Renewable Energy: Harnessing the Power of Mother Nature

I have been listening to debates on our energy issues for more than 40 years, practically since birth! yet I am baffled by our lack of progress to embrace the simplest solution, the virtually inexhaustible Solar Energy. The technology and energy resources we need to build a sustainable, solar economy already exist! We can cure our addiction to unsustainable fossil fuels and stabilize the climate while improving our standard of living. It is time to become Sol worshippers and start harnessing Solar Energy!

solar living products

It was estimated by the Energy Information Administration in 2005, 86% of primary energy production in the world came from burning fossil fuels, with the remaining non-fossil sources being hydroelectric 6.3%, nuclear 6.0%, and other (geothermal, solar, wind, wood and waste) 0.9%!

Fossil fuels are non-renewable resources that take millions of years to form, and reserves are being depleted much faster than new ones are being formed. The production and use of fossil fuels raise environmental concerns. And concern about fossil fuel supplies is one of main causes of regional and global conflicts- WAR!!!

The potential of solar energy out shines all other options and burns clean! Let's look at the energy resources we presently depend on and compare them to Solar Energy:

Coal-fired power plants produce more than half the electricity used in the United States. Burning coal releases carbon dioxide which contributes to global warming. It also releases heavy metals, such as mercury and sulfur. Toxins that were locked in the Earth's crust over billions of years are suddenly spewed into the atmosphere polluting our air, water and soil. The exhaust from burning coal contains more pollutants and global warming emissions per unit of energy produced than any other fossil fuel. And the methods used to mine coal are destructive!

Coal is enormously inefficient! It took billions of years of solar energy to form the coal we have presently. Although coal is the most abundant fossil fuel, the total amount of energy produced by burning all the coal on the planet would only be equivalent to the solar energy that strikes the Earth every 6 days!

Natural gas supplies more than half the fuel used to heat buildings and about 15% of the electricity in the United States. Natural-gas-fired power plants only emit about half the pollutants produced by coal plants, as long as the fuel is extracted close to where it is burned. However, U.S. natural gas extraction can no longer keep up with demand, so expensive and hazardous methods to liquefy and ship foreign natural gas are being devised. In the future, natural gas for the United States would have to be imported from countries such as Russia, Kazakhstan, Qatar and Iran, which together have 60% of the world's reserves. When all the externalities, such as the cost and pollution caused by liquefying and transporting this fuel, are included, liquefied natural gas (LNG) is much more expensive than coal, and almost as dirty.

Natural gas is the second most abundant fossil fuel but its total potential energy is equivalent to only about 1 1/2 days of sunshine striking the Earth.

Nuclear power plants fueled by radioactive isotopes of uranium produce 20 percent of the electricity used in the United States. When radioactive materials were sequestered and dispersed deep under the Earth's surface, they presented very little threat to life. But we've made those materials far more dangerous by mining and concentrating them, and the byproducts left over after a nuclear reaction are even more dangerous than the original isotopes. Nuclear power plants create hundreds of thousands of tons of radioactive waste that will continue to be a threat to life for longer than humans will walk the Earth.

Even if the problem of radioactive waste could be solved, the recoverable world reserve of fissionable uranium is equivalent to less than 1 1/2 days of the energy striking the Earth from the nuclear reaction of the sun.

Now consider that the entire recoverable world oil reserve is equivalent to the Solar Energy that strikes the Earth in ONE day!

Before we explore the solar-electric future, let's consider biofuels as another possible alternative. Waste oil and biomass may make good transition fuels but unless human population growth slows, we will need all existing agricultural land to grow food. There are already many examples of food crop land that is being used to create ethanol. As a direct result, the cost of tortillas has more than quadrupled in Mexico due to the rising demand for corn to make ethanol. If we allow demand for biofuels to increase, the impact will be most severe on the world's poorest populations.

Also, reportedly it requires 1,000 gallons of water and more than a gallon equivalent of fossil fuel to produce 1 gallon of corn ethanol. Biofuels just aren't very efficient! When you do the math, the overall efficiency of biomass used as transportation fuel, from sun to wheel, is about 0.01 percent to 0.05 percent. In contrast, the overall efficiency of using solar panels to charge electric vehicles from sun to wheel is ~5-20%. This means that solar-charged electric vehicles are from ~100 to 2,000 times more efficient than vehicles burning ethanol or biodiesel. Which solution makes the best sense?

