Emkro (beta)

This is part two of a three part series covering the state of our clean energy options in America. If you have not read my first post, I encourage you to go back and take a peek.

Wind power or as I like to call it, the cloudy man’s solar energy, is something the United States is really starting to embrace with open arms. It is a wonderful technology and one that has been used for many decades and with great success in Europe. Wind represents a clean and inexpensive source of power which has seen a bit of a renaissance with its recent large scale adoption in America. So large and growing so quickly in fact that production cannot keep up with demand. Even with all this investment and construction, it only accounts for a tiny percentage of our electricity generation. Like everything else in this world, it has its share of drawbacks. Most prominent of which is the unpredictability of wind. If we relied solely on wind turbines to power our lives, what would happen if the wind refused to blow for a few hours, a couple days or even a week? If a quarter of our electricity came from wind, who would have to endure rolling blackouts when the summer doldrums happen upon us? Currently, and for good reason, wind only supplies about 1% of America’s electricity. That is not to say we will never see a day when much more of our energy comes from clean, renewable wind. Several countries have proved that it is possible to grow their percentages to something much higher than America’s. With some technology gains in the area of ‘smart grid’ infrastructure and associated information technology, a 15% mix of wind power is very doable and something I hope to see in the near future.

Nuclear energy was the holy grail of the electric industry during the 1960s. It was supposed to offer electricity so cheap that utility companies wouldn’t bother to even meter it. All you needed to do was pay your monthly service charge and enjoy a boundless supply of electricity. Nuclear was going to usher in an era of clean, safe and cheap power. Obviously that did not happen. A disaster in Chernobyl and close calls in a few other places effectively killed all hope of that future. But economics and capitalism always win (the Cold War proved that). Recent price explosions in oil have renewed interest in nuclear energy. Although it is very controversial in regard to safety and waste disposal; it is almost a perfect power. Nuclear is abundant, clean, and producible on demand with no geographic restrictions on where it can be located. It just works. 21st century nuclear is not 1960’s nuclear. It is safe and secure and should be very strongly supported by the green community. People are starting to realize this. But it is slow to come about. It really is a shame that incidents in the unrelated past have created such a hostile environment for what could be the best way out of our current global warming mess.

Coming soon… Part 3: Solar, Coal and Natural Gas.