USU researchers promote clean alternative energy
With the price of electricity rising, engineers have been looking for alternative ways to furnish Americans’ electric demands.
Some of these alternative energy sources include solar energy, ethanol, energy created by decaying garbage and wind power. With increasing concern over global warming, availability and cost of gas, and pollution, more and more people are turning to new ways to power their lives.
Two USU business professors have spent the past 11 years researching some of these “green” energy sources. Cathy Hartman and Edwin Stafford have been working with the congressionally-directed Renewable Energy for Rural Economic Development program (RERED) to find ways to develop wind projects in Utah counties.
Currently in Utah, 94 percent of energy comes from coal. Speculations have been made that our coal mines may only have 12 to 14 years left of productivity. The appeal of wind power compared to coal is huge, according to Hartman and Stafford.
Energy is generated by the wind as it moves and is lost every day it is not collected. Wind turbines are giant wind collectors. They are quieter than natural wind, they aren’t dependant on water to function (unlike coal, which needs 800 gallons of water per megawatt of electricity produced), they would bring money into communities rather than sending it elsewhere, and they could provide high-income jobs to interested land owners. Not only could the energy collected by wind turbines help provide Utah’s electricity, but it could also be sold to other states, bringing in more profits to the Beehive state, Hartman and Stafford said. In fact, Logan even uses some wind power purchased from a wind park just over the border in Wyoming, they said.
The two researchers have conducted studies on how much certain counties would benefit from the use of wind turbines. According to their research, if Tooele County started a 20-year project, it could generate 7 million dollars, which could be used to benefit local schools. Box Elder County could generate 5 million for local schools as well.
“If energy prices keep increasing, then that means less money going towards textbooks, supplies, and other things,” Stafford said. One elementary school they know of even placed a turbine on school property, providing enough energy for the school’s needs and then selling the rest for a profit.
Each turbine requires 10 – 25 acres. The ability to run a turbine would allow plant workers to make anywhere from $90,000 – 230,000 per year. It would also allow land owners, such as farmers, to have another source of income other than crops.
“The biggest challenge for advertising new technologies is educating the public,” said Stafford. “There’s a lot of myths and education that has to be done to facilitate a technology’s emergence in a market. We see wind turbines as symbols of modern clean energy.”
Despite steps in the direction of cleaner energy, Hartman said wind energy still faces challenges. Some people are worried about hurting the coal industry, ruining the landscape, noise pollution and not having energy when the wind wasn’t blowing.
All of these concerns can be laid to rest, Hartman said. Turbines are no noisier than the wind that turns them, she said. Also, wind energy is not meant to replace other forms of energy completely, but supplement them so more polluting sources can be used less.
“If you depend on one type [of energy] too much it creates problems in the future, because how dependable will that thing be?” Stafford said.
As for ruining the landscape, Stafford said people have objected to other technological advances and their visual impacts: jet trails, extension bridges, skyscrapers – it’s only a matter of time until people stop thinking about it.
The real point, she said, is to take care of the environment.
“It shouldn’t matter whether you believe in global warming,” Stafford said. “Clean energy just makes sense.”