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Luís F. Simões

Shell energy scenarios to 2050 - 6 views

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    just in case you were feeling happy and optimistic
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    An energy scenario published by an oil company? Allow me to be sceptical...
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    Indeed, Shell is an energy company, not just oil, for some time now ... The two scenarii are, in their approach, dependant of economic and political situation, which is right now impossible to forecast. Reference to Kyoto is surprising, almost out-dated! But overall, I find it rather optimistic at some stages, and probably the timeline (p37-39) is unlikely with recent events.
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    the report was published in 2008, which explains the reference to Kyoto, as the follow-up to it was much more uncertain at that point. The Blueprint scenario is indeed optimistic, but also quite unlikely I'd say. I don't see humanity suddenly becoming so wise and coordinated. Sadly, I see something closer to the Scramble scenario as much more likely to occur.
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    not an oil company??? please have a look at the percentage of their revenues coming from oil and gas and then compare this with all their other energy activities together and you will see very quickly that it is only window dressing ... they are an oil and gas company ... and nothing more
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    not JUST oil. From a description: "Shell is a global group of energy and petrochemical companies." Of course revenues coming from oil are the biggest, the investment turnover on other energy sources is small for now. Knowing that most of their revenues is from an expendable source, to guarantee their future, they invest elsewhere. They have invested >1b$ in renewable energy, including biofuels. They had the largest wind power business among so-called "oil" companies. Oil only defines what they do "best". As a comparison, some time ago, Apple were selling only computers and now they sell phones. But I would not say Apple is just a phone company.
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    window dressing only ... e.g. Net cash from operating activities (pre-tax) in 2008: 70 Billion$ net income in 2008: 26 Billion revenues in 2008: 88 Billion Their investments and revenues in renewables don't even show up in their annual financial reports since probably they are under the heading of "marketing" which is already 1.7 Billion $ ... this is what they report on their investments: Capital investment, portfolio actions and business development Capital investment in 2009 was $24 billion. This represents a 26% decrease from 2008, which included over $8 billion in acquisitions, primarily relating to Duvernay Oil Corp. Capital investment included exploration expenditure of $4.5 billion (2008: $11.0 billion). In Abu Dhabi, Shell signed an agreement with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company to extend the GASCO joint venture for a further 20 years. In Australia, Shell and its partners took the final investment decision (FID) for the Gorgon LNG project (Shell share 25%). Gorgon will supply global gas markets to at least 2050, with a capacity of 15 million tonnes (100% basis) of LNG per year and a major carbon capture and storage scheme. Shell has announced a front-end engineering and design study for a floating LNG (FLNG) project, with the potential to deploy these facilities at the Prelude offshore gas discovery in Australia (Shell share 100%). In Australia, Shell confirmed that it has accepted Woodside Petroleum Ltd.'s entitlement offer of new shares at a total cost of $0.8 billion, maintaining its 34.27% share in the company; $0.4 billion was paid in 2009 with the remainder paid in 2010. In Bolivia and Brazil, Shell sold its share in a gas pipeline and in a thermoelectric power plant and its related assets for a total of around $100 million. In Canada, the Government of Alberta and the national government jointly announced their intent to contribute $0.8 billion of funding towards the Quest carbon capture and sequestration project. Quest, which is at the f
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    thanks for the info :) They still have their 50% share in the wind farm in Noordzee (you can see it from ESTEC on a clear day). Look for Shell International Renewables, other subsidiaries and joint-ventures. I guess, the report is about the oil branch. http://sustainabilityreport.shell.com/2009/servicepages/downloads/files/all_shell_sr09.pdf http://www.noordzeewind.nl/
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    no - its about Shell globally - all Shell .. these participations are just peanuts please read the intro of the CEO in the pdf you linked to: he does not even mention renewables! their entire sustainability strategy is about oil and gas - just making it (look) nicer and environmentally friendlier
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    Fair enough, for me even peanuts are worthy and I am not able to judge. Not all big-profit companies, like Shell, are evil :( Look in the pdf what is in the upstream and downstream you mentionned above. Non-shell sources for examples and more objectivity: http://www.nuon.com/company/Innovative-projects/noordzeewind.jsp http://www.e-energymarket.com/news/single-news/article/ferrari-tops-bahrain-gp-using-shell-biofuel.html thanks.
ESA ACT

ACPD - Papers in Open Discussion - 0 views

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    Useful journal for the upcoming Earth Systems Science. For geoengineering, check out this: http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/9/2559/2009/acpd-9-2559-2009.pdf (currently first on the list of this bookmark)
nikolas smyrlakis

Top 100 Most Visited Articles on Wikipedia in 2009 - 2 views

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    the most impressive thing about this blog, TechXav is that it is run by 14-15 year olds..... And it's not only TechXav what they are doing, wow
pacome delva

Breakthrough of the year - physicsworld.com - 1 views

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    Interesting compilation of breakthroughs for 2009. Wanna think about a quantum algorithm ?
pacome delva

