The Oil Drum: Europe | Analysis and Discussion of the European Energy Gap and Peak Oil

Recent statistics have been published showing that Europe has now installed over 2,000MW of offshore wind capacity, with more than a quarter installed in the past year, and lots more to come in the next few years. I discussed these numbers in more detail here, but wanted to give you here some insights on what these numbers mean on the ground.

Left: Offshore wind installations. Source: EWEA - The European offshore wind industry
key trends and statistics 2009 (PDF) )
Right: Transition pieces for the Belwind offshore wind farm, Zeebrugge harbor, 22 January 2010

I recently visited the port site in Zeebrugge, Belgium, where the foundations for the Belwind offshore wind farm (the financing of which I worked on) were stored before their installation. This is a good opportunity to give you a glimpse of the kind of logistics involved, and what kind of problems can happen (and how they are solved), on offshore wind installations.

Follow me below for a tour of a small bit of Europe's fastest growing heavy industry.

Part of the windpower series.

What difference would Nord Stream mean to European energy supply?

Posted by Chris Vernon on January 28, 2010 - 10:16am in The Oil Drum: Europe
Topic: Supply/Production
Tags: baltic pipeline, eu, europe, gas, nord stream, pipelines, russia [list all tags]

This is a guest post from Selene Rebane. She is from Estonia, has a degree in journalism and recently graduated from an MSc in International Relations from University of Bristol. She's particularly interested in energy issues in Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

Nord Stream (also known as the Baltic Pipeline) stirs emotions in Europe.

Nord Stream route (EEZ = economic exclusivity zone).

Peak Fat

Posted by Ugo Bardi on January 22, 2010 - 10:20am in The Oil Drum: Europe
Topic: Environment/Sustainability
Tags: diet, junk food, peak oil [list all tags]

A section of a graph published by the New York Times on Jan 14 2009. It shows that the number of obese people in the USA has stopped growing. Peak fat?

Oilwatch Monthly January 2010

Posted by Rembrandt on January 21, 2010 - 10:15am in The Oil Drum: Europe
Topic: Supply/Production
Tags: demand, eia, exports, iea, imports, joint oil data initiative, non-opec, oilwatch, opec, original, stocks total liquids, supply, world production [list all tags]

The January 2010 edition of Oilwatch Monthly can be downloaded at this weblink (PDF, 1.24 MB, 33 pp).

Figure 1 - World Crude Oil Production January 2002 to October 2009, OECD Crude Oil Consumption January 2002 to October 2009, OECD Crude Oil Stocks January 2002 to November 2009

The Oilwatch Monthly is a newsletter that is available free of charge with the latest data on oil supply, demand, oil stocks, spare capacity and exports.

A summary and latest graphics below the fold.

Aruba's New Windfarm

Posted by Jerome a Paris on December 30, 2009 - 10:03am in The Oil Drum: Europe
Topic: Alternative energy
Tags: aruba, wind [list all tags]

As Copenhaguen ended, unsurprisingly, in confusion, I have the opportunity to give you a more positive tale, and show you it is possible for people - including even bankers amongst them - to work towards a more sustainable future without necessarily endangering our way of life.

The Vader Piet 30MW wind farm on the island of Aruba.

In this case, it involves the construction of a windfarm in a place where it will directly replace fuel-oil-burning power plants. As you'll be able to see below, this wind farm is quite remarkable in a number of ways which means that this experience will not be replicable as easily everywhere, but it shows that there are many places and energy systems which it is possible to materially improve under almost all criterai using renewable energy.

(part of the wind power series)
Full disclosure: As indicated below, I financed the project discussed in this post last year.

Oilwatch Monthly December 2009

Posted by Rembrandt on December 21, 2009 - 10:34am in The Oil Drum: Europe
Topic: Supply/Production
Tags: demand, eia, exports, iea, imports, joint oil data initiative, non-opec, oilwatch, opec, original, stocks total liquids, supply, world production [list all tags]

The December 2009 edition of Oilwatch Monthly can be downloaded at this weblink (PDF, 1.24 MB, 33 pp).

Figure 1 - World Liquids Production January 2002 to November 2009

The Oilwatch Monthly is a newsletter that is available free of charge with the latest data on oil supply, demand, oil stocks, spare capacity and exports.

A summary and latest graphics below the fold.

Oil price: where next? - and thoughts for 2010

Posted by Euan Mearns on December 18, 2009 - 2:03pm in The Oil Drum: Europe
Topic: Economics/Finance
Tags: basket case britain, demand, forecast, oil prices, phil hart, quantitative easing, stoneleigh, supply [list all tags]

Figure 1 Oil supply - demand - price chart, Jan. 2002 to Nov. 2009. See text for explanation. Click to enlarge and open in separate browser window.

In February this year, global oil production / demand hit an interim low of 84.0 million barrels per day (mmbpd) and the average price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) that month was $39.16 / bbl. Since then, demand has recovered to 85.9 mmbpd in November and the average price was $78.08 / bbl. A rise in demand of 2.3% has led to an oil price rise of 99.4%.

Full explanation of the chart and a discussion of what 2010 might have in store is below the fold.

A focal point for material scarcity research

Posted by Rembrandt on December 15, 2009 - 11:05am in The Oil Drum: Europe
Topic: Supply/Production
Tags: material scarcity, metal mineral scarcity, metal scarcity, peak metals, peak minerals, shell [list all tags]

Last November, a group of Dutch institutes and companies launched a platform on the topic of material scarcity (www.materialscarcity.nl). The goal of the platform is to exchange information and start a number of research programmes to aid in the adjustment to a world where many elements are no longer abundantly available because of scarcity.

At the launch meeting, presentations were given by TNO, Shell, Philips, the Hague Centre for Strategic Studie (HCSS), TU/Delft and the Dutch Ministry of Housing Spatial Planning & Environment. In addition, the first report under the sponsorship of the platform, written by the Materials Innovation Institute (M2I), was presented (click for download).

Peak Gold, Easier to Model than Peak Oil? - Part II

Posted by Luis de Sousa on December 2, 2009 - 10:13am in The Oil Drum: Europe
Topic: Geology/Exploration
Tags: gold, jean laherrère, peak minerals [list all tags]

This is the second installment of a guest post by Jean Laherrére on peak gold. The first part can be read here. This time Jean takes a macroscopic perspective on gold mining for the world as whole.

Note: This post contains 33 images amounting to 1.5 Mbytes of data.

Unique Times -- and the Future

Posted by Euan Mearns on November 27, 2009 - 10:34am in The Oil Drum: Europe
Topic: Demand/Consumption
Tags: fossil fuels, geodestinies, metals, original, population growth, resource depletion, walter youngquist [list all tags]

This is a guest contribution by Dr Walter Youngquist, best known for GeoDestinies, his classic text on global resources and their depletion that was first published in 1997. I had the good fortune to meet Dr Youngquist at the ASPO conference in Houston two years ago and since then we have shared regular correspondence. Dr Youngquist (now aged 88) is updating GeoDestinies and last week he sent me this piece, seeking opinion. I always find his prose to be eloquent, simple, often understated and as a result very powerful.

I asked if we could publish this short piece on The Oil Drum and he kindly agreed. Many readers of The Oil Drum might feel that they already know much of what is written here, but you need to stop and ask how it is that we know what we know? When the new edition of GeoDestinies is published I'd warmly recommend this to Oil Drum readers as a well referenced, well written source spanning energy, soils, water, metals and population.

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Offshore Wind taking off - some background on installation issues