Blog: Dirty fuels ‘could follow’ peak oil

Friday, August 13, 2010

Rising oil prices could lead to an increase in the use of ‘dirty fuels’ unless policy measures are taken to intervene, a leading scientist has said.

Writing in the forthcoming edition of Public Service Review: Science and Technology, Daniel Kammen, professor of energy at the University of California, warned that vast quantities of ‘unconventional’ oil resources could be exploited as crude oil reserves dwindle.

Kammen pointed to extraction techniques, such as from shale rock and the Fisher-Tropsch process – where coal is turned into oil – that could increase potential oil reserves substantially.

“The resource is an estimated 30 – 40 times larger than the oil resource we have exploited to date,” Kammen said. “And, this resource comes with an increasingly larger energy and climate penalty per barrel: if a barrel of conventional crude has a climate impact of “1”, then tar sands are about 1.3 times as bad per barrel, shale oil is more than 1.7 times as bad, and oil derived from coal more than twice as bad in life-cycle per barrel.”

While Kammen is optimistic about carbon pricing as a means of encouraging more sustainable energy practices, he said other policies, such as decoupling electricity sales and revenues and financing initiatives such as loans for renewables, are necessary. As too is technology rollout.

“Energy efficiency needs to be put on a fast-track innovation and deployment,” said Kammen. “Distributed and central-station solar energy, with storage is number one on my list because it can address needs in rich and poor nations and communities worldwide.”

He also said it is important for governments to take seriously nuclear options.

“Nuclear power has a challenging regulatory road, but could be a vital component if proliferation and capital cost barriers can be addressed.”

Other authors writing in the special edition, out in September, highlight key challenges relating to global energy supply.