Alternative Energy: Rebirth of Our Economic Engine in the Wind
Pundits are fond of comparing Americans to Romans and forecasting our imminent fall. The plain truth is that we're living up to the reputation. But as we enter the death spiral of our civilization, history also teaches that this is what it looks like right before a renaissance. Nothing drove that home better than a recent gathering of the wind energy industry in Chicago.
Walking the floor of the exhibit hall at McCormick Place inspired a vision of a world to come -- one fueled by clean energy. Many of the companies showcasing turbines, gears and fittings used to consider Detroit automakers their bread and butter. Now they've retooled and also make products for wind energy.
As consumers of energy in the post-industrial world, we were defined more by convenience and less by commitment. We craved appliances to make life easier. Owning things -- a home with two refrigerators, mood lighting and two vehicles -- became the predominant way of creating meaning in life. Now, as our financial markets reel and our planet gasps, Americans are seeking a new vision to define happiness. In this context, the wind energy business is struggling to gain acceptance.
Clean energy is not just a simple enhancement or a pop-up solution. The costs associated with building a wind farm are considerable. It's a move that demands a commitment to the big picture. If a town or city wants clean energy, it needs to invest in the equipment and maintenance to make it so. Hence, energy is politicized commodity, in which citizens have a big stake.
Consider that wind energy requires a city to find the right land for a staging area, build consensus and pop for the capital investment in the equipment. While the savings is there, total return on the investment may take 15 years. That's why state and federal rebates or tax credits lie at the crux of the industry's future. And access to loans and capital investment needs to be unfrozen.
The hard news of our nations' larger situation is nothing to gloss over. As I toured the American Wind Energy Association's event last week, I saw companies of all sizes and stripes, boot strappers and blue chips alike. It was easy to picture jobs being created. The pulse was upbeat. It felt hopeful. What lies ahead is worth being optimistic about, especially for Chicago. Mayor Daley made commitments to green and is living up to them in one fashion or another.
The growing alternative energy economy that is booting up needs incentives to flourish. As the Obama administration conjures its green policies, American citizens need to school themselves on clean energy, including wind power. Overhauling our energy resources is not a passive act. We can't sit and wait for government to create the next economy for us. Energy is critical to how we'll thrive going forward. We need to pull together, understand the facts and co-create the world we want to live in.
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Economic Engine in the Wind = GE + Obama Profits
Burning Fossil Fuels:
1. Keeps us in the Middle East spending trillions of dollars on fifty years wars.
2. Causes health problems such as heart disease and lung disease
3. Creates spiraling health care costs rising out of sight.
4. Pollutes streams, destroys forests, destroys wildlife, removes mountains.
5. Leaves the USA dependent on the whims of foreign governments that hate us.
6. Sends money back to countries that finance international terrorism.
7. Causes huge destructive fluctuations in our economy when gas goes way up.
8. Requires dangerous mining and drilling resulting in frequent deaths.
9. Requires delivery via ships and trucks that pollute and use additional resources.
10. Subject to spills which are difficult, expensive, and often impossible to clean up.
11. Contributes to global climate change
All good points - no arguments from me. The logical, real world response:
1. BIG taxes on gasoline and other fossil fuels, to give alternative sources a price umbrella under which they can survive. Collected funds go to alternative energy infrastructure development.
2. BIG tax on car milage. Drive a fuel efficient car, pay a lower rate; drive a gas guzzler (even if you think it's safer or more comfortable), pay an astronomical rate. Collected funds go to R&D and science education.
3. BIG permanent subsidies for alternative energy, BIG tax penalties for conventional energy.
4. Be willing to pay - and to convince your family, friends and colleagues - to happily pay the higher prices that will absolutely be required to finance the transition to non-fossil fuels.
5. Have a lot of patience, because science, engineering and investment on this scale will take many years to accomplish.
Solar panels and wind generators were developed in the 1970s and are now tried and true.
In fact, the renewable energy products sold today are better and cheaper than the earlier versions sold in the 1970s.
Solar, wind, and geothermal, are all sold right off the shelf and ready to go right here right now. No research required.
We're only waiting on the cars, and that's because of expensive batteries.
Cars are not all the way there yet but some are.
The easy solution is this:
All new homes are required to come with solar panels; else no loan from any lending institution.
All older homes could have the same caveat applied to the loan contract.
no renewables, no loan. Call it a TARP requirement or a bailout requirement or better yet a new regulation requirement.
Come on Obama, pick up your gonads and throw them around.
Too many commentators on the left and the right (and right here on this article) make the alternative energy vs conventional energy an all-or-nothing argument. In the real world ...
- Fossil fuels are dirty, a national security liability, and an eventually depleting resource
- Alternative energy sources are almost always more expensive today than conventional options, and it will take huge investments in time, $$$ and effort for them to mature sufficiently to have a significant impact.
NEWSWEEK has an interesting pair of columns in the 18 May edition that highlight just this dilemma.
http://rcb
Bottom line: For much of the next couple of decaseds, we're going to need a substantial does of fossil energy to keep us going until the alternative sources grow to commercial viability.
Oil pollutes when it is drilled and pulled out of the ground.
Oil pollutes again when ships bring it over from the Middle East.
It pollutes again when it is trucked to refineries.
The refineries themselves are dirty and pollute the air.
Burning fossil fuel as gasoline also pollutes the air.
All of this pollution causes very expensive health care costs.
when we send our young men and women over to the Middle East to die on the battlefield for oil the price is not only too high it becomes intolerable.
We need to END MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL ! Appalachia is being bombed, blasted and bulldozed right into 3rd world America, we can't stand anymore of the progress and prosperity. http://www
Wind Farms need to be placed AWAY FROM residential areas, most probably at least 15 miles away maybe more.
There are drawbacks.
They do make noise and they do kill birds and bats. If they are tall enough..th
But there are electronic devices that can be installed that will use radar to see the flocks of birds and turn off the turbine and even turn off the strobe when an airplane has moved safely away.
Wind Farms SHOULD BE located in very windy areas and NOT located just where there is "any old hill"
Areas such as just offshore and in the main wind belt from Texas to Minnesota etc. Places that are flat and where the wind is strongest.
"But as we enter the death spiral of our civilization" wow, and some wind turbines are going to end this spiral?
Facts are there are plenty of wind farms, most in places where there are not many people. It's not as easy as you prescribe.
" wind energy requires a city to find the right land for a staging area", which could be hundreds and hundreds of miles away. Thus major investment in transmission lines, substations, etcc.
Nuclear energy is a much more logical choice, can be sited in any part of the country, operates 24 hrs/day irregardless of the weather conditions.
Turn Future Cars into Cash Cows They can Become Power Plants
Revolutionary self-powered engines and generators are expected to replace the need to plug-in a plug-in hybrid. A 2 kW generator is on the horizon. It will eventually demonstrate a compact, inexpensive, capability to end the need to plug-in.
It may be possible to provide 100 kW systems on a prototype basis within two years. If that occurs, since no fossil fuel or battery recharge is required, automobile manufacturers may conclude that existing engines are likely to become obsolete. Consumer purchasing patterns could begin to reflect a new reality, with the market deciding most future cars must never need fossil fuel.
When a substantial number of vehicles powered by such systems fill a parking garage, it will have become a multi-megawatt power plant.
The cost of many vehicles might be paid for by utilities, as they purchase power whenever needed.
The parked cars, trucks and buses, each become decentralized power plants - a rapid, cost-effective alternative to the many tough and costly challenges of constructing new coal burning and nuclear power generation facilities.
Auto makers will have no trouble selling fuel free cars that need no batteries or recharge, and can pay for themselves.
Imagine the potential for stimulating the world economy.
Auto makers and utilities have a unique opportunity to lead the nation and the world.
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