STUFF

Our world uses ~31B bls of oil/yr. I used 90mbpd. One of my granddaughters likes math too.

US Fed Reserve has tripled its monetary base since the crisis. Oil also has tripled. And possibly our aggravation.

UN food price index up 37% year on year.

NRG Energy opened the 1st of their EV charge stations in TX. To have 70 stations in Dallas/Ft. Worth, 50 in Houston. Half in by summer. 480V/240V options. Flat monthly fee $49-89, the 89 gives you all the el you want schmorgishborg with home and road stations. Stations will be no more than 5 miles apart. 30-mile range for a 10-minute 480V charge, 25 mile in an hour with the 240V. AVAV, GE, Siemens involved. "Petrol doesn't set the price of el. Ever." Americans pay avg. ~$169 in gas/mo. NRG will put stations along I45 between the cities in '12.

Areva, the French nuke giant, trying to complete a reactor in Finland in '12. $3B budget now 5. Has anyone ever brought a nuke in on budget? Nukes are cash cows now in US because of extensions to 60 yrs. New nukes give us el @ 10 cents/kwh assuming $4k/kwh capital costs (MIT figs), DOE est. closer to $7k. So much for "too cheap to meter." New NG plants give us el @ 5 cents/kwh @ ~$1k/kwh capital costs. Fun fact: 1 lb of U provides same E as 100k lbs of coal. Barrel of fun, huh.

Argonne National Lab invented lithium-manganese battery now used in Chev Volt. Oak Ridge National Lab found that putting an airfoil under an 18-wheeler increases mileage 3-4%. The list of invention from fed labs is a very long one. Meanwhile, China has developed a 1M volt power line that loses 8% of power in 1,200 miles. An equivalent US 760kV line would lose 80% of the power. And Ryan budget would cut fed energy R&D 85%.

CoalTek has tech to squeeze water out of coal for better burn. And some company has a higher temp coal burn tech for better efficiency. Going into a plant in Malaysia I think I remember.

And Brent oil hit $124 on Friday.

Happy trails, pards.