RESUMEN

Given the dire consequences of climate change and the war in Ukraine, decarbonization of electrical power systems around the world must be accomplished, while avoiding recurring blackouts. A good understanding of performance and reliability of different power sources underpins this endeavor. As an energy transition involves different societal sectors, we must adopt a simple and efficient way of communicating the transition's key indicators. Capacity factor (CF) is a direct measure of the efficacy of a power generation system and of the costs of power produced. Since the year 2000, the explosive expansion of solar PV and wind power made their CFs more reliable. Knowing the long-time average CFs of different electricity sources allows one to calculate directly the nominal capacity required to replace the current fossil fuel mix for electricity generation or expansion to meet future demand. CFs are straightforwardly calculated, but they are rooted in real performance, not in modeling or wishful thinking. Based on the current average CFs, replacing 1 W of fossil electricity generation capacity requires installation of 4 W solar PV or 2 W of wind power. An expansion of the current energy mix requires installing 8.8 W of solar PV or 4.3 W of wind power.

Asunto(s)

Humanos , Reproducibilidad de los Resultados , Viento , Combustibles Fósiles , Electricidad , Energía Renovable

RESUMEN

We investigate the formation and properties of crude oil/water interfacial films. The time evolution of interfacial tension suggests the presence of short and long timescale processes reflecting the competition between different populations of surface-active molecules. We measure both the time-dependent shear and extensional interfacial rheology moduli. Late-time interface rheology is dominated by elasticity, which results in visible wrinkles on the crude oil drop surface upon interface disturbance. We also find that the chemical composition of the interfacial films is affected by the composition of the aqueous phase that it has contacted. For example, sulfate ions promote films enriched with carboxylic groups and condensed aromatics. Finally, we perform solution exchange experiments and monitor the late-time film composition upon the exchange. We detect the film composition change upon replacing chloride solutions with sulfate-enriched ones. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to report the composition alteration of aged crude oil films. This finding might foreshadow an essential crude oil recovery mechanism.

RESUMEN

We address questions that arose from studying gas and oil production from hydrofractured wells. Does past production predict the future? This depends on deducing from production as much as possible about the plausible geometries of the fracture network. We address the problem through a solvable model and use kinetic Monte Carlo and Green's function techniques to solve it. We have three main findings. First, at sufficiently long times, the production from all compact fracture networks is described by a universal function with two scaling parameters, one of which is the diffusivity of unbroken rock α and the second of which is a parameter V_{ext} with units of volume. Second, for fracture networks where the power-law distribution of fracture spacings falls below a critical value (and this appears to be the case in practice), early-time production always scales as one over the square root of time. Third, the diffusivity α that sets the scale for late-time production is inherently difficult to estimate from production data, but the methods here provide the best hope of obtaining it and thus can determine the physics that will govern the decline of unconventional gas and oil wells.

RESUMEN

We present an analytically solvable model for transport in geophysical materials on large length and time scales. It describes the flow of gas to a complicated absorbing boundary over long periods of time. We find a solution to this model using Green's function techniques, and apply the solution to three absorbing networks of increasing complexity.