- Anyone who believes that exponenetial growth can go forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist. - Kenneth Boulding (c. 1980) ...
- “Much attention is paid to new energy technologies, with good reason. But it also is important to know that most of today’s liquid fuels come from fields that have been producing for decades. More than 95 percent of the crude oil produced today was discovered before the year 2000. About 75 percent was discovered before 1980.” (Note: From ExxonMobil’s 2012 Outlook for Energy report.) ...
- “If the inevitability of peak oil is ignored and the event overtakes us unprepared, the unintended consequences could easily spiral into a sequence of ever-worsening conditions that would create not just twilight in Saudi Arabia, but twilight also for the lifestyles we all now enjoy.” (Note: This quote is from Simmons’ book “Twilight in the Desert.” Matthew Simmons passed away August 8, 2010.) ...
- It took us 125 years to use the first trillion barrels of oil. We'll use the next trillion in 30. Chevron Advert "Will you join us" ...
- Energy will be one of the defining issues of this century. One thing is clear : the era of easy oil is over. What we do next will determine how well we meet the energy needs of the entire world in this century and beyond.” July 2005 David J O’Reilly, Chairman & CEO, Chevron Corporation ...
- "I think OPEC is about maxed out. when people talk about spare capacity in OPEC, I don't see it. I just don't see it coming through and I'm not sure it's there. And it's not just that they're greedy, but they're really producing what they can produce. John Hofmeister, former President of Shell Oil interviewed on CNBC, February 2012 ...
- "The real problem is that we use too much oil. It's that simple and that difficult. If we truly want to reduce our vulnerability to high prices, the best way to do so is to reduce consumption." — Richard Heinberg, author of Peak Everything ...
- "Technology is great, but it can't find what's not there. In the last five years, we consumed 27 billion barrels of oil a year, but the oil industry discovered only three billion barrels a year. So only one barrel was replaced for every nine we used!" — L.B. Magoon report for U.S. Geological Survey, as quoted in E Magazine ...
- "In my humble opinion, we should now have reached peak oil. So it is high time to close this critical chapter in the history of international oil industry and bid the mighty peak farewell." — Ali Samsam Bakhtiari, Vice President of the National Iranian Oil Company ...
- "We've run out of good projects. This is not a money issue... If these oil companies had fantastic projects, they'd be out there developing new fields." — Matthew Simmons, author of Twilight in the Desert ...
- "We are not good at recognizing distant threats even if their probability is 100%. Society ignoring [peak oil] is like the people of Pompeii ignoring the rumblings below Vesuvius." — James Schlesinger, former US Energy Secretary ...
- "I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that." — Thomas Edison, 1931 ...
- "As we head to war with Iraq, President Bush wants to make one thing clear: This war is not about oil. It's about gasoline." — Jay Leno ...
- "My grandfather rode a camel, my father rode a camel, I drive a Mercedes, my son drives a Land Rover, his son will drive a Land Rover, but his son will ride a camel." — attributed to Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Emir of Dubai ...
References
Stuart L - Near Ottawa
I've attached some photos. One is of 2 Latitude51 panels in a neighbour's system. The others are of my system. My heat/hot water system includes a wood boiler and 600 gallon heat storage tank shown in one photo. The tank has three heat transfer coils in it. One coil transfers heat to the tank from the boiler and heat from the tank to the heating system. The second coil heats the dometic hot water. The third coil transfers heat to the tank from the solar collectors.
The system is working well. The solar system can collect up to 2 days worth of hot water on a good day. The storage tank can 'hold' about 5 days worth of hot water. Therefore with sustained sunny weather the tank temperature gradually increases and we can sustain poor sun days without resorting to the wood backup. During the heating season, wood will be the primary fuel, however any solar heat added to the system will offset wood use.
As wood has been our only fuel before adding the solar, we had to run the wood boiler once every five or six days in the non heating season in order to provide hot water. Since adding the solar component we have only rarely used the wood boiler in the non heating season and then only after a period of sustained cloudy weather.
Latitude51 Comment: Note this system used a Bubble Pump (see top right corner of the photo with the collectors, its an off grid system, uses no electricity to pump the water and has no moving parts.)
