No ‘silver bullet’ for energy crisis
Despite technological advances in alternative and renewable energy sources, there is “no silver bullet” to solve the nation and world’s energy needs, said New York Times energy and transportation correspondent Matthew Wald, Tuesday in the TSC Ballroom.
“We are going nowhere,” Wald said. “We have made terrific technological strides but we have not used them for carbon or for oil efficiency. We are not on track, at this point, to meet any of our goals.”
Wald said there are many renewable energy sources available that could be put to good use and the only thing holding them back is the market and simple economic principles like supply and demand.
Calling the energy crisis the nation and world are facing a “steep hill,” Wald said the people have to make the decision with their dollars to make a switch to alternative energy sources.
“This is a steep hill and it’s got to be climbed by market economics,” Wald said. “The government is just not big enough or powerful enough to subsidize massive amounts of electricity.”
Cost effectiveness plays a major role in the current energy crisis, Wald said, citing the use of gasoline and other carbon-emitting fuel sources as being more affordable and consistently available than renewable energy sources.
A buzzword among politicians, industrialists and advertisers alike, renewable energy sources have an appeal for breaking the stranglehold of foreign oil dependence and for minimizing damaging effects to the environment, but these alternatives have many drawbacks, Wald said.
Economic and logistical problems in production and storage prevent many renewable energy sources from becoming prevalent in the market, he said.
At first glance, solar energy sounds like a good deal – after all, sunlight is free – but the California Energy Commission found that generating a comparable amount of electricity to what consumers are accustomed to from solar energy costs more than four times as much an hour compared to current methods, he said.
Wind, nuclear and combined natural gas energy methods are all more affordable than current energy production for an average kilowatt hour, but each has limitations, Wald said. Wind and solar energies are largely dependent on natural elements, such as time of day and season, which limits the amount of energy than can be obtained, Wald said. And, once the energy is gathered, it can be difficult to store it, he said.
Citing wind energy plants in Colorado, it was found there was an opposite correlation between high demand for energy and production availability of the wind, Wald said. This means when people need energy the most, the wind can’t supply it, he said, and must rely on other fuel sources to make up the difference.
An advocate of wind energy, Wald said it is much like a bicycle.
“Wind is becoming something like the bicycle I keep in my garage,” Wald said. “If it’s not too hot and not too cold and I have time, I ride the bicycle to the train to work in the morning instead of taking the car. Every time I ride, it saves in gasoline. It saves in wear and tear on the car. I still have to own the car, I still have to pay insurance on the car, I still have to have the garage. It’s not saving me a whole lot. Gas has got to get really expensive for me to want to use that bicycle on a regular basis.”
As a result of these difficulties, renewable energy sources make up a miniscule portion of the total 100 quadrillion Btus used in the United States each year, Wald said.
In 2006, solar energy provided slightly less than one-tenth of 1 percent of total energy and wind provided around a quarter of 1 percent. Renewable energy from “old-fashioned hydroelectric plants” provided just under 3 percent and biofuels pitched in about 1 percent, Wald said.
Not surprisingly, oil held the lion’s share with 40 percent, coal and natural gas at 22 percent and nuclear at 8 percent of the total energy production, he said.
Because of the excessive amount of energy being consumed and the frequency of radical weather events, Wald said many politicians have started paying attention to energy issues, setting goals to reduce emissions.
Wald said President Bush recently set a goal to reduce carbon by 50 percent by mid-century. Presidential hopeful John McCain wants to see a 60 percent reduction and Barack Obama upped the ante to 80 percent, Wald said.
The harsh reality?
“These sound like different numbers. They’re not, they’re all the same,” Wald said. “We’re not on path to get to any of them.”
Even other industrialized nations who signed the Kyoto Protocol, which the United States declined to sign, have failed to meet the goals they established, Wald said, creating a global problem that has no easy answers.
Until the consumers of the world create a demand for products that use renewable energies and employ existing technologies more effectively, the road to foreign oil independence and widespread use of renewable energy sources will be a steep climb, Wald said.
–seth.h@aggiemail.usu.edu