World Top Ten Energy News Analysis in 2011

An oil rig in the Arctic waters of Russia. (Image courtesy of CFP)

Editor's Note Not long ago, the US National Geographic News website made a comparison of news events in the world energy field in 2011, and finally selected ten major energy news events. From this list of top ten energy news, we can get a glimpse of this year's global energy development events and hot spots. We can also see that in this era of new and old alternatives, energy has become the "source of policy" for political, economic, military, and other hot spots in the world.

1. Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident

On March 11, 2011, a large earthquake occurred in the sea area of ​​northeastern Japan and triggered a tsunami. At the same time, it caused a nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan. This is the world’s worst nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986. After the loss of electricity supply, seawater destroyed the critical standby generators, causing the cooling system to fail and unable to control the decay heat of nuclear fuel. Within a few hours, hydrogen gas continued to accumulate and exploded. The outer containment vessel was blown up and three of the six reactors partially melted. After the accident, workers began several weeks of rescue operations in an attempt to control the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

The Fukushima nuclear accident not only changed the energy landscape of Japan, but also had an important impact on the long-term energy plans of other countries in the world. At the beginning of 2011, nuclear energy was also considered to be at the beginning of the revival. With the nuclear accident at Fukushima, the road to recovery of nuclear energy was stepped on. A few days after the tsunami, Germany closed eight of the 17 nuclear power plants and soon decided to close all nuclear power plants by 2022. European engineering company Siemens said in September that it will withdraw from the nuclear power plant market. After the Fukushima nuclear accident, India’s protest against the plan to build the world’s largest nuclear power plant has increased. However, the Indian government insists that the construction of nuclear power plants is the way to meet the increasing demand for electricity and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. .

At the end of 2011, the situation at the Fukushima nuclear power plant stabilized, but Japanese officials still faced a series of challenges, such as the decay of radioactive material in the reactor and how to deal with hazardous areas outside the area of ​​separation. In October, the International Atomic Energy Agency sent radiation experts to Japan to check reactor No. 3.


2. Shale gas appears global heat of mining

In 2011, shale gas mining heat occurred worldwide. According to preliminary US government estimates, shale gas reserves in 32 countries are six times the total supply of the United States. The United Kingdom has begun hydraulic fracturing. In addition, Poland seems to have to vigorously extract shale gas.

On the energy-hungry East Coast of the United States, Pennsylvania and the surrounding states are rich in natural gas, located on the Marcellus shale below the Appalachian Mountains. In 2010, the drilling company drilled 1,386 natural gas wells in Pennsylvania. In the first nine months of 2011, they had drilled 1600 gas wells. At present, shale gas can meet one-third of the United States' natural gas demand. Compared with oil, the price of natural gas is at historically low levels and it is full of temptations for consumers. In states such as Texas, Louisiana, and Wyoming, which have long been exploiting natural gas and oil, hydraulic fracturing of shale gas continues. The states that have not made such exploitation for decades have also been involved, the most significant of which is Pennsylvania.

However, the heat of shale gas mining has also caused people's concerns. With the report linking hydraulic fracturing to a small earthquake in Lancashire, there is growing concern about this mining. In July, France became the first country to completely ban hydraulic fracturing. In South Africa, the energy company acquired the rights to exploit a huge gas field underground in the Kwasang language family home. This area has unique biodiversity, but there is a shortage of water resources and discussions on the environment and property rights are intensifying. What concerns residents in Oklahoma, USA, is that a series of earthquakes may be triggered by hydraulic fracturing of shale gas, and the treatment of deep well irrigation wastewater may also be related to hydraulic fracturing. A report released by the Geological Exploration Department of Oklahoma states that there may be a certain link between the two, but no clear conclusion has been given.

The hidden dangers brought about by shale gas extraction include drinking water pollution. A study published in 2011 confirmed for the first time that drilling can cause methane to enter drinking water under certain conditions. Although it is feared that hydraulic fracturing of shale gas may have adverse effects on water and air and may even trigger an earthquake, such exploitation can change the face of the energy sector, especially for the United States.


3. Crude oil market challenges economic downturn

Although gasoline prices at gas stations showed an upward trend in 2011, they have not reached the record level of the summer of 2008. According to benchmark Brent crude oil prices traded in London, despite the economic downturn in Europe and the United States, global oil prices have shown an upward trend, with the price for most of 2011 exceeding US$100 per barrel. Oil is still the most important energy in the world, and the power to drive prices is very complicated. In many developing countries, including China and India, as well as major oil exporters such as Saudi Arabia, oil consumption has grown rapidly, but the amount of oil imported from OPEC countries is basically the same as last year.

