Oil Freedom through Solar Energy

• A massive switch from coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear power plants to solar power plants could supply 69 percent of the U.S.’s electricity and 35 percent of its total energy by 2050.
• A vast area of photovoltaic cells would have to be erected in the Southwest. Excess daytime energy would be stored as compressed air in underground caverns to be tapped during nighttime hours.
• Large solar concentrator power plants would be built as well.
• A new direct-current power transmission backbone would deliver solar electricity across the country.
• But $420 billion in subsidies from 2011 to 2050 would be required to fund the infrastructure and make it cost-competitive. {That is equivalent to 1 year of military expenditures}

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.

Solar energy’s potential is off the chart. The energy in sunlight striking the earth for 40 minutes is equivalent to global energy consumption for a year. The U.S. is lucky to be endowed with a vast resource; at least 250,000 square miles of land in the Southwest alone are suitable for constructing solar power plants, and that land receives more than 4,500 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu) of solar radiation a year. Converting only 2.5 percent of that radiation into electricity would match the nation’s total energy consumption in 2006.

To convert the country to solar power, huge tracts of land would have to be covered with photovoltaic panels and solar heating troughs. A direct-current (DC) transmission backbone would also have to be erected to send that energy efficiently across the nation.


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Cool Ideas - Solar Energy

Global Warming is a big issue but the world currently needs oil to run. This can be chnaged if governments and people were willing to switch to alternative methods of energy production such as Solar Energy.

Whats good for the environment is good for business

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Every Second Nature customer helps build the demand for green energy, reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, and strengthen our domestic fuel base. It’s just good business sense Your support of renewable energy allows your business to: Demonstrate a leadership role in your industry Gain a competitive edge Add value to your brand and generate positive publicity Promote socially-responsible business practices and consumer health As a business customer, you have a unique opportunity to join Alliant Energy’s other business green energy buyers. Nationally, you’ll be among the ranks of companies like 3M, Sprint, Lockheed Martin, Good Earth Natural Foods and Starbucks Corporation in supporting the growth and purchase of green power.

High lubricant Prices will make good for Renewables

1. Present high oil prices make life difficult in poorer countries but at the same time also help fuel development of renewable energy sources
   
2. There are several dilemmas regarding the high oil price.
   
3. It makes it difficult for the poor countries. At the same time renewable energy will be developed faster, which is good.

Higher Oil Prices Make Renewable Energy Living

Human Beings talk a more about alternative fuels being more Living with oil at such high prices. It also, however, makes other, more exotic, fossil fuel extraction techniques viable. This piece in the UK’s Independent outlines how oil reserves are understated because certain known fields are too expensive to extract at this time - and therefore are excluded from oil reserve projections (an important point that I would wager that many investors don’t understand).

The risk for green investors (and the environment for that matter) is that, if true, tapping oil reserves such as these could grow oil supply over current projections (even if its at these current high prices) - driving out the peak oil scenario longer than anticipated by Wall Street. (This is the kind of stuff investors and analysts miss all the time).

Emerging Oil Prices making Renewable Energy More Powerful

"Emerging fossil fuel prices are making renewable energy more involving in the global market"

Renewable energy can't offer much relief to drivers and companies seeing their profits evaporate because of skyrocketing oil prices, because viable green alternatives to gasoline are hard to find. Biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel aren't widely available, and hydrogen-powered cars aren't expected to hit the market for years.

Price curves
But in the electricity market, green power, especially wind, is already competing with traditional sources. At today's average wholesale prices, wind costs 4.2 cents per kilowatt hour, compared with 4 cents for coal, 6.8 cents for natural gas, 9.1 cents for oil and 10 cents for nuclear power, according to Kyle Datta, managing director at the Rocky Mountain Institute, a research group focused on eco-friendly business.

Experts estimate that at today's consumption rates, known global supplies of oil and natural gas would be depleted within decades. But prices are expected to rise significantly long before supplies run out, making those fuels too expensive to use at current levels.

"They're never going to run out, but the ability to match supply to demand may already have run out, especially for oil," said Stephen Leeb, president of Leeb Capital Management and co-author of "The Oil Factor," which predicts that oil could hit $100 a barrel by 2010.

In the short term, fossil fuel prices are being driven up by war, political instability, natural disasters and other variables. The long-term outlook is clearer — global supplies are dwindling as demand soars, particularly in China and India, where automobiles are multiplying and economies are growing a breakneck speed.

"We should treat the prices as a warning that we need to act to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy," said Ralph Cavanagh, an energy expert at the Natural Resources Defense Council. "They represent a terrible threat to the vitality of the United States."

Meanwhile, improving technology, tax credits, low interest rates and government mandates are making renewables more widely available, establishing an inexhaustible energy supply that will keep driving prices down.

Different Kinds of Renewable Energy

• Solar energy which comes from the sun can be turned as electricity and heat. Solar panels on the roofs of houses, building and other establishment are use to store the solar energy. The sun's energy harnessed by the panels runs generators which provide electricity. There are stand-alone solar panels that you can put in your yard to save the sun's energy in a generator.
• Geothermal energy is an energy that comes from the heat inside the earth. It's simple technology that involves boring a hole into the ground to take the heat from the earth's crust. The heat that comes off is used to heat water and make steam to power generators to make electricity.
• Biomass energy is from the plant and trees. This energy alternative makes use of husks that come off rice after it is harvested and the waste from the corn. This "biomass" can be burned in a power station built for such a purpose. It emits less pollution than if the waste was left to rot, because it would produce a lot of methane.

Sources: Wood (most common source), plants, agricultural waste, industrial waste, even methane gas from community landfills.

Uses: fuel for transportation or to manufacture product that would otherwise use fossil fuels.

• Water Energy - the natural evaporation/precipitation cycle makes water a renewable source of energy. The heat of the sun causes water in lakes and ocean to evaporate and form clouds. The water then falls back to earth as rain or snow, and goes to the rivers and streams that flow