Alternative Energy Sources

1. Alternative Energy Sources Presented by Community Solutions Yellow Springs, Ohio www.communitysolution.org

2. Energy Plan A – Fossil Fuel Based • So called “non renewables” • Business as usual • Develop tar sands, oil shale, nuclear • Top Priority is “clean” coal • (Bury CO2 in ocean and land) • CO2 from coal – 2x natural gas • Corporate/Government View • President Bush, CEOs of Exxon, Cargill, GE, GM, BP, Ford

3. Alternative Non-Conventional Fossil Fuels • Oil Shale • Does not contain oil – basis is kerogen – add water/ heat to get oil • Waste volume greater than ore volume – must be mined like coal • Needs lots of water – found in water scare areas – Colorado Plateau • Heavy Oil • Very thick – limited uses (bunker oil) • Major source – Venezuela •  Tar Sands • Less than 1% of world oil production • Located mostly in Canada •  Sizable but not huge potential – Currently about 4% of energy 

4. Alternatives – Natural Gas • Natural gas is used primarily for space heating, electricity generation • Natural gas is the key ingredient in agricultural fertilizers • Main material for hydrogen (natural gas – 48%, oil – 30%, coal – 18%) • Not a viable replacement for oil – hard to ship – a regional fuel • U.S. only imports from Canada and Mexico via pipeline • One of the key solutions to the oil shock of the 1970s • Can be used in automobile engines • Honda selling a natural gas Civic with home gas dispenser

5. Alternatives – Natural Gas and Depletion  • May deplete faster than oil – plateau followed by a sharp decline • Natural Gas peaked in the U.S. in 1973, in Canada in 2001 • U.S. get 99% of its gas from North America • Simmons & Co International U.S. Natural Gas Production

6. Alternative – Coal • Major source electricity in the world – 40% of total • Abundant but dirty and inefficient • Less energy (1/2) per pound than oil/gas Source: World Coal Institute

7. Alternative – Coal • U.S. and worldwide coal production may peak between 2020 and 2030 Source: Energy Watch Group, “Coal: Resources and Future Production” (April, 2007)

8. Coal and Sequestration • Carbon Sequestration – A potential holocaust for all life • Remember nuclear waste ocean dumping? • Shows our desperation – and our culpability

9. MIT Report on CCS • Coal will remain the fuel of choice in America • Clean coal programs like Future Gen fall far short of what is required to ensure coal remains a primary fuel in a carbon-constrained world

10. Coal and Climate Change • Paradigm shift • We dare not burn remaining oil • Nor the coal, tar sands & shale!

11. Alternative – Nuclear • Nuclear Energy – Only “new” (1945) energy source in centuries – U235 • Relatively “safe” when operating – No new Chernobyl or 3 Mile Island • But accidents could be catastrophic • Price-Anderson Act law in 1957 passed exempting liability • Still in force – utilities won’t build new plants without it • Uranium will be available for some decades – but not forever • Fundamental issue is radioactive wastes – last for thousands of years • Lots of hype – Fusion reactors, breeder reactors • No successes after decades of efforts – $billions wasted • Number of reactors needed to carry most of load is phenomenal • One or two orders of magnitude over current installation

12. Current Reactors in the World: ~450

13. Alternatives – Dams • Limited number of sites – U.S. “maxed out” •  Major ecological effect – destruction of species • In third world they destroy many homes and natural processes •  Dams will eventually fill with silt – not “renewable” •  Forced relocation of people – heavy human toll •  Nobody in U.S. is proposing dams!

14. Energy Plan B – Non-Fossil Fuel-based • So called “renewables” • “Environmentally” oriented • Develop wind and solar • Nuclear being debated • Top priority is bio-fuels • Burning of food • Assumes new transportation options • Mass transit, fuel cells, PHEVs • Al Gore, Lester Brown, Carl Pope, Amory Lovins, James Lovelock • Many Solar and Wind companies; many NGOs

15. Renewable Share • Wind and Solar make up only 0.18% of total energy use

16. Alternatives – Wind and PVs • Wind turbines the most efficient options – and fastest growing • 2/3 of projected alternative supply is wind • Most of the rest is wood • But turbines are an old technology • Photovoltaics (PVs) • PV prices decreased 90% in 1st 12 years – flat in last 13. • PV efficiency went from 8% to 16% in first 10 years – little improvement since • Most renewables generate only electricity • Less flexible than oil or natural gas

17. The Law of Diminishing Returns • Similar for wind – Basic steel, aluminum, glass, silicon • Sam Baldwin, Chief Technology Officer, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, U.S. DOE Energy: A 21st Century Perspective, National Academy of Engineering June 2, 2005, Cleveland, Ohio

18. Understanding Net Energy • It takes energy to process fossil fuels for usage • Cheapest energy cost to process fuels is Saudi Arabia oil • Most expensive energy cost to process fuels are the non-conventional fossil fuels • Also energy costly to produce bio-diesel • Negative net energy • Vital to understand the concept of net energy • Explains poor prospect for many alternatives • Different than $$ cost

19. Biofuels – Unsustainable Burning of Food • Net Energy Loser – it takes 43% more energy to produce ethanol than it yields. (Pimentel) • Myth of oil independence • 20% of our corn in the U.S. is used for ethanol, which gives us less than 1% of total oil use. • If 100% of the corn in the U.S. was used to make ethanol, it would only account for 7% of total U.S. oil use. • Would exacerbate topsoil depletion – currently we are depleting the soil 20 times faster than it is being replaced • Already resulting in skyrocketing food prices • Cellulosic ethanol – Still technical limitations, takes about five times as much energy required to make cellulosic ethanol than the energy contained in the ethanol.

20. Energy Plans A and B – Common Points • Fuels or new sources (A or B Technology) will save us • Plan A – Clean Coal, Tar Sands • Plan B – Switch Grass, Wind and Solar • Nuclear Power supported by both to some degree • Lots of overlap between two e.g. GE • Biggest Wind Turbine Company • Biggest Power Plant (coal, gas, nuclear) Company • Agreement – Nation’s # 1 goal • Increase economic growth by increased energy consumption • We don’t have to consume less energy – just different energy • Technology is the answer

21. But Can Technology “Save Us”? • This is a belief issue – it is not at all obvious • Technology = more efficient/innovative machines burning fuels • Could technology exist without fossil fuels • Will it continue when fossil fuels are gone? • There are high energy and low energy technologies • Cars, planes, power plants • Bypass surgery, most drugs, better golf clubs • We must consider an intermediate tech – low energy world • Recent energy technology breakthroughs are not impressive

22. Alternatives Summary • Bio fuels, solar, wind feasibility – all in question • Proponents have not yet made the case • Tabulating sun energy per sq foot is not enough • Tar sands, oil shale not proven after more than 40 years • Government is committing to biofuels, coal, and nuclear power • Huge problem with both is poisonous waste • Sequestration is the “sales pitch” of the coal advocates • No new fuels are likely and old fuels still dirty

23. Problem of Lag Time • “Peaking of World Oil Production–Impacts, Mitigation, Risk” • Hirsch, Bezdek, and Wendling

24. Why Not Spend More on R and D? • In a century of technologic process only one new fuel source discovered (but Uranium first discovered in 18th century) • Nuclear power took decades to develop and commercialize • 1930-2003 • After seventy years nuclear still provides only 8% of U.S. energy • All the other fuels (oil, coal, gas, biomass) were known for a long time • Biomass (mostly wood) for thousands of years • Coal for centuries! • Oil and gas since late 1800s • Early large dam was a marble structure built in 1660 in India

25. Energy Investment Are Sizable • No one likes the allocation – that’s politics • Big private investments – GE $148B(rev) & Sharp $24B(rev)

26. The Shocking Possibility • There may be no “satisfactory” alternatives • Satisfactory – Maintain current energy consumption rate • Eternal progress based on burning fossil fuels is not sustainable • We must change to a different way of living without the dreams of eternal material and mechanical progress • This may save us from ourselves • Planetary degradation based on burning fossil fuels

27. Conservation – The Only Alternative • Sustainable conservation efforts are imperative!

28. Plan C – Conserving in Community • A view of only using enough • Conserving, Sharing & Saving • vs. • Competing, Hoarding & Consuming • Means Curtailment – Cutting back • Not “token” conservation • Sharing resources now and with people in the future • Needs “Community” • Context for a new “Way of Life” • Cooperation Principle