New Energy Initiative

It is time to move away from hydrocarbons, in so far as possible, and begin using renewable energy sources, which can be transformed into electricity or hydrogen. Frankly, electricity is the mode of choice and it is quite feasable with sufficient political will. The move will bruise a few noses of those who continue to advocate various forms of hydrocarbons but it is time to pay the price. The plan is straightfoward.

Wind turbine generated electrical power is now virtually cost effective with gas turbine generated power. Wind generating areas sufficient to supply the entire U.S. with wind-generated energy are present in a north-south corridor extending from north Texas to the Canadian border and beyond. In addition, there is enough constant wind velocity to power offshore wind turbines along the northern half of the west coast and along much of the eastern seaboard. It is possible to station these powerful, multi-megawatt turbines far enough offshore to negate complaints of noise and unsightliness. Dedicated high voltage power lines could be constructed to transport electrical power from these sites to whereever power is required in the U.S. Stationary battery storage and other forms of stationary energy storage are available to modulate the variations in generated power from this source. Both wind powered and hydro- turbines can be combined with solar power to modulate the daytime power load. Millions of plug-in battery-powered hybrid automobiles can be charged at night when power costs are low and then be plugged-in and connected to the grid during the day, offering some of their power back to the grid, at a profit, in this way modulating peak power requirements and reducing the need for new plant to supply peak power generation.

Whatever liquid fuel is required can be supplied by ethanol created from both corn (wasteful) and cellulosic (cost-effective) feedstocks. But this feedstock should be a waystation to a hydrogen-fuel economy. We need to extract power from the sun, transform it into electricity, convert that electrical power into motive power directly where possible to connect vehicles to an electric grid and into hydrogen for those vehicles that need to be more independent from electrical power and battery power.

Our high tech battery researchers must find a substance other than cobalt from which to make the battery electrodes, then use nanotechnology to enhance the configuration of battery electrodes to spread out the surface area of the electrode maximally. We are getting close and I have no doubt about its advent.

Air transportation will need fuel. It is possible to create high quality aviation fuel from coal. And it is possible to sequester the effluent from burning coal by pumping and securely storing it deep underground to create a zero-emmissions coal plant. Costly, yes, but it can be done. And should be done so that the true costs of coal, including its environmental costs, are paid for up front.

Energy Policy

Our dependence on foreign oil and gas to serve our domestic transportation and chemical industry is our single largest national security problem, greater than the threat of terrorists and military enemies who overtly challenge us, greater than the roiling unhappiness that percolates through the nations of the world who have been treated harshly by the sharp points of our active military policy and have concluded that our actions are not serving the needs and interests of their people. We fight for security, but in fact we measure out the costs for such security as costs of hydrocarbon cost and availability. We are ill-prepared to tackle an oil blockade and yet we must deal with the possibility. We have lacked the political will to form, draw up and approve firm, substantial plans to move to alternative energy sources if the oil weapon is ever used against us in an aggressive manner.

We have been told that alternative energy is simply not cost effective. Commonly, the cost of alternative energy is portrayed in orders of magantude higher than the cost of traditional fuels. But technology is changing the old equation.

Advances in wind turbine technology has brought the cost of turbine-powered electrical generation down to $.05/kWh if sufficiently robust turbines are sited in a wind rich environment and a large enough farm is constructed to reduce common costs of construction and management.

Thin film PV films can now be created by modern lithographic techniques, printing the photon-sensitive multi-layered micron-thin PV film as rapidly as modern printing technology can roll out out the photosensitive PV film. These films also bring down the cost of electrical generation to the level seen in natural-gas-powered gas turbine generators.

Finally, battery technology, the laggard of the three-legged stool of a new automotive energy system, is now ready to play using LION batteries manufactured with a lithium titanate spinel cathode, which enables 10 minute recharges and long, stable power configuration to serve both as stationary batteries in a utility grid, to help regulate power surges and gaps and to store electrical power in automobile and truck batteries to facilitate the creation of LION powered Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. This provides a means to largely escape from our oil dependence with high performance vehicles capable of performing well at all temperatures.

Bottom line: wind turbine technology is mature and simply needs to be ramped up with economic incentives created by political will. Thin PV films will be ready for a large barrier-breaking ramp up in a year or two, offering sufficient economies of scale to make them cost-effective with grid power-to-the-home and enable homeowners to sell power back to the grid. Battery technology is about a year or two away from a ramp-up, but if funds were poured into research and development the technology could be refined to accomplish that mission and we would have not one but several technologies to facilitate the electric car, including the ultracapacitor and high density, long-lasting, and cost-effective LION battery cells. It would not take much to make this technology competitive, especially if the economic incentives given now to providers of gas, oil, and coal were reduced and those preferences passed on to these new technologies that need them to break through the barriers inhibiting cost-effective productivity. Cheap, ubiquitous electrical power is a compelling solution for many of the world's problems. Cheap, ubiquitous, readily available electrical power gives power to the people, literally. Armed with such power, the world will transform itself