Clean energy and cheap energy. They aren’t always best of friends. Whether it is the age long dispute over the validity of coal or the snobby ivory tower attitudes towards solar and wind, there is an ongoing battle between the forces of cheap and clean. Strange as they are only two letters apart.
Yet, amidst the lifelong feud with countless casualties (cold fusion anyone?) there seems to be a new golden boy arising to prominence in the energy community.
Natural gas, or methane stored deep within the earth’s crust, may be the next great solution to the world’s energy markets.
From a clean standpoint, natural gas is not the best. However, it is 25% less carbon dioxide intensive per unit than conventional oil when combusted. But it is not so much in the CO2 department where natural gas asserts its dominance; rather, it is in the purity of its combusted effluent. Compared to coal, natural gas has no Sulfur Oxides or Nitrous Oxides, both toxic and heavily regulated pollutants. When we consider that the entire Clean Air Act centers around the regulations of these items, natural gas’s cleanliness is both helpful, and legal.
The legality of natural gas’s effluent leads into the second point: it is cheap. First off, it is cheap because you do not have to pay the same whooping fees that dominate the coal industry at this time. Whether it is scrubbers for exhaust or carbon offsets, coal power plants are subject to an economic system that makes burning dirty fuel increasingly costly.
Secondly, natural gas is cheap because it is so abundant. With the development of shale fracking over the past 10 years, vast reserves such as the Marcellus, Bakken, and Barnett have all turned into profitable gas seeking ventures. Huge swaths of land that were previously thought devoid of any resources are not available for gas harvesting.
However, few people really understand where natural gas is and how it is harness… or for that matter even what natural gas is.
Most of the time, natural gas comes in the form of Methane or other light hydrocarbon chemicals. It is found deep within the earth’s crust (averaging around 2000 meters deep for shale gas) and is locked either in large beds or in the pores between rocks and subterranean caverns.
When gas is extracted, first there is a vertical drill that is sent into the ground. This drill is driven to around 2200 meters until it makes a 90 degree turn and starts drilling horizontally. This capacity for economical horizontal drilling has very much opened up the natural gas market within the last 10 years. It is one of the reasons why whole new tracks of land are becoming available.
One the drilling is complete, the fracking occurs which is when natural gas is blasted out of the rocks caverns either through burst of air, CO2, or water as well as fracking fluid which is often a gel polymer.
Fracking, as a process, has caused a great deal of controversy in recent years. In theory, it should be fairly clean with all of the liberated natural gas coming into the wellbore shaft and piped into the drilling infrastructure. However, faulty practices have caused some instances where the natural gas is liberated and therefore pollutes local aquifers. This has raised issues amongst environmental activists.
So, what is the end game with natural gas?
From an aesthetic perspective, natural gas may be one of the best energy options. It has a very small footprint as far as visuals are concerned at the ground level. This has caused many people to be warm towards the prospect of natural gas exploitation on private property.
However, from a market and energy perspective, natural gas may just be delaying the inevitable. Don’t get me wrong, it is amazing that we have found a cheaper, natural energy source than oil that not only reduces imports but also burns cleaner. But nonetheless it is still a temporary fix. Natural gas is not renewable. Although there are ways to create natural gas from landfills, the production level is far outmatched by the consumption levels. So, a renewable and sustainable source of energy is still very much needed.
Whether or not natural gas is a means to an ends or a blinder before we hit the cliff of energy withdrawal, I do not know. But it is important for the policy crafters, and energy consumers of today, to figure out.
For more on natural gas check out this week’s Economist. It featured a fascinating 15 page long expose on the natural gas industry not only in America, but worldwide.
And as always, for all of your energy thoughts and new check back to www.energygridiq.com today.
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