Energy Revolution In The United States Continues -- Tracking US LNG Exports -- October 4, 2015

Updates

June 28, 2017: Lithuania signs with Cheniere for the first time ever.

June 28, 2017: China's switch to natural gas from coal moving faster than forecast. 

April 30, 2017: update on where LNG liquefaction is headed -- RBN Energy.

February 4, 2017: WSJ story on Japan, Texas, Rick Perry; first LNG arrives in Japan that originated from lower 48, and from US shale; previously, US LNG to Japan from Alaska

January 13, 2017: add Denmark to the list. 

December 10, 2016: first US LNG headed for Japan. Japan is the world's largest consumer of LNG.  US offers much other LNG exporters cannot offer: dependability; flexibility; honesty; integrity; pricing.

November 29, 2016: US LNG exports continue to surge. 

August 3, 2016: Middle East and North Africa are becoming major markets for US LNG -- Oil & Gas Journal.

March 15, 2016: Brazil is emerging as a major market for US LNG -- RBN Energy (archived).

February 26, 2016: Russia losing dominance in European energy market.
 

Original Post

These are the facts and the tea leaves:

• global energy requirements will continue to increase
• it's likely that energy requirements will increase more quickly than expected in China and India as the middle class grows in each of those countries
• China is already transitioning to a middle class consumer economy (see Bloomberg, 2015) (Apple, Ford among the US companies to notice this quite some time ago)
• intermittent energy sources (wind, solar) will remain niche energy producers
• only three energy sources can provide the global energy required: nuclear, coal, natural gas
• except for China and India (which will use all three sources -- nuclear, coal, natural gas), the rest of the world will turn to natural gas [August 3, 2016: Mideast turning to nuclear, but new nuclear plants won't be ready until 2020's.]
• natural gas is the energy source of the future
• look at the amount of coal burned annually over the past 50 years; now imagine that the amount of coal will be cut by 50% and replaced by "something." That "something" can only be natural gas

Which leads us to this article as reported in USA Today:

Now may not be the best time to unveil plans to export liquefied natural gas from the U.S. But don't tell Charles "Buddy" Roemer.

The former governor of Louisiana will formally announce Monday one of the largest LNG-export proposals in the U.S., at a time when faltering demand for gas in Asia, as well as low prices, threaten the viability of ventures much further along the way than his.

"There may be 40 ahead of us in the world already producing, but there are 30 behind us, and something is happening," said Roemer, chairman of a Baton Rouge-based G2 LNG. "This will be a powerful industry."

The company is assembling a project worth nearly $11 billion, which would make it one of the biggest energy undertakings ever in Louisiana. Over 30 years, G2 LNG would export 672 billion cubic feet of LNG annually to China, Europe, the Caribbean and India.

Then a lot of warnings in the article about over-supply of global natural gas. But:

"Natural gas will be the product of the future," Roemer said in an interview. "It will take the place of coal. It will take the place of oil. It will be a threat to the old empire."

Moreover, according to Roemer, U.S. LNG will become increasingly appealing in comparison to gas from other, less stable regions of the world, like Russia and the Middle East.

"The thing that's attractive about America is its consistency," he said. "It's the fact that you make a deal and we honor it. It's not (Russian President Vladimir) Putin. It's not the Middle East. It's America, and I think this energy business will be important to America.

That's the reason we started this venture. I know there's competition. I like that. But the chance to deliver a promise made in America around the world is powerful to me."

A huge "thanks" to Don for the link.

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Meanwhile, How Efficient Is Solar Energy? Not Very

Or

Definition Of "Oxymoron": Efficient Solar Energy

The New York Times is reporting:

When SolarCity, the fast-growing provider of rooftop solar electricity systems, announced last year that it would begin making its own equipment, executives said they would focus on creating high-efficiency panels in an effort to reduce the cost of the electricity they sell. They announced on Friday that they had done just that, with a panel that converts more of the sun’s energy into electricity than competing products.

The company plans to start making the panel — whose output has been measured at more than 22 percent — this month at a small plant in Silicon Valley, said Peter Rive, a founder, but will eventually produce it at the enormous factory it is building in Buffalo.
The move into manufacturing, a business that has proved deadly for many other upstart American solar companies, came with the acquisition of a start-up, Silevo, and is intended to help the company compete with conventional energy sources once generous federal subsidies begin to phase out at the end of next year.

Although 22 percent may not seem like a tremendous level of efficiency, the breakthrough for SolarCity is that it can produce the panels at a lower cost than it pays to buy standard models but get more electricity out of the same square footage, Mr. Rive said. 

The more one knows about intermittent energy, the less one likes it.

Chandelier, Sia