Today, October 7, marks the third anniversary of the date the Hamas invaded Israel, killing 1200 and taking 251 hostage.   All living hostages have been released and the remains of the last person was recovered earlier this year. Israel still bombs the Gaza Strip, almost on a daily basis. At least 77,271 have been killed on the Hamas side, while more than 2000 Israelis and other foreign nationals have died. Gaza is now a tent city. Earlier this week I read an article from the local paper with the headline:  New Solar Technology Could Help U.S. Catch China . China controls 80% of the solar panel market today. Companies in the U.S.are developing a new kind of solar panel that could generate 25% more energy than today. Called tandem solar , the technology involves adding second and third layers of material to convert more of the sun's radiance into electricity. Mind you, this system still costs at least three times more than conventional devices with one layer of silicon....

Today I will update a posting of a dozen years ago, entitled:       WHAT IS THE STATE OF WIND ENERGY TODAY? In that blog of 5 August 2011 I said: In 2010 almost 40,000 MW of new wind energy conversion systems (WECS) became operational, an equivalent of 47 nuclear power plants (850 MW/reactor).  The world total now is at around 200,000 MW of WECS, or said to be  the equivalent of 235 nuclear facilities.    There are   442 nuclear power plants in 30 countries having a net electricity capacity of 375,000 MW, with 63,000 MW in 16 countries under construction .  However, almost half the new nuclear construction projects are in China, which has murmured the possibility of reviewing this option.  Germany will shut down all its nuclear plants by 2022 and Japan is in a real dilemma . So I will first see  how nuclear power has changed during these dozen years . Countries with nuclear power today = 32, or two more Number of power plants =...

 Today, more from Energy Matters of the American Energy Society: Electricity cost of generation from 209 coal power plants are more expensive than from solar or wind farms. Yet, fossil fuels still dominate in the production of electricity. However, how about this stunning bit of information?    Global coal consumption reached an all-time high in 2022 and will slightly increase in 2023 . Part of the problem with wind and solar is that they are intermittent.  Cost effective storage is a must.  Form Energy announced an agreement with Xcel Energy to deploy its  iron-air battery  systems to integrate more renewable energy for its customers. The sleeping giant of energy storage is  pumped storage . EV and hybrid vehicle sales continue to increase. The U.S. is on pace to set a new oil production record sometime in 2024. The  oil industry in Venezuela has collapsed . Produced 3.1 million barrels / day in 1988. Today, only 0.7 million barrels/day. How...