Might as well aim high

Posted on January 8, 2008
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by Willy Ritch

Renewable portfolio standards–a requirement that utilities get a certain percentage of their power from clean energy sources–usually set a goal of 15-25% by 2020 or so. But the magazine Scientific American has a longer time horizon and a much loftier goal. They say they’ve got a plan to put America on track to get nearly 70% of all our electricity from solar power alone by 2050.

High prices for gasoline and home heating oil are here to stay. The U.S. is at war in the Middle East at least in part to protect its foreign oil interests. And as China, India and other nations rapidly increase their demand for fossil fuels, future fighting over energy looms large. In the meantime, power plants that burn coal, oil and natural gas, as well as vehicles everywhere, continue to pour millions of tons of pollutants and greenhouse gases into the atmosphere annually, threatening the planet.

Well-meaning scientists, engineers, economists and politicians have proposed various steps that could slightly reduce fossil-fuel use and emissions. These steps are not enough. The U.S. needs a bold plan to free itself from fossil fuels. Our analysis convinces us that a massive switch to solar power is the logical answer.

SA’s plan–they call it a “grand plan”–calls for massive installation of PV facilities and concentrated solar power plants in the Southwest.

The juice from the solar panels would be stored as compressed air. The idea is that the power generated during the day would run compressors that would pump air at high pressure into some sort of storage vessel, like an underground cavern, and then when the power is needed the air would be released and used to spin an electricity-producing turbine.

Concentrated solar installations use mirrors to focus the sun to super heat liquid in tubes. Under the SA plan, that heat would be stored in molten salt, which apparently stores heat extremely well. (Who knew?)

There are other issues—new transmission lines and how to pay for all of this. The magazine says it would take about $420 billion in subsidies to make their plan a reality. That might seem like a lot of money, but when you look at how much the oil industry gets subsidized, that figure starts looking like chump change. (See “Subsidizing Big Oil” from the Union of Concerned Scientists.)

Hat tip here to Maria Surma Manka at sustainablog, where I came across this story. Manka made what I think is the critical point when we talk about big visions like this:

The biggest obstacle to the solar grand plan may not be the money or the advances in technology, but rather the political will to get it done.

Don’t get me started.

I’ve talked to so many people over the last few months about a lot of the problems we face as a society—not just energy and climate change but healthcare and the war too. One thing I’m struck with is that there is fairly widespread agreement about the kind of changes that we need to embrace. And how little of that change actually happens.

There reason for hope. As Al Gore said last month, “political will is a renewable resource.”

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