The "Arab Spring"** - especially in Libya, led the country to stop oil production and push up oil prices. At the same time, conventional oil production in the past few years has been relatively stable. Some people said that this shows that crude oil prices will maintain growth over the long term. In order to maintain the continued growth of supply, many countries, especially the United States and Canada, have increased the exploitation of shale oil and oil sands. However, the cost of extracting these two sources of oil is very high, that is to say, the oil price in 2012 will further increase.

Two German staff are installing solar panels.

4. Bankruptcy of Solarinzo Solar

At the beginning of September 2011, Solinger Zhuo, a supplier of photovoltaic modules in the United States, announced the closure of its production plant and filed for bankruptcy. This is the 3rd supplier of photovoltaic modules declared bankrupt within 1 month. This may seem to be a decision made overnight, but in fact, the failure of these companies is not surprising, but also a warning to companies that want to enter the field of photovoltaic modules.

Everyone thinks this is not an ordinary corporate failure. The FBI even raided the company’s office. It is understood that Solingo Zhuo has been strictly regulated because they have received nearly 600 million U.S. government guarantees from the U.S. government. However, despite the success of the ** guarantee program, some solar panel makers including Solingo were in trouble in 2011. In the case of lower silicon wafer prices, the main component of solar panels, the demand for new solar panels produced by Solingo has not grown as expected. The main reason for this phenomenon is the global economic recession.

Solingrow’s profits plummeted, and many other solar companies are in trouble. Many people point the blame on unfair trade practices. Some US solar cell manufacturers accused China of dumping solar panels at the cost of losing profits, while China used the US’s renewable energy subsidies to counterattack. With the decline in sales, the total installed solar panels in 2012 may show a downward trend. This is the first major setback for the solar industry.


5. U.S. coal power plants decline

In 2011, the U.S. Energy Company announced that it will shut down the Podogak River Power Plant, which has been operating for several decades. The coal plant is expected to close by October 2012, and as it closes, local residents can breathe more fresh air.

In order to meet the more stringent air quality standards of the federal government, old coal power plants need to invest heavily in transformation, and at the same time, they are also facing the opportunity to turn to clean gas.

In this way, the U.S. power industry began to move in the direction that environmentalists had hoped for years. Although this trend has just begun, the effect has already emerged. According to the data provided by the US Energy Information Administration, in the first quarter of 2011, the share of coal power in the United States was lower than any of the first quarters of 30 years.

However, in China and other Asian countries, the demand for coal is still growing rapidly, leading the US coal industry to increase the export of coal and other related equipment. While they are getting a lot of profits, this will also change the balance of trade in the US energy export sector. Environmentalists believe that the increase in coal exports from the United States will increase global coal consumption and have a terrible impact on the planet that has already suffered from carbon destruction.


6. Reducing renewable energy subsidies

In 2011, although the number of global solar panel installations continued to increase, subsidies for renewable energy sources tended to decrease due to the economic downturn. Many countries that previously invested huge amounts of money in the development of wind energy and solar energy changed their U-shaped inputs in 2011, and they reduced the amount of subsidies, among which the more representative ones were the United Kingdom and Spain. The United Kingdom significantly reduced the amount of subsidies for installing large-scale solar panels. Spain's practice of reducing subsidies led many investors to file complaints and demand compensation.

The United States may not be the last country to subsidize fuel ethanol. Many countries continue to subsidize fossil fuels. Globally, subsidies for fossil fuels have exceeded renewable energy sources. The International Energy Agency and US President Barack Obama called for reducing subsidies for oil, natural gas and coal, reducing the use of these highly polluting fuels, and helping to develop renewable energy sources. But so far, global subsidies for fossil fuels have changed little.


7. China's energy demand continues to increase

Research conducted in 2011 found that China’s energy demand in the coming decades will continue to maintain high growth. According to the forecast data released by the US Energy Information Administration in September 2011, half of the increase in global energy demand from 2008 to 2035 came from China and India. According to the forecast of the US Energy Information Administration, China's energy consumption in 2035 will be nearly 70% higher than that in the United States ranked second, but the per capita energy consumption in the United States is still higher than China.

