Just a bit of context to that last post where fracking was mentioned.
One of the questions that kept coming up during the programme was why do we need to frack and use gas when we have so many opportunities to use renewables.
One reason might be this:
German Utilities Bail Out Electric Grid at Wind’s Mercy
Germany’s push toward renewable energy is causing so many drops and surges from wind and solar power that the government is paying more utilities than ever to help stabilize the country’s electricity grid.
Twenty power companies including Germany’s biggest utilities, EON SE and RWE AG, now get fees for pledging to add or cut electricity within seconds to keep the power system stable, double the number in September, according to data from the nation’s four grid operators. Utilities that sign up to the 800 million-euro ($1.1 billion) balancing market can be paid as much as 400 times wholesale electricity prices, the data show.
Renewable energy sources has apparently lowered the wholesale price of energy but there is a massive hidden cost as the government pays energy companies to back up the renewables with fossil fuel and nuclear power….as well as an increasing risk of blackouts.
Its a little hole in the ground for goodness sakes, once the drilling and fracking is over, there will be very little to see on the surface, and all of that will get hidden by tress etc, maybe after 10 years a workover rig will be brought in to refresh the well, lets get it done and stop whinging for goodness sakes.
If only that were true Leha.
The industry uses a huge quantity of water which is pumped down the well. If it isn’t piped then it has to be delivered by truck. We’re talking anything up to 17 600 000 litres for each well, and if that has to be delivered by tanker – well it’s a lot of tankers.
In areas which suffer water shortages, this is going to make it much worse.
The US fracking industry has used 97 billion gallons of water which is obviously a huge amount from the water system.
Just to get you up to speed (re the US figures you quoted):
“water consumption for all shale wells completed that year represents about 0.3 percent of total U.S. freshwater consumption.”
http://theenergycollective.com/jessejenkins/205481/friday-energy-facts-how-much-water-does-fracking-shale-gas-consume
re one state:
• In 2013, fracking in California used less water than the amount needed to keep a golf course green for a year.
http://www.rgj.com/story/news/2014/06/14/fact-checker-fracking-use-lot-little-water/10532315/
BTW are you unaware of the amount of water that is used for any power source eg:
“A typical coal plant with a once-through cooling system withdraws between 70 and 180 billion gallons of water per year ”
Please understand we try to keep this an ‘hysteria free zone.’
However water pumped underground and left there is lost to the ecosystem. Water from a power station or a golf course remains in circulation.
Indeed Arthur, I left that part out for obvious reasons 🙂
But the point does put the fears of water usage into context.
most of the water used in fracking comes back to the surface and has to be purified for re-use
Hope you are still following this thread Colonel
Can you point me at some research outlining how that occurs and how the recycled water is handled.
This is one (of many) holes in my knowledge.
Thank you
I think the use of water you refer to is actually drilling fluid, which is water based, once the well has been cased in steel and sealed in several layers by cement, the actual fracking itself may use acid to get the well flowing, once that is done any gas/water mixture that flows to the wellhead under pressure will be put through a separator.
early in the morning, excuse the diction! 😀
What seems to be a little known fact (and the BBC could put that right in an instant, with a bit of research) is that fracking has been going on in the UK since the 1980s. I know because my husband was in the industry at that time, and took part in fracking in Newbury in Berkshire. It causes no water contamination and no earthquakes, but that’s not the message that the BBC wants to put across. It just makes the protesters, and the BBC, look even more stupid than they already are.
I believe it has been going on in the UK since the 1960s.
So far no one has woken up with a slightly irritating cough or bruised a shinbone, making it amongst the safest of industries man has created.
In its saner moments, even the Beeb admits that fracking is not new..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-23756320
This mentions fracking (in vertical wells) in the 50’s, when nitroglycerine was used instead of water pressure!
three million fracking operations have been carried out in the oil industry in the US so far – the EPA hasn’t found a single instance of genuine aquifer contamination. Even though the maker of “Gasland” has been forced into admitting that bits of it were, to be polite, “misleading” people still take it as gospel
Also, I wonder how many people who object to its use for gas recovery would support its use for geothermal energy, which is reliant on it to create a pathway between two boreholes
I’ll support any energy generation technique that helps end our dependence on Middle East oil.
The main reason that we need fracking is that we need….HEAT.
Electricity will drive our computers, lights, electric ovens and some of our industry. But as the engineer on the phone-in said (and as the Green luddites and the BBC ignore), 80% of our homes are heated by natural gas, which is also used in much of our industry.
Three times, in a ‘Your Call’ phone-in last year, an engineer from the Royal Society made this point to Gameshow Campbell…three times Campbell ignored this ‘inconvenient truth’.