We're already generating solar electricity and electricity through wind energy, which most experts consider an indirect form of solar energy because it's driven by temperature differences.

A Solar-Electric Economy is well within our reach!

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Gridwise Alliance, a consortium of companies like GE and Constellation Energy Group are working in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy to address these energy problems.

Smart grid technology allows 'smart' electric meters to communicate with utility providers and track power consumption by the hour. This enables customers to adjust usage to take advantage of off-peak rates, instead of high-peak rates.

Utilities can use smart grid technology to increase electric capacity, during busy periods %u2026 all without having to buy energy at peak prices on the open market or build additional power plants.

Washington is pushing smart grid technology to help prevent brownouts and blackouts, caused by overburdened grid systems. This technology will also reduce total energy consumption, curbing carbon emissions and halt global warming. Smart grid technology is emission-free and touted for its cost efficiency. It's 40% cheaper than building new generators or transmission lines.

Global wind-power capacity grew a record 30% in 2006, according to a Danish research firm, BTM Consult. They project that investment will reach $186 billion in this booming sector, over the next 5 years.

And Merrill Lynch predicts that wind power will grow 15-fold over the next 20 years.

The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) says that only 1% of electricity in the U.S. is currently supplied by wind, yet it has the potential to provide as much as 20% of the nation's electric power.

A Carbon Footprint is a measure of the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of greenhouse gases produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide.

A Carbon Footprint is made up of the sum of two parts, the direct / primary footprint and the indirect / secondary footprint.

1. The primary footprint is a measure of our direct emissions of CO2 from the burning of fossil fuels including domestic energy consumption and transportation (e.g. car and plane).

2. The secondary footprint is a measure of the indirect CO2 emissions from the whole lifecycle of products we use - those associated with their manufacture and eventual breakdown.

Tips to Reduce Your Primary Footprint
1. Holidays
Don't go by air

2. Electricity
Sign up to renewable energy

3. Gas
Try using solar water heating - this can reduce your gas bill by up to 70% over a year.

4. Travelling around
Use public transport as much as possible. Find out about your local bus services and then use it.

5. Car Share
Sign up to a car share scheme to reduce your travel footprint.

Tips to Reduce Your Secondary Footprint
When you buy goods - consider where they have been made and the materials and processes used to make them. Items that have high emissions in the manufacture or delivery should be avoided when ever possible. Things such as:-

1. Bottled water
Tap water is safe to drink in most European and North American countries, yet people still insist on buying bottled water. If the bottle is labelled as being from volcanic springs - you can bet that it has probably been imported from some distance. Imagine the carbon footprint of the flight / shipping of the water! And that's before adding in the emissions due to making the bottle and / or recycling it.

2. Food and drink from far distances
When you go to the supermarket, look at the label to identify which country the food is from. There is no need to buy New Zealand apples in the UK in the autumn - but people do!

Think twice about buying a bottle of wine from the other side of the world - you may be able to find much more local wine, which will have travelled far fewer miles.

Better still try growing your own fruit and vegetables in your own garden. Planting an apple tree will not only provide you with lots of fruit, with zero carbon footprint, but the tree itself with breathe in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere - making these fruit effectively carbon negative!

3. Meat eating
Reduce your consumption of meat, especially red meat.

4. Clothes from far off lands
Check the clothes labels before you buy. If they come from more than 1000 miles away, keep looking!

5. High packaged items
Avoid goods and services that have unnecessary packaging! Need we say more?

ScienceDaily (Apr. 22, 2008) - It is easy to overlook that most of the energy we consume daily, such as electricity or natural gas, is produced with the help of a dwindling resource - fresh water. Virginia Tech professor Tamim Younos and undergraduate student Rachelle Hill are researching the water-efficiency of some of the most common energy sources and power generating methods.

One 60-watt incandescent bulb may use up to 6,000 gallons of water a year. (Credit: Virginia Tech Photo)

Water Needed to Produce Energy

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