The US may be at the forefront of the shale revolution, but in a list of countries where above-ground factors are most conducive to oil and gas development, the country lags behind competitors such as Canada and the UK. The Energy Information Administration’s latest report on global shale resources, conducted by Advanced Resources International and… Keep reading →
Smart meters and advanced analytics could come to the rescue. It’s no secret that it takes a lot of energy to grow blueberry kush, purple sour diesel, voodoo or any of the dozens of other potent strains of marijuana available in North America. In the U.S. alone, indoor cannabis growing uses about $5 billion in… Keep reading →
As West Texas Intermediate crude prices surge on US fundamentals, geopolitical considerations and infrastructure bottleneck alleviation, the Brent-WTI spread is now razor thin. The US benchmark’s discount to Brent fell to less than $2 per barrel for the first time since 2010 – WTI’s price climbed to 15-month highs – as crude for August delivery… Keep reading →
Renewables are making large gains globally, but if they are to continue grabbing market share from fossil fuels, they will require reliable policy backing, according to International Energy Agency Executive Director Maria Van Der Hoeven. The IEA’s 2013 Medium-Term Renewable Energy Market Report maintains a positive outlook for growth in renewables worldwide. “Despite a difficult economic… Keep reading →
The internet is all around us. Chances are as you read this article you are either plugged in or tapping into some kind of wireless device (hopefully over a secured network) from your charged laptop, tablet or smartphone. So it can be a large understatement to say that consumer access to the World Wide Web… Keep reading →
Moody’s analysts are have weighed in on prospects for liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports from the US, forecasting that chemical companies and utilities could see some negative impact from higher domestic natural gas prices, but not enough to bring down their credit ratings.
Moody’s expects US LNG export capacity to rise to 6.3 billion cubic feet per day by 2020 – equivalent to 178.4 million cubic meters per day, compared with global exports totaling 330.8 billion cubic meters per day in 2011, according to BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy. “We do not expect the volume of exports from North America will have a significant impact on the global LNG trade during this decade,” the rating agency said in a report, The Prospect of US LNG Exports Influences Pricing and Gas Markets Worldwide. Keep reading →
As we transition over from Breaking Energy to the new Breaking Energy site on May 6, we will be offering a new feature that seeks to explain, in simple, accessible language, some of the terms that we throw around in our stories. We will also provide links to help direct you to resources that can offer more exhaustive detail.
There’s no reason an electrical engineer should be able to make the immediate mental leap from GTL to gas-to-liquids, the expensive process that can turn gas into liquid automotive fuel, or that an oil and gas lawyer will have any idea what ISO stands for (Independent Systems Operator). We aim to make our coverage accessible to as wide an energy audience as possible, and we also hope to offer a resource for newcomers to the energy industry who just don’t speak the language yet. Keep reading →
The need to secure the electric grid against cyberattacks has attracted attention at both the corporate and policy level. But no one actually knows what “secure” really means, and making that determination may prove challenging.
Decision-makers at energy companies and on Capitol Hill have been alerted to the danger of a cyber attack on the electric grid. While those concerns may be valid, calls to “secure the grid” assume a level of knowledge of the state of grid security that even experts in the field may not possess, said IBM Energy Security Lead Andy Bochman at the Advanced Energy Conference in New York this week. Keep reading →
Sophisticated worms – automated software that spreads between computer devices – can infect an entire electric grid in a matter of seconds, but there may be effective defenses against them, according to Rob Johnson, assistant professor of computer science at Stony Brook University.
The critical role various computing devices have assumed in the daily functioning of the power grid has dramatically altered the security needs of utilities. While safeguards are already in place to protect against physical threats, like natural disasters, utilities may lack the tools to protect their networks from cyber attacks, such as worms. Keep reading →
A focus on the atmospheric impact of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 100 years from now distracts from immediate steps, such as reducing natural gas leakage from the production process, that could offer substantial medium-term climate benefits, according to the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF).
Natural gas in power generation offers an obvious advantage over coal in cutting CO2 emissions. “If we think simply of the CO2 emitted per unit of electricity generated, you would say gas is a hands-down winner,” said EDF Chief Scientist Steven Hamburg at the Advanced Energy Conference in New York on Tuesday. Keep reading →
