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
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
Labels: Cheap, ubiquitous electrical power.
posted by Bob at 12:05 AM
1 Comments:
Dad,
Also note nuclear energy should be strongly considered; France has used nuclear very effectively and it now provides a substantial portion of the overall electrical usage. It seems, however, with each potential solution, there are always powerful interest groups which stand in the way. With nuclear it's the environmentalists (ironically). With wind it's the bird lovers (I've read a few articles saying how 10s of thousands of birds die from flying into wind turbines). Of all the solutions on the table, Congress last year chose the corn-ethanol solution, which drove up corn prices in an already bad year for food.
If the Democrats win a super-majority in Congress this November, and if Obama wins, then it will be very interesting to see what actions are taken: will the Democrats be just as beholden to the campain-contributors as the Republicans were, or can they come up with some great solutions to our extensive problems.
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