Archive for the 2-Minute Briefing Category

The first commercial oil sands project commissioned in Canada was Suncor’s Millennium mine in 1967. Since then one mine extension and two ‘debottlenecking’ projects have been commissioned to improve efficiency of existing operations, resulting in Suncor having an operating capacity of 321,000 barrels per day. No dates […]

A historical look at the nuclear industry in Iran is presented below. The article, originally published in 2009/2010 gives an insight in to the situation of the industry as it was then. Iran has a plentiful resource of energy and in 2008 exported 95% of output. 81% […]

The EIA expects oil prices to reach well over USD 100 per barrel by 2035, USD 125 per barrel for a reference scenario – non-OECD liquids consumption is around 25 million barrels per day higher in 2035 than in 2009 and OECD consumption grows by less than […]

The NRG Expert Electricity Transmisison and Distribution Report and Database offers a unique look at the global T&D industry. Since the advent of centrally generated electricity and its domestic uses; this industry has been essential for everything we are able to achieve today thanks to electricity. The […]

Transportation costs account for a large share of the total delivered price of coal, therefore international trade in steam coal is effectively divided into two regional markets, the Atlantic and the Pacific. The Atlantic market is made up of importing countries in Western Europe, notably the UK, […]

A number of sectors are known for their high energy demand. First among these is the power generation sector followed by industry (manufacturing, steelmaking and other industrial purposes), transportation and the residential/consumer sector. Exxon Mobil expects that, in 2030, all of these demand sectors will remain in […]

Gas market In the 1980s, the petroleum and bitumen enterprises employed 10% of Albania’s industrial work force, controlled 25% of the country’s industrial capital and received almost 33% of its industrial investment funds. Nevertheless, the industry’s share of the country’s gross industrial production fell from 8.1% in […]

Although still only in eigth place in the global ranking in installed capacity with 305 MW, but is developing a strong solar PV manufacturing base. China is emerging as a leader in the global solar PV industry. There is a huge gap between production and consumption and […]

This fragment comes from our Shale Gas Report. To learn more about this product: click here Australia is a net exporter of LNG and exported 57% of production in 2009. Japan and China are the biggest markets for this gas accounting for 65% and 20% of exports […]

Oil sands contain deposits of bitumen. To process bitumen, it first must be extracted from the ground. There are two extraction methods. Shallow oil sands deposits, which can be excavated from the surface, and deeper ‘in situ’ (in situ means ‘in place’, indicating that the bitumen is […]

Many parts of the world are experiencing severe water stress with limited fresh water supplies. In some parts of the world water use exceeds renewable water capacity – renewable water is defined as surface and underground water supplies that are replenished by rainwater. These regions often use […]

Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) is a means of converting into useful energy the temperature difference between surface water of the oceans in tropical/sub-tropical areas and water at a depth of approximately 1,000 metres, the latter of which comes from the Polar Regions. For OTEC, a temperature […]

Currently there are over 15,000 desalination plants online in over 100 countries worldwide with over 65 million m3 per day of desalination capacity is currently in operation and over 71 million m3 per day contracted Global capital expenditure on new and replacement desalination plants is expected to […]

According to NREL, an economic analysis indicates that, over the next 5 to 10 years, ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) plants may be competitive in four markets: The first market consists of the small island nations in the South Pacific and the island of Molokai in Hawaii. […]

Privatisation in the ECA region (former Eastern European and CIS countries) has moved forward in the last few years, mostly in Europe, but is still very limited in the CIS countries. Although there are still many hurdles to overcome lessons are being learned and put into application. […]

The IEA has forecast future biomass energy consumption to 2030. The primary supply of biomass is calculated by adding the following three components: 1 Final end-use consumption of biomass 2 Biomass used for electricity and CHP generation 3 Losses in charcoal production, i.e. the difference between the […]

At the start of photovoltaic technology the primary use was for non-grid purposes, using small cells in stand alone situations. In 1992 non-grid use accounted for as much as 89% of total installed solar PV capacity. By 1996 this had declined to 65% and today the situation […]

The main first generation feedstocks for biodiesel are palm oil, rapeseed and soy bean. Of the three, palm oil produces the highest yields of oil for biodiesel per hec-tare, and compared to all biofuel feedstocks palm oil produces the highest biofuels yields. Palm oil is extracted from […]

In 2010, US wind energy growth slowed to 15% from 2009, compared to 40% from 2008 to 2009. Only 5,115 MW capacity was installed, compared to 10,010 MW in 2009, 8,366 MW in 2008 and 5,258 MW in 2007. Difficulties in securing power purchase agreements (PPAs), regulatory […]

The North American gas markets are partially deregulated the situation in the US varying from state to state and in Canada from province to province. The natural gas producers are price deregulated. In 1989, the Natural Gas Wellhead Decontrol Act required the removal of all price controls […]