TeamParis-SynthEthics - 5 views

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    This is an interesting report from a student in sociology, who worked with a group of scientists on a synthetic biology project for the competition IGEM (http://2009.igem.org/Main_Page). This is what happen when you mix hard and soft sciences. For this project they won the special prize for "Best Human Practices Advance". You can read the part on self or exploded governance (p.34). When reading parts of this reports, I thought that it could be good to have a stagiaire or a YGT in human science to see if we can raise interesting question about ethics for the space sector. There are many questions I'm sure, about the governance, the legitimacy of spending millions to go in space, etc...
LeopoldS

Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China - 0 views

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    University Alliance for Low Carbon Energy   Three universities, including Tsinghua University, University of Cambridge, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have fostered up an alliance on November 15, 2009 to advocate low carbon energy and climate change adaptation The alliance will mainly work on 6 major areas: clean coal technology and CCS, homebuilding energy efficiency, industrial energy efficiency and sustainable transport, biomass energy and other renewable energy, advanced nuclear energy, intelligent power grid, and energy policies/planning. A steering panel made up of the senior experts from the three universities (two from each) will be established to review, evaluate, and endorse the goals, projects, fund raising activities, and collaborations under the alliance. With the Headquarters at the campus of Tsinghua University and branch offices at other two universities, the alliance will be chaired by a scientist selected from Tsinghua University.   According to a briefing, the alliance will need a budget of USD 3-5 million, mainly from the donations of government, industry, and all walks of life. In this context, the R&D findings derived from the alliance will find its applications in improving people's life.
Luzi Bergamin

IOPscience::.. Highlights of 2009-2010 - 5 views

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    Highlights of the year 2009 and 2010 of "Classical and Quantum Gravity". There's an ACT paper among them!
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    Congrats!
Juxi Leitner

NASA Nebula News: September 2009 | SpaceRef - Space News as it Happens - 0 views

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    NASA Nebula News: September 2009 - SpaceRef
Juxi Leitner

Armadillo Aerospace Claim Level 2 NGLLC Prize | International Space Fellowship - 0 views

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    Armadillo Aerospace have officially completed the 2009 Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge Level 2, on a rainy day at Caddo Mills, Texas. Reports came in
nikolas smyrlakis

Future Of Web Apps - London 2009 - 0 views

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    rather interesting "conf."
Nina Nadine Ridder

Big bang goes phut as bird drops baguette into Cern machinery | Science | The Guardian - 4 views

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    Maybe the prediction that "all Higgs producing machines shall have bad luck" (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/science/space/13lhc.html?_r=2) is true after all...
Luís F. Simões

NASA will send robot drill to Mars in 2016 - The Washington Post - 0 views

  • A German-built drill nicknamed “The Mole” will pound 16 feet into the Martian crust to take the temperature of the planet, while a sensitive French-built seismometer will detect any Marsquakes.
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    slashdot describes the drill as "a self-driving mole developed by the German space agency (DLR)". This seems to be the drill: GEMS - a mole to explore the interior of Mars, http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/OCEANSE.2009.5278132. Interesting news for all the roots people :)
pacome delva

The Consequences of a Boozy Youth -- Miller 2009 (921): 1 -- ScienceNOW - 0 views

  • early alcohol use can cause lasting changes in behavior.
  • 3 months after their last drink, they always preferred the risky lever, even when they payoff was poor
LeopoldS

Regular Moderate Intake of Red Wine Is Linked to a Better Women's Sexual Health - Monda... - 1 views

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    study by university of Florence ... does the quality of the wine have any influence?
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    Nice to see some applied research from time to time...
pacome delva

Better Nanotubes May Be on the Way -- Fox 2009 (1210): 3 -- ScienceNOW - 1 views

  • Success at building large amounts of inexpensive nanotubes opens the door for lighter, faster car frames; affordable space vehicles; and ultralightweight armor. Or on a smaller level, BNNTs could be used with pinpoint precision to attack cancer cells by sticking to tumors, absorbing neutrons from a targeted beam, and generating localized alpha radiation to kill the cancer. "This is the start of a revolution in materials," says Dennis Bushnell, a NASA engineer who has watched the work closely in the hopes of using BNNTs for space vehicles.
pacome delva

Do Titan's Lakes Migrate South for the Winter? -- Berardelli 2009 (1130): 2 -- ScienceNOW - 1 views

  • But "to really get a handle" on Titan's methane cycle, they'll need to monitor the exchange of methane between the lakes and the atmosphere. And that, she says, will require "a future lake-lander mission."
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    Let's go to Titan !!!
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    I bet we'll find there a black monolith which will take us to the stars... No, wait, was it that moon?
Nina Nadine Ridder

Two direct hits in dark matter hunt : Nature News - 0 views

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    two events detected by Cryogenic Dark Matter Search II, if those were caused by dark matter remains to be proven
LeopoldS

HP Labs' Central Nervous System for the Earth project aims to build a planetwide sensin... - 4 views

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    is it worth having another look at this smart dust evolution? anybody interested?
nikolas smyrlakis

EADS Lost a Billion Dollars in 2009 | Parabolic Arc - 2 views

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    did I read cost overruns?
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