Who needs windmills when you’ve got pumpjacks?
The tens of thousands of nodding pumpjacks scattered throughout Alberta’s oilfields could soon go green, generating electricity for the power grid while saving firms a cool thousand dollars a month in operating costs for each unit.
Edmonton-based Canada Control Works Inc. has devised a way to harvest gravity on the downstroke of the pumps, using the concept of kinetic energy found in braking systems for electric cars, where energy is fed back into the battery.
I love the smell of enviromarxist head explosions in the morning. And think of the profit potential in subsidy rich Ontario!
h/t Eric Anderson
What a great idea! There are potential sources of energy all around us, in places never considered, it just take an idea and some ingenuity.
it just take an idea and some ingenuity.
Posted by: BTJ
And an expensive extension and change in the power grid that doesn’t exist at present.
But, yes, as ideas go it’s an interesting one.
We are aware, yes, that the vast majority of those pumpjacks aren’t wired into the grid?
How much wire and poles(trees) would it take and what kind of servicing costs would be required to reconnect them to the grid when ice storms disconnect them?
Additionally, what would happen if an oil company, or companies when you’re talking about joint ventures, decide to shut in a well because of the low oil output relative to the market?
Would the electrical generating capacity have to be taken into account before the decision to shutin could be done?
Oz:
Did you read the accompanying article? It’s not that these pumps would now be net generators of electricity; they’re still net consumers. They just consume 40% less energy.
On what do you base your assertion the “vast majority” of these pumpjacks are not wired into the grid? Vast majority where? SK? AB? Just the northern part? What about TX, IL, MI, ON, where there are tens of thousands of these that are wired into the grid? Just because a few in the northern part of Canada are not, we should junk the entire idea?
How frequent are these ice storms that require wholesale replacement of wires and poles? I would assume that such a devastating ice storm wouldn’t discriminate between pumpjack wires and residential/commercial power, and yet I can’t recall hearing about these as an annual event.
Jesus H. Freakin’ Christ. What is it with a certain class of idiot here who can’t see any new idea that might save energy and do things more efficiently without raising a bunch of spurious, ill-thought out objections for no other reason, it seems, than sheer bloody-mindedness. Spare us, please.
Yes, KevinB, I read the article and, no, the vast majority of pumpjacks are not wired into the grid.
So this part “generating electricity for the power grid” isn’t likely to happen any time soon.
What do you suppose the “Who needs windmills when you’ve got pumpjacks?” part refers to, eh, telephone soliciter boy?
There may also be the potential to sell or trade some carbon credits to the gullible out there…
Not on the grid? Do they run on unicorn farts? Unless they are on a deisel generator until the power service it installed they are all on the ‘grid’.
I am sure there are some sites that are running a generator off of solution gas from the well etc. but pretty much electrical power service is the only way to go.
I hate to break it to the easterners but we do intact have electrical service in rural AB and SK.
I didn’t see any mention of how much these little add-ons cost, nor any calculation of ROI. Interesting omission.
If this is in fact a practical idea, and it certainly appears to be, the oil companies will simply adopt it on their own, no subsidy required, as it will save them money.
Pumpjacks that are off the grid generally use a large single-cylinder gas engine, running off solution gas when it is available, or propane trucked in when it is not.
Sean – I noted the same thing. Don’t worry, everything green is cheaper and more effective than the alternatives, right?
ouch…. tongue got stuck for a moment there.
“nor any calculation of ROI”
“If this is in fact a practical idea..the oil companies will simply adopt it on their own..as it will save them money”
I feel that judging decisions based solely on money is something that holds us back from making the most rational choices.
This seems especially apparent when considering energy. The EROI (energy in vs. energy out) is a better measure of the productiveness of an energy source. In this case, I would guess that the EROI would be reasonably high, considering a majority of the infrastructure (the well) is existing.
Connecting projects of this nature with the grid, and therefore decentralization, is something that should be developed anyways in my opinion. It allows for more options, it would make lots of jobs, it would allow for all sorts of energy sources to be used, it would give people the opportunity to be more energy independent, it would create prosperity.
Note I have not implied that large scale projects/sources need be eliminated, not at all.
Oz:
Yes, KevinB, I read the article and, no, the vast majority of pumpjacks are not wired into the grid.
Once again, I asked you for a FACT, not an assertion. Please cite an authority. I worked and lived in Southwest Ontario and Michigan for years, where there are thousands of these things, and every freakin’ one had a little pole next to it, with, I swear to god, a wire running to a big pole. So my direct observation says you’re full of BS. Care to give me a fact, instead of just bleating assertions like a demented sheep?
Dan Tappin: I think that was my point. My understanding, from friends who worked in the industry, is that there are some places where the pump is powered by a small fossil fuel motor, because it’s too far from an electricity source, but these are the exception and not the rule.
because it’s too far from an electricity source, but these are the exception and not the rule.
Wrong.
I do oil field accounting in Alberta, have been for 36 years.
The vast majority of pumpjacks use fuel from the well battery facility, or natural gas that comes out of the ground at each site.
The vast majority of pumpjacks are not connected to the electrical grid.
LMAO… I just drove round-trip from Estevan to Moose Mountain Provincial Park – smack dab through the middle of the Bakken play. Of the 40 odd pumpjacks that I passed one of them had a propane tank on the site – the rest of them all had one of those pesky ice storm prone poles into the lease. I can take some pictures if anyone else needs more proof to settle this flame?
I am a Professional Engineer that has been doing oil & gas consulting (actually constructing in the field rather than from behind a desk) in BC, AB, SK & MB for 13 years. Propane powered pumpjacks suffer from the same issues that you see trying to BBQ in the winter and solution gas from an oil well is not always a reliable option to run a jack 24/7.
Now that I have that off my chest… KevinB: I agree with you 100% my rant was at Oz’s post and not at yours at all.
This proposal is simply insane. Do none of you understand thermodynamics?
This electricity doesn’t come for free. It comes from additional work being done by the moving arm of the pumpjack. This is achieved only by increased consumption of diesel fuel by the pump motor.
So all that you’ve achieved is to add diesel fuel as an electricity source.
Repeat after me: there are NO perpetual motion machines.
“Do none of you understand thermodynamics?
This electricity doesn’t come for free. It comes from additional work being done by the moving arm of the pumpjack.”
I’m pretty sure you’re not understanding how a pumpjack works. No one has proposed a perpetual motion machine. The proposed mechanism removes the ‘toaster’ (the ‘braking system’ that dissipates downward force generated by GRAVITY) and instead places a mechanism to harness that energy. This also prevents some of the energy lost through vibration that serves to wear down the machine (as mentioned in the article).