Canadian environmentalists are working on the major archstone oil pipelines.

8. The Great Arch Stone Oil Pipeline was Suffered

Canada's northwestern province of Alberta is rich in tar sands and is an important source of gasoline. As oil prices have remained high in the past 10 years, it is economically feasible to invest more human and financial resources to extract crude oil from tar sands. In the Canadian oil industry in 2011, the focus of oil shipments from the source to the international market became the focus of attention. At present, all Canadian oil pipelines leading to the United States are at a main terminal in the Cushing area of ​​Oklahoma. Many people proposed that an oil pipeline called Keystone XL be built to allow oil extracted from tar sands to pass through the Midwestern region of the United States and enter the refinery in Texas. Here, tar sand oil enters markets across the United States, or is shipped to China and other overseas markets where oil demand is high.

However, due to the large amount of carbon generated during the tar sand refining process, the construction of a large arch-cored oil pipeline was met by environmentalists in the United States and Canada. Faced with this pressure, the Obama administration postponed its decision to allow construction of pipelines to begin in 2013, and at the same time studied the feasibility of rerouting the Nebraska sand dunes, which are habitats for endangered species buried in the United States.

At present, Canada is also actively looking for alternatives to the Great Arch Stone Pipeline. Environmentalists and locals began to turn their gaze to a pipeline proposed by Canadian company Enbridge to transport Alberta's tar sands to British Columbia's port city of Kitimat and then ship it to the Asian market. But this pipe will also be the way of life of the aboriginal people.


9. To the Arctic oil

The practice of drilling oil in the Arctic Ocean has been controversial. In 2011, this practice gained momentum due to the reduction of existing oil field production, the unfavorable economic environment and the concern of global warming. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the Arctic’s available oil reserves have reached 90 billion barrels, equivalent to 13% of the world’s undiscovered reserves.

Shell obtained approval from the U.S. Department of the Interior to conduct oil drilling in the Beaufort Sea on the northern shore of Alaska. The Obama administration is facing pressure to create more jobs and reduce gasoline prices. The approval of Shell's request is naturally reasonable. Recently, the Obama administration has also proposed two drilling area leasing programs in the Beaufort Sea and the Chukchi Sea. However, the court battle to stop oil drilling in the Arctic continues. How to manage oil drilling in the remote Arctic region has also caused many people's concerns. In addition, environmentalists are also concerned about the adverse effects of oil drilling on polar bears and walrus-sensitive habitats.

At present, ExxonMobil signed an agreement to conduct oil drilling in the Russian Arctic waters. With the melting of the Arctic ice cap, oil drilling and navigation become a possibility. The Norwegian national oil company also recently announced the discovery of a huge oil field in the Barents Sea area of ​​Norway. Norway hopes to replace the old oil fields with ever-decreasing production with new oil fields. The development of this oil field is welcomed by many people.


10. There is not much time to curb global warming

In 2011, there was a brief drop in CO2 emissions, which once brought hope to people. However, it was soon discovered that this decline was mainly due to the economic downturn. The fire of hope that had just started was extinguished. Although the global economy has not yet achieved a rebound, fossil fuel emissions continue to grow. At the end of 2011, the World Meteorological Organization pointed out that the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere set a new high in the post-industrial era in 2010, and the growth rate has been continuously rising.

Activists who are concerned about climate change point out that people should look to the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide. It is understood that from 2009 to 2010, the global carbon dioxide concentration has increased by 2.3ppm, and the current concentration is 389ppm, which is 40% higher than before the industrialization driven by coal and petroleum. The increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration is mainly caused by coal.

The International Energy Agency pointed out that due to the rapid growth of fossil fuel demand, it is only about five years to control the global warming to below 2°C. The control below 2°C is the limit promised by many countries.

In many rich countries, the economic downturn has prompted the government to tighten the use of fossil fuels. Although Spain, the United Kingdom, and other countries have reduced their subsidies for renewable energy sources, global wind power and solar energy investment did not show a rapid growth trend before the financial crisis. However, in 2011, the global investment in renewable energy exceeded fossil fuels. This is the first time in history.

The Fukushima nuclear accident not only changed the energy landscape of Japan, but also had an important impact on the long-term energy plans of other countries. The picture shows the IAEA investigation team visited the Fukushima nuclear power plant in May this year.