LarsÂŽ publications
Disclaimer and Summary
Why do I care?
Lars' relevant publications

Here are my most recent publications/videos/presentations that you may find helpful

Selected Videos/Presentations

  • 35min Podcast – bei “Die Message” mit Ulrich Voss und Oliver Howard ĂŒber “die Energiewende”
  • 1h Video – Webinar at International Association for Energy Economics, IAEE, introducing our book “Unpopular Truth
”, Apr 2023
  • 50min Video – Interview by www.veriten.com – “Energiewende”, Mar 2023, online Spotify, Apple & Google Podcast
  • 12min Video – How human “disruptions” impact GDP, Feb 2023, YouTube
  • 45min Video – How to make Future Energy Affordable, Reliable, and Sustainable, ICSF Clintel Ireland, Jun 2022, YouTube
  • 20min Video – SAGE Talks by MIRAE Assets, Jakarta – Schernikau On the Future of Energy, May 2022. YouTube
  • 15min Video – Explaining why coal appears ‘better for the climate’ than LNG, Feb 2022. YouTube
  • 40min Video – The Future of Energy and Coal, Keynote at World Coaltrans Conference, also presented to Polish and Botswana Ministries/government institutions, Oct 2020. YouTube
  • 20min Video – Climate Change, Coal, and Covid-19, Asia Solid Fuel, Feb 2020. YouTube

 

Selected Books, Scientific Papers authored or co-authored by Lars

  • Schernikau, Lars and William Smith, Book “The Unpopular Truth
 about Electricity and the Future of Energy”, 2023, Amazon
  • Schernikau, Lars, William Smith, and Rosemary Falcon. “Full Cost of Electricity ‘FCOE’ and Energy Returns ‘eROI’, Journal of Management and Sustainability; Vol. 12, No. 1; 2022, May 2022. https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=4000800 
  • Schernikau, Lars, and William Smith. “Climate Impacts of Fossil Fuels (comparing coal and gas).” SAIMM, Journal of the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, vol. 122, no. 3, pp. 133-146, 122, no. 3 (March 2022). 10.2139/ssrn.3968359
    • 15min YouTube summary of this paper: YouTube 
  • Schernikau, Lars, and William Smith. “How Many Km2 of Solar Panels in Spain and How Much Battery Backup Would It Take to Power Germany.” SSRN Electronic Journal, April 2021. doi.org/10.2139/ 

 

Two more important books on COAL

  • Schernikau’s Coal Handbook (2023): on Amazon
  • Economics of the International Coal Trade (2017): on Amazon

 

Selected articles/press by Lars or based on Lars’ work

  • Follow me on linked-in https://www.linkedin.com/in/larsschernikau 
  • The ‘Energy Trilemma’ and the Cost of Power, short article in World Coal about LCOE, Aug 2023
  • NZZ – Neue ZĂŒricher Zeitung Magazin – Schweiz: “Der Mann, der an grĂŒne Kohle glaubt”, NZZ online, Feb 2023
  • No Matter Your View on Climate Change, Pricing CO2 Is Harmful
 Why?, WattsUpWithThat, Jan 2023
  • Book review written by Kip Hansen BOOK REVIEW: The Unpopular Truth about Electricity and the Future of Energy, Dec 2022
  • It is Time to Talk About “Capacity Factors”, WattsUpWithThat, Dec 2022
  • WorldCoal Print Magazine, Aug 2022, p49, WorldCoal
  • South African PoliticsWeb, Renewables are more costly and risky the deeper you dig, quoting Schernikau et al. 2022, Jun 2022, PoliticsWeb
  • What is the full cost?, WUWT, article by Kip Hansen about Schernikau et al. 2022, May 2022, WUWT
  • WorldCoal Online Article, Is coal ‘better for the climate’ than LNG?, Apr 2022, WorldCoal
  • Schernikau, Lars. Can Renewable Energy Sources Supply the World with a Large Share of the Energy It Requires? – Musica Project, Oct 2020, Musica
Disclaimer and Summary

I do not guarantee for the correctness of anything I write, Please check everything yourself. Kindly refrain from publicly posting my notes, writing, private videos or presentations without asking me first. If you want to use this newsletter for your own website, please contact me and I am happy to look at a version that can be published publicly online
 Thank you!

Let me use some quotes from Richard Feynman (Nobel Price Physics 1918-1988) and Yuval Noah Harari`s “21 Lessons for the 21st Century” that summarize the current problems about energy and climate.

  1. Feynman “Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.”
  2. Harari Page 266 “experts argue schools should be teaching four C`s: critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity”
 I am missing the critical thinking in today’s discussion on energy policy
  3. Harari Page 244 “
 you cannot organize masses of people effectively without relying on some mythology. If you stick to unalloyed reality, few people will follow you.”; 
  4. Harari Page 247 “If you want power, at some point you will have to spread fictions. If you want to know the truth about the world, at some point you will have to renounce power.”

 

Deutsch: Hier fĂŒr die Deutschen eine 15min Zusammenfassung ausgestrahlt im ARD-Extra in 2007. Die fasst die Kernpunkte sehr gut zusammen. Der link wurde 2021 upgedated, da das Originalvideo vom Netz genommen wurde. Wir hoffen, dass diese YouTube Version „re-posted“ von Toni Bartl eine Weile verfĂŒgbar bleiben wird.

Why do I care?

You may rightly ask, why do I write this, why do I spend so much time on the subjects of energy economics and climate, and why do I care? Very simple. I care about the environment and our children, I believe humans do hurt the environment in too many ways. I believe our environment is changing and I know it is getting warmer (about 1,2 degree since industrial revolution during the past about 150 years. 

  • Yes, we humans do contribute to global warming,
  • Yes, CO2 increase does contribute to global warming, but its impact logarithmically declines with more CO2 and overall is negligible. CO2 is one of many green-house gases next to water H2O, methane CH4, and others
  • No, the experienced warming is not primarily (though somewhat) caused by human CO2
  • Yes, the measured temperature increase is also caused by a combination of reasons which are natural or none-CO2 related (not in order of importance, inc. but not limited to energy we produce and consume ends up in heat, changes in landscapes, urban heat island effects, clouds, water vapor, natural and human methane emissions, other green-house gases, changes in position of sun, changes in sun radiation, ENSO or El Nino & La Nina, PDA or Pacific Decadal Oscillation, Plate Climatology, etc)
  • Yes, the experienced warming is generally good for life and humans. In addition, CO2 is basis for all life on earth (see Photosynthesis), more CO2 => more life.
  • Yes, everything we do, our life, and the energy we consume has an impact on our environment (including and especially so called “renewables”)
  • No, the quest to replace conventional sources of energy with wind, solar, and electric vehicles – at grid scale – is detrimental to our environment and the economies
  • Yes, long-term we may want to move away from fossil fuels to provide our global energy needs in a reliable, affordable and sustainable way, however…

 

We simply don’t yet have a viable solution to what I call the “New Energy Revolution“, which is probably less than 150 years away.  Until then we urgently need to invest in our existing energy systems (oil, coal, gas, nuclear, hydro, etc) to make them more efficient and reduce their environmental impact. Divestment leads us to energy starvation

© Energeia Publishing 2024