Why the need for Alternative Energies? Based on known oil reserves and the worldwide consumption rate, best estimates suggest this reserve has only 50 more years of production left in it. It is important that this is believed!

• In the US, 89% of our total Energy Budget is Fossil Fuel Based
• Fossil Fuel combustion represents a global environmental problem
• Most alternative energy sources have little polluting side effects

Clearly, environmental pollution is unavoidable so informed decisions must be made.

Forms of Pollution:

• Atmosphere - Global: Greenhouse gases
• Atmosphere - Global: Acid Rain
• Atmosphere - Local: Smog
• Groundwater - Local: Nuclear Waste
• Surface Water - Local: Oil spills
• Thermal Pollution - Local and Global: Waste Heat
• Local Land Use: NIMFBY mail Not in My Back Yard: build it elsewhere!

Global Impact of Sources of Energy Generation:

• Fossil Fuels: totally disrupts the Carbon Cycle and is non-equilibrium. Eventually, enough Carbon Dioxide will be in the atmosphere to effect things seriously. We may, in fact be there already.
• Solar Energy: Intensive use of Land Area due to low efficiency. Significant thermal pollution. For instance, a 1000 MW solar facility would dump 10,000 Megawatts of heat into the local atmosphere. Its unclear what the effects of this would be but this is like an Urban Heat Island \
• Hydro The world or the US's potential has not been fully tapped. No pollution for this but serious alteration of free flowing waterways.
• Windpower structural/visual pollution but not much else

Air Pollution:

Normally the carbon content of fuels (which is high) oxidizes during the combustion process to form CO2 (carbon dioxide)

Incomplete combustion leads to the formation of CO:

2C + O2 --> 2CO

Sources of CO pollution: (million tons per year)

Motor Vehicles ------------->  54
Aircraft ------------------->   2
Coal -----------------------> 0.7
Fuel Oil -------------------> 0.1
Industrial Wood Processing--> 8.8
Forest Fires ---------------> 6.5

Automobiles dominate because the combustion of gasoline under conditions of high pressure is quite incomplete

Some Internet Resources on Pollution:

Pollution Prevention Home Page

For the future our choices are:

• Invest in discovery of new oil reserves (e.g. Off-shore, shale oil, Artic Wildlife Refuge, your backyard)
• Natural Gas is now replacing coal Here is some info about the Natural Gas
• Invest in Clean Coal Technology as 20% of the worlds supply of Coal is in the US

  Remember, even in the year 2000, Coal burning dominates the way the US generates electricity and production is increasing!

• Invest in Renewable Energies
• Rigorously practice energy conservation and improved driving habits. The 10% rule: If every American used 10% less energy per year, this would be equivalent to the entire amount of energy that China uses in that year.

Every form of energy generation has environmental fall-out.

However, this basic fact continues to elude people who somehow thing some forms of energy generation are benign (only nuclear fusion is benign).

What about Energy Storage?

Options:

Battery Farms:

• Acres of batteries; charged by transmission lines during periods of low demand
• Returned to transmission lines during periods of high demand
• Designed for load levelling
• One Acre could store about 400 MW-hours of energy and deliver 40MW of power (for 10 hours)

We need better batteries, (also for electric vehicles): US is investing in this

Pumped Hydro:

• Not many locations lend themselves to this
• Process is 64% efficient which is pretty good

Flywheels:

• Need to optimize energy-to-mass ratio which is material dependent
• Fused Silica has 25 times the energy storage per kg than lead-acid batteries
• Flywheels look promising

Hydrogen

• Very high energy density storage per kg
• No naturally occuring sources
• Separate H from H₂0 is energy intensive
• Not economically viable unless shipped large distances from point of production
• Fuel Cells replacing batteries.

Compressed Air

• Thermodyanimcs tells you that when you compress air the temperature goes up, melts the pressure containment vessel
• Have to cool the air as its compressed energy intensive
• Not very practical

Bottom line(s):

Wind energy coupled with advanced battery design has real promise and that promise is now being turned into real implementation. Wind power does exist.

With the development of the Advanced Gas Turbine energy co-generation at biowaste facilities becomes possible. Moreover, the AGT provides a viable alternative to coal fire steam plants, using natural gas imported via pipeline from Canada. A local example in Eastern Oregon, and Umatilla and one more is being considered in Coburg (Coburg concerns, Coburg Proposal)

OTEC (Ocean Thermal) provides a truly large scale solution but may be too expensive to ever implement what does this tell us about our priorities?

Solar PV does not look economically viable on the large scale. On the small scale, improvement in solar shingle technology, remote area applications, 3rd World development are areas for applications.

In 2004 there is now a big incentive to not look for new oil reserves. Just look at the price of gas at the pump, $2.50 a gallon oil companies want to make more money! Perhaps price can make conservation again be fashionable.

Development and incentives to use renewable Resources must be led by the community. Government tax breaks, research support, would help the process of the change that is inevitable for our future.