and the newbies couldn't hang on, and at least there they've got some sort of tie-in with oil and pipelines and so on. So it's logical, and no, I don't see it tied to Iogen and cellulosic ethanol production, because that's a long way off from being even as commercially competitive as traditional ethanol.
March 18, 2009 6:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think Sleepin Jesus went bust over a biofuel plant. Didn't he say that once? Lost an investment or something.
Yes, this makes sense. Buy people up who borrowed and now are unable to pay. Boy, how the big guys clean up the little guys!
March 18, 2009 10:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
SleepinJeezus did indeed go bust on a $70 million biodiesel project he co-founded. Lots of interesting dynamics in the renewable energy arena, with Big Oil calling the tune in the marketplace. I will try blogging about this as I get the time. (This weekend?) Meanwhile, gotta' get back to work!
March 19, 2009 12:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
They couldn't figure out how to charge for wind and sunshine.
C
March 18, 2009 7:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wind is being done by electric companies. Wisconsin Electric and Florida Power and Light are two I know of.
Is Shell moving into Brazil? They've got a huge biofuel industry there. Some vehicles run on little else in Brazil.
March 18, 2009 10:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wind is being done by electric companies. Wisconsin Electric and Florida Power and Light are two I know of.
They can ??? Oh dear...I better keep my windows closed then. I can barely afford my power bill as it is.
No....wait a minute...I'm on Progress Energy...never mind.
C
March 18, 2009 11:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Off topic, but did you take down a blog of yours on purpose?
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/tpmgary/2009/03/organizations-posing-as-consum.php
and comments are no longer available.
March 19, 2009 9:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, I deleted it. It didn't generate much interest at all, much to my disappointment. Nor did another post that I recently deleted, encouraging TPM readers to share some of the sources they find credible on a variety of topics.
I very rarely delete posts, and one of the reasons I originally liked TPM was because of the diverse subject matter I could choose from when I would look at the list of reader posts.
Lately, though, I see 20 different posts all on the same subject. If I were running the site, I might encourage people to look at the list first, and instead of repeat post, make comments on the original post or two that already exist on the list, to make those posts richer.
March 19, 2009 10:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry the response was not up to your expectations.
Do you check all four boxes (Cafe, Muck.., tpmtv, tpmdc) on the compose form? If not, you might get more views and responses by doing that.
Also, keep in mind that many people read but do not comment or recommend, so your blog posts might not be as ineffectual as it would seem.
I agree that a lot of "me too" posts tends to dilute discussion. But I don't favor "condensed milk" either, so there is value in diversity as well as in uniformity.
Thanks for letting me know that it was censorship or a site snafu! :-)
March 19, 2009 10:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
was NOT
ick.
March 19, 2009 10:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah Gary, I tried to get in too. I actually wrote a rather long comment and it died. Give it time.
You are getting good hits on some of your stuff and you are right. we do not have to write on the same subject all the time. And it is usually three or four sites that will pick up on the 'thing' of the day but they may have different perspectives and different cites/links to add.
I like your writing. I think you might get like me and get a little down once in a while.
If you post, let it go for a few hours. Come back to it. Check for comments and like you always do, reply to the comments.
Oh and I like to do serials. I mean besides my silly mini book. Check out Justice Putnam today.
We are not all doing the same thing.
March 19, 2009 10:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
good to know, thanks
March 19, 2009 11:03 PM | Reply | Permalink