International Energy Week

Had to wake up really early yesterday to attend a breakfast seminar on International Energy Week. Which also explains why the news these couple of days revolves around energy and it's fate for the next decade or century. My initial intention when I accepted the invitation was to purely network and at the same time, learn more about the particular industry which I genuinely believe that the information would help me. The seminar really opened my eyes although I didn't stay throughout.

Apart from our common knowledge of wine, solar, hydroelectric, wave, biofuel, nuclear and fossil fuels, we can actually look into more environmentally friendly options in time to come. What actually comes to mind when we mention nuclear energy. We're always so against it but do we actually know why apart from the fact that it is radioactive. To be fair, we've seen pictures and heard stories about radiation and I'm totally against it. But truth is, nuclear plants do not emit carbon dioxide like fossil fuel plants do. They are generally better for the environment ONLY IF the decommission of the plant is done properly and that means really high cost. Radioactive waste should also be handled with care and should not be allowed unless very detailed care is taken. Yet again, it's the cost issue. We all tend to place the importance of money way above our environment. I dread to think the sort of environment my kids and our future generations would be growing up in.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is one new term for me from yesterday. In short, this process separates the CO2 during industrial processes, transporting it to a storage location and isolating it from the atmosphere. This will greatly reduce the amount of CO2 being released into the air. Potential storage location will include dried oil and gas fields, unminable coal beds. CO2 will then be injected into these places where the CO2 will react with the metal oxides underground to produce stable carbonates. Which in English, means it will encourage the generation of more energy. This is currently in research stage and to retrofit the equipment for the process would be a very expensive project even if it can be done. New rigs can be built with these function and it will be relatively cheaper to do it. So if this is possible in the near future, we still have hope given the limited amount of fossil fuel we have right now. Details of the above process is extremely dry and I have yet to totally undersand so I shan't embarrass myself further but I think with enough efforts to change the world, we can all make it a better place.

With the warload + Texan oil king off his throne, we all have hope...