Comments on: How the natural gas craze will impact renewable energy

By: medlaw

medlaw — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 21:21:38 +0000

>>A likely side effect will be that investment in renewables suffers because there won’t be price pressure, like $4 gas ($8 in Europe), contributing to the drive to develop solar, wind, nuclear and biofuels. <<

We'll $4 gas is likely to be around in the near term because so few autos run on electric or natural gas. Thus, in the market for auto fuel, natural gas is not an equivalent. It is an equivalent for industrial power generation. Renewables (other than biodiesel) only compete in the power generation market. So we may end up with the worst of both world. Lower utility rates may depress the demand for renewalables for industrial power generation but we are still stuck $4 gas … because that's the only fuel that runs the vast majority of our auto fleet.

By: Raimondo Barbera

Raimondo Barbera — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 08:00:08 +0000

Italian tested a new technology that can substitute a large part of domestic consumption of natural gas with renewable biogas processing (domestic) straw and other agricultural waste or not-food biomass.
See
HYST Technology: Food and Sustainable Energy from Biomass
http://www.biohyst.it/contStd.asp?lang=en&idPag=466
For electricity the renewable solution it’s on the way, and came from … Italy again:
http://www.kitegen.com/en/

By: connectedtraveler

connectedtraveler — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 02:35:14 +0000

Natural Gas supplies here could displace imported oil in the next 5-10 years. Will renewable energy have the same effect?

Electricity is made from natural gas and coal for the most part in this country. Increased demand for electricity besides needing more infrastructure just increases power plant demand.

Put a renewable tax on ng and oil and use that to subsidize renewables.