The Alternative Energy Grid

We cannot think of an alternative energy economy without a renewable energy infrastructure consisting of solar panels, wind mills, bio-diesel, hydro, wave technology, methane, geothermal energy, hydrogen fuel cells, ethanol, and more. So, what have we achieved in this area, and where do we need to go?

Interestingly, so-called third world nations may emerge as the natural leaders in alternative energy. Because of the relative simplicity of their technology and infrastructure, they will not have to dismantle a large, outdated industrial complex. They can jump into the renewable economy virtually over night. They can switch from kerosene lamps, coal and oil to a decentralized, alternative energy economy virtually over night, and thus avoid the same environmental problems as the industrialized nations have caused.

Below are the main renewable energy sources available today:

Solar: Photovoltaic (PV) cells are the most common and well known source of alternative energy. Solar electric energy demand has grown consistently by 20-25% per annum over the past 20 years. This has been against a backdrop of rapidly declining costs and prices. This decline has been driven by a) increasing efficiency of solar cells b) manufacturing technology improvements, and c) economies of scale. Still, PV power is two to five times more expensive than electricity generated from fossil fuel. Japan is the nation with the most solar panels per capita today. Switzerland and Germany are following closely behind.

PV cells have proven to be well suited for a decentralized economy, especially in countries with abundant sun shine. Solar cells can generate at-point energy for homes, farms, and industry. Solar energy can also be produced in large scale regional plants using conventional electric grids. One such project is a $48 million solar project in the Philippines which will produce electricity for 400, 000 homes, sixty-nine irrigation systems and ninety-seven drinking eater systems. Another such mega-solar-project is planned by Enviromission in the Australian outback. This proposed solar tower will stand at a height of one kilometer and will cost one billion Australian dollars. It is thought that the structure could provide enough electricity for 200,000 homes and will save more than 700,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases.

Some optimistic solar experts believe that solar (and other renewable) energies will produce between one-third and one-half of all global energy needs by 2050. Other experts argue that such an output is simply not enough. Unless we radically change our lifestyle and economy over the next couple of decades, we will run out of fossil fuels and experience the worst energy crisis the world has ever seen.

Potential: Solar energy is “unlimited” and the perfect energy generator in a decentralized economy based on self-sufficiency. The future of solar energy is therefore undoubtedly bright.

Challenge: To produce radically more effective PV cells at lower cost, especially for the third world.

Wind: When sunshine is converted into energy through atmospheric circulation, we get strong winds that powers highly efficient wind mills. Indeed, wind is currently the most cost-effective form of renewable energy. The European Wind Association predicts that wind mills can produce 10 percent of global electricity needs by 2020. In some European countries, including Germany and Denmark, wind energy accounts for over 15 percent of generated electricity.

Jeremy Rifkin writes that “a study prepared by Germanischer Lloyd and Gerrad Hassan estimates that the wind-generating potential along the coastal regions of the Baltic and North Seas could produce enough wind to provide the electricity needs of the entire European continent.” Many developing countries have also tremendous potential to utilize wind energy. India is today the world’s fifth leading producer of wind energy. By 2030, India plan to produce an equivalent of 25 percent of current electricity needs.

Potential: Energy from wind mills have a huge global potential, especially in windy coastal areas and mountain regions.

Challenge: Wind mills can be noisy in urban areas, they kill birds, and some people find them aesthetically unattractive. As with solar energy, the main challenge for the wind energy industry is to construct more efficient wind mills.

Hydro: Hydroelectric power is a renewable source of energy which creates no pollution. Yet hydroelectric dams can be detrimental to the local fish population, such as salmon in the US Pacific Northwest. Hydroelectric dams also disturb the ecology when land is submerged. India’s widespread dam construction, for example, is controversial due to the displacement and consequent impoverishment of millions of people when replaced from their villages. Still, as in Norway, hydroelectricity can be harnessed from waterfalls and rivers without much damage to people or environment. Hydroelectric power can also be harnessed from small creeks and dams for at-point use in private homes or on farms.

Today, hydroelectric power is the largest generator of renewable electricity in the world. More than 20 countries receive over 90 percent of electric power from hydro plants. Bhutan and Paraguay are the world’s leaders with 100 percent production, and countries like Norway, Uganda and Zambia are not far behind with 99 percent of domestic electricity needs produced from hydro. Another 38 countries produce approximately 65 percent of electricity needs with hydro, and more than 40 countries produce around 35 percent.

Potential: Most of the large hydroelectric plants have already been built, so the main potential for the future will be in creating small, super-efficient generators for creeks and small dams.

Challenge: To create more efficient small generators for creeks and small dams. P. R. Sarkar has argued that it would be more effective in a decentralized economy to create small rather than large dams for local hydroelectric energy generation and irrigation.

Hydrogen: Hydrogen has been touted as the energy elixir of the future. Jeremy Rifkin’s bestselling book The Hydrogen Economy argues that “the harnessing of hydrogen and fuel cells will spawn a new economic revolution in the 21^st century.” Hydrogen has undoubtedly great potential in creating a global source of sustainable energy. However, unlike fossil fuels or the sun, hydrogen is not a direct source of energy—it must be produced either by the use of fossil fuels or by renewable energy and then stored in fuel cells. Currently, natural gas is used to produce hydrogen via a steam-reforming process and a catalytic converter that strips away the hydrogen atoms.

Enter Hubbart’s curve: we may not have enough natural gas or oil past the year 2030 to produce large quantities of hydrogen. Electrolysis, a process that uses electricity to split hydrogen and oxygen atoms is thus the more sustainable alternative, since electricity can be produced with renewable sources. The next challenge is to produce more efficient fuel cells that can store ever larger quantities of hydrogen.

Currently, some 400 billion cubic meters of hydrogen are produced globally, the equivalent of about 10 percent of global oil production in 1999 (Rifkin, 182) In 1999, Iceland unveiled an ambitious plan of becoming the first hydrogen economy in the world. Iceland is rich in geothermal energy, which will be used to create hydrogen, and the plan is to run the entire country on hydrogen by 2020.

Potential: Hydrogen fuel cells have the potential to produce enough renewable energy to serve global needs far into the future. Fuel cells are currently two and a half times more efficient than combustion engines, and the only effluents produced are electricity, heat and pure distilled water. Fuel cells are perfect mini-power plants for a decentralized economy and could potentially be installed in homes, cooperatives, schools, stores, hospitals and on farms. Hydrogen cars

Challenge: Fuel cells are currently quite expensive. Creating hydrogen via electrolysis using renewable energy is still in its infancy. So the future of a sustainable hydrogen economy depends on creating cheap hydrogen using an ever-efficient grid of renewable sources such as sun, wind, hydro, and geothermal.

Waves: Over the last few decades viable schemes for harnessing energy from waves have emerged, mostly in the UK, Norway and Sweden. Ocean waves occur due to a transfer of energy from the sun that effect the motion of wind over the sea. Wave power devices absorb this energy to generate electricity. These floating generators can be fixed to the sea bed, offshore, or constructed at the sea’s edge on a suitable shoreline. It is estimated that wave energy could potentially produce up to 15 percent of UK’s domestic electricity needs, but this technology is still in its infancy. However, some Norwegian companies are planning to construct large wave plants in the Pacific Ocean.

Other renewable sources of energy: There are few more alternative sources of renewable energy with great potential in a localized, self-sufficient economy, including, bio-diesel from plant oil, methane gas from organic waste, and ethanol from corn.

Bio-diesel has significant environmental benefits in terms of decreased global warming impacts, reduced emissions, and greater energy independence. Various studies have estimated that the use of 1 kg of bio-diesel leads to the reduction of some 3 kg of CO2. Bio-diesel is extremely low in sulphur, and has high lubricity and fast biodegradability. (European Biodiesel Board, www.ebb-edu.org) With a few inexpensive adjustments, bio-diesel can be used by all diesel cars and trucks. It is becoming increasingly popular in Europe, where Germany produced 750 million gallons of bio-diesel in 2002. However, bio-diesel can never become the fuel of choice for the future. Some statistics from the US will illustrate this: The current use of diesel in the US is 40 billion gallons annually, while maximum production of bio-diesel by US farmers could never exceed more than 3.5 million gallon annually. (David Coltrain, Kansas Cooperative Development Center, paper presented at Risk and Profit Conference 2002, Kansas, USA)

Methane gas is produced in an anaerobic environment when organic matter, such as manure breaks down. Small local methane gas production facilities are already operating on dairy farms and in some cities of Europe where buses are fueled with methane gas.

Ethanol is used as an automotive fuel by itself and can be mixed with gasoline to form what has been called "gasohol." The most common blends contain 10% ethanol and 85% ethanol mixed with gasoline. Over 1 billion gallons of ethanol are blended with gasoline every year in the United States.

Of all renewable sources of energy, hydrogen holds the most promise of delivering cheap, nearly unlimited amounts of energy, but it also remains the most challenging to produce. However, it is unlikely any single or multiple source of alternative energy can solve our upcoming predicament. We better start preparing now. We better start before the fossil fuels decrease. We better start before gas prices and the lines to the gas pump dramatically increase—before modern civilization start sliding down Hubbart’s curve.

The New Energy Economy

In designing a new energy economy, we must first look at what went wrong. A) The most common criticism against classical capitalist economics is that natural resources are looked upon as a free lunch. B) The air and much of the commons are looked upon as a place to dump or release toxic waste, also largely for free. C) The law of entropy is not properly accounted for in economics or political planning. D) Progress has been measured in an increase in material welfare and profit, while the side-effects of such “progress” are often ignored.

1. If we look at the fossil fuel economy, the oil (natural resources) has been virtually free for the taking by those who could profit from its exploitation. In some instances, such as in Venezuela, Norway and Mexico, oil production is mostly owned and operated by the government, however much of the oil production in the world is run by wealthy corporations with GNPs larger than many countries. The profit made by the sale of oil by corporations does not take into account the social and environmental costs offset by pollution. So, in the new energy economy, polluters must pay for the cost of pollution by cleaning up after themselves.
   

C) Fossil fuels are released into the air every time we drive our cars, fly an airplane or heat our houses. The social, environmental, health and economic costs of this pollution is not accounted for in economics. But, there is no free lunch; pollution costs. These costs must become part of a society’s economic accounting.

D) The law of entropy teaches us that many natural resources decrease with use over time. We must therefore create a low entropy economy, one that is based on maximum utilization and recycling of all resources in closed loop systems, and one that emphasizes an increase in non-material (low entropy) resources and activities, such as spirituality, sports, arts, literature, community and family gatherings, etc.

E) All material progress has certain side-effects. Even the production of solar energy produces toxins such as arsenic. All of these side-effects must be considered and solved through recycling or other means before releasing these new inventions into the market place. As environmentalist David Brower used to say: “All new inventions are guilty until proven innocent.” Thus all new inventions should be environmentally approved by a government body on the local, state or national level before entering the market.

One of Sarkar’s great contributions to the energy debate is his emphasis on true progress as being that which increases inner, spiritual well-being, and on a balanced use of material and non-material resources. In contrast, modern society’s concept of progress has been that which increases material well-being. However, as Sarkar notes, all material progress creates certain side-effects, or an increase in entropy. Thus one of the foundations of a new energy economy must also be a change of values, a new concept of progress. Secondly, the new energy economy must reorient itself by not just creating material welfare but by creating a balance between inner welfare and material welfare.