News about Solar, Wind and alternative green power technologies

Recently (15th of June) related to BP oil spill, Obama did not address the issue of American’s addition to fossil fuels he rather emphasised on political damage control. We can say that Obama’s mythology or rather misinformation about America becoming a clean energy nation via solar, biomass and wind energy might take more than decades to realize.

The path towards a green economy is not only halted due to oil industry lobbyists but as well as due to lack of political will.

For those unfamiliar to renewable topics, America is still far from abandoning their addiction to fossil fuels. On a general basis, natural gas, oil and coal do provide roughly “85 percent of the Nation’s energy needs”. According to “U.S Energy Information Administration (EIA)”, the energy consumption is expected to grow at a steady average 0.5 percent per annum for the coming 25 years (up to 2035). The cumulative figure for a quarter of a century is still as high as 14 percent. This means that energy generated from fossil fuel would continue to increase in quantitative terms. It will, in other words, represent 78 percent of total energy supply by year 2035.

More energy efficient solutions are needed. This could include electric cars, efficient light bulbs and energy-saving appliances, which could halt the energy expansion. Improvements in energy efficiency might unfortunately be offset by quantity. The American population will rise from 305 to around 391 million. This would be followed by a rise from 113 to 147 million households and equally the number of vehicles would escalate from 231 to 297 millions.

The speed at which solar, wind and biomass are growing is expected to augment tremendously, but they are only expected to provide 11 percent of total energy supply in 2035. It is merely 5 percent more than in 2008.

There are several obstacles even in new energy sources. Robert Bryce’s book entitled “Power Hungry: The Myths of ‘Green’ Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future” talks about difficulties. It explains that, even if America converted its total soybean production into jet fuel it would only account for a fifth of U.S jet energy fuel requirements. In America, Jet fuel represents 8 percent of the total oil requirements.

The same limitation applies for other renewable solutions. For instance, wind energy is limited during days when there are practically no breezes.

Now back to BP oil spill – There will be two unfolding consequences one being the disaster; anxious fisherman, coated birds, fire, damaged beaches, polluted water and animal death. The other issue is energy debates.

There are promising energy aims in America, including the significant reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. This includes a decrease from 83 percent in the period 2005 to 2050. The solution is expected to be found in carbon capturing technology, in other words, low cost resolutions. Another approach is to go intensely for nuclear power. However, according to EIA’s projection, the emission of carbon emission will rise by 8.7 percent from 2008 to 2035. So the trend is definitely not that positive.

Obama did in a previous speech say that “If China can do it, so can we!” However, China’s expansions of solar and wind energy are only a piece of the story. According to the International Energy Agency, in 2008, fossil fuel represented 87 percent of China’s energy supply where coal stands for 66 percent. In 2008, China accounted for half of the world’s coal energy consumption. The usage of fossil fuels has since 2000 to 2008 grown at a steady rate of above 10 percent per annum. The recent progress in china is impressive, but they still have to reduce their coal consumption to become a global benchmark.

A straight forward energy policy would be to introduce more taxes on oil and carbon emission. This would stir support for energy-efficiency products. It would also be much better than the cap-and trade suggestions actually being proposed by the administration.

It would also be important to invest in Research and development to assure that cleaner energy sources emerge into use.

The BP spill seems to be related mainly to human errors. It is thus still necessary to support drilling and tapping into local oil and natural gas. This will definitely assure more employment and will reduce imports.

sources: Washington Post