Pickens Calls Off Massive Wind Farm in Texas

This doesn't really come as a surprise to me. I guess Mr. Pickens couldn't make enough money on this bold venture. Or he really doesn't care about getting the U.S. off of Middle Wast oil. Or perhaps it was the fact that natural gas prices went into the toilet with economy. It's so sad. Remember all the ads during the presidential campaign touting the "Pickens Plan"? It was all swagger and no substance. My bet is that he couldn't get the government to pay for his transmission lines or for the conversion kit for your car to burn natural gas instead of gasoline. Nevermind the fact that natural gas is a fossil fuel (albeit burns a little cleaner than gasoline) and that the process of extracting it out of the ground is horrid (see hydraulic fracturing), not to mention what it could do to the water supply. Anyway, we don't need to burn any more fossil fuels than we currently do. There's plenty of money to be made in demand side management, the energy efficiency space, sustainability initiatives, and clean renewable energy generation. Let's get on it.

An Evening with Dr. Kutscher and Concentrated Solar Power

This past Thursday, Colorado Renewable Energy Society (CRES), brought in Dr. Chuck Kutscher from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to speak about climate change and the role that concentrated solar power could play in reducing global warming. He spoke for about an hour and below are some of the highlights.

He opened his presentation with a discussion on climate change and showed the audience a video from the 1950s (I think it was from Bell Labs) that spoke about the phrase "climate change." Then he showed a cartoon from 1983 by Mike Keefe of the Denver Post that spoke to "global warming." No matter how much the oil and gas industry would like to make you think otherwise, this problem of global warming (resulting in climate change) has been with us for over 50 years. The point Dr. Kutscher was trying to make is that scientists have been researching all types of climate data for quite awhile now and have been noticing irrefutable patterns. These patterns are that ever-increasing CO2 emissions have been contributing to increasing temperatures (see the James Balog's documentation of the rapid depletion of the world's glaciers here) which is leading to climate change (droughts, violent weather, rising sea water on the coasts, etc.).

After seeing Dr. Kutscher's presentation on the effects of CO2 emissions on the planet, I am no longer willing to give the dissenters the benefit of the doubt. No longer will I tolerate the "global warming denier" viewpoint or the "global cooling" viewpoint. We are at a critical point in human history, and if we don't start reducing or CO2 emissions NOW, we will go through an unbelievable amount of suffering and chaos. Do you want to suffer?

The presentation then moved into the solutions for reducing global warming. Dr. Kutscher didn't denounce "clean-coal" or nuclear. In fact he said, "We shouldn't take any option off the table." This is a smart philosophy espoused by the good doctor. As you may know, I blogged about the Energy Secretary, Dr. Chu, talking about investing in clean coal. I actually railed against him and any "clean coal" advocates because the technology is unproven. Also, can you really imagine a gas such as CO2 staying put in a rock fissure 100 miles below the ground? What happens when an earthquake trembles the rock and the soil around that CO2? Well, I may have been a bit hasty in my criticisms of Dr. Chu and clean coal / carbon sequestration advocates, because the intelligent way is to keep an open mind and never to be so intolerant as to take any technology off the table until it is thoroughly disproved by peer review. However, when Dr. Kutscher said, "don't take it off the table," he followed that up right away with the fact that clean coal technology won't be ready for at least another 10 years. If we started the process for a nuclear power plant, it would be up and running for another 10-15 years. Essentially, the current solution to our problems with burgeoning CO2 emissions are to use viable renewable energy solutions.

One of the renewable energy solutions that the doctor said is ready to deploy today, would be concentrated solar power (CSP). Simple put CSP is the act of concentrating the sun's rays onto a tube of liquid, which turns into steam and spins a turbine to create electricity. Replace the "sun's rays" with coal and you would understand how a coal-burning electricity plant works. Solar is clean, coal is not. Now it should be noted that we should couple any renewable energy production plants with aggressive energy efficiency and weatherization initiatives (like insulation, reducing demand-side electricity consumption, etc.). Various sources (can't find them now) have said that we could reduce our energy consumption by 40% if we made our homes and buildings more efficient. Wouldn't everybody like to save a buck and reduce consumption by sticking some more insulation in your home or building aerodynamic cars?

Anyway, the presentation went onto the benefits of using CSP now. It's a technology that has been studied for decades (a couple of CSP plants have been around for 20 years), it doesn't use much water for cooling, and it is easier, cheaper, and better for the planet to store heat (in thermal energy storage units) than it is to store raw electricity in lead-acid batteries (or at least until fuel cell adoption becomes cheaper and widespread). Another benefit of concentrating the sun's rays over burning coal is that the whole world uses 13 trillion watts and there is about 600 trillion watts of available solar power. 600 trillion watts of clean power.

Another interesting benefit the doctor brought up with respect to CSP is that if you build a gas or coal plant today you do not know what the price of gas or coal is going to be in 10 years. If you build a CSP plant today you will know exactly what the price of solar is in 10 years, free. All the cost of building a CSP plant is up front. Another interesting statistics was that if we put CSP plants on just 2% of the San Luis Valley (where most of the solid sun is in CO) land, we could power all of Colorado. Two percent. I wonder how much land Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and California would need? One last statistic the doctor provided was the cost of inaction versus action in terms of gross domestic product (GDP). The cost of acting today in the form of using renewable energy methods to reduce CO2 emissions is 1% of the world's GDP. The cost of inaction (insurance premiums due to natural disasters, crop loss due to drought, displaced people, etc.) is 5% of the world's GDP. I think it's time to act. It'll be cheaper, right?

Dr. Kutscher's presentation at CRES was well done, and provided factual evidence that demonstrated how urgent we must be in reducing our carbon emissions. I know the issues are complex, and going with clean energy production will cost a TON of money, but let's put it this way- if we can afford a trillion for a war in Iraq to protect the oil supply out of the Middle East, we can afford a trillion dollars to convert our energy supply to renewable sources. Right?

Salazar Rejects Bush Drilling Plan

"Rejects Bush" has a nice ring to it, no? It seems as though Salazar is starting to hit his stride as Secretary of the Interior. Good for him and good for us as a country. He was instrumental in trying to make Colorado a renewable energy hub of the world while he was our Senator, so I anticipate that he will be more RE friendly, in addition to understanding that we still have to use coal, oil, and gas for the foreseeable future. But a pragmatic and balanced approach is refreshing after the last eight years of blind fealty to the oil and gas industry.

Toyota Unveiling Electric Concept Car in Detroit

Looks like Toyota isn't resting on their laurels. They plan on introducing an all electric car with a 50 mile range in 2012. The article doesn't say but I'll have to assume that it is a plug-in. This Toyota also will be using lithium-ion batteries as opposed to the inferior nickel-metal hydride batteries. The 2010 decade is going to be an exciting one for electric automobiles.

New Honda Hybrid Contender Challenges Champ Prius

I'm glad Honda brought back the Insight. We need a little competition to bring down the prices on these hybrid electric/gasoline cars so that the adoption rate is greater. Hopefully the waiting list won't be too long.

Obama Team, Exxon Mobil Chief Trade Jabs on Energy

Pardon me for rolling my eyes, but I guess I'm a little underwhelmed by responses like the one that the CEO of Exxon-Mobil gave to reporters today. This was in response to President-elect Barack Obama's economic speech today. I'm not sure what the CEO's angle is, but he is using tired arguments in a time when we need fresh ideas and unique solutions. Or perhaps his "angle" is to try and impede his increasing irrelevancy. Whatever.

Op-Ed: The Climate for Change

Al Gore writes an op-ed in the New York Times letting us know that our economic crisis and the climate change crisis can both be alleviated using the same methods. Whatever your understanding of global warming, I think that we can all agree on some of the basic things that need to happen in order for the U.S. to remain competitive in the world. Read his op-ed and let me know what you think.

The Big Difference in Obama's and McCain's Plans for Our Energy Future

Great article on the difference between Obama's and McCain's energy plans. Both plans do not go far enough in my opinion, but there is one plan that is heads and shoulders above the other. Read the article and find out who you should vote for.

McConnell Says Gulf States 'think oil rigs are pretty'

Here's another out of touch U.S. Senator saying that folks in the Gulf states "think oil rigs are pretty." Note to anybody that is listening: any politico who promotes offshore drilling or drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge to reduce the price of gas at the pump is blowing smoke up your tail pipe and pandering to your fears. The only way to reduce gas prices in the near future is to supplement fossil fuels with other energy sources. We cannot drill our way out of this problem.

Oil Shale May Figure into GOP's Energy Plan

How long until Senator Wayne Allard's term is over? I have to say that Republicans just want to drill more holes in the land and squeeze more oil out of shale in a feeble attempt to extricate ourselves from the onslaught of high oil prices. Read this article and it will give you an idea of how out of touch the GOP is with regards to generating sound energy policy and instead want to keep providing benefits to big oil companies. Plus Senator Ken Salazar gives Allard a little smack down.

Mercedes to Cut Petroleum Out of Lineup by 2015

Via Eco Geek we have an article that Mercedes-Benz is going to phase out petroleum based cars by 2015 and instead focus on electric plug-in, fuel cell, and biofuel run cars. Nice. I certainly applaud the courage of the Germans for moving in that direction. As well, this is going to take a new way of thinking about generating electricity (for the electric plug-in cars) because of all the extra demand for power. We definitely can't burn more coal, so what do we do? Solar PV, CSP, and wind is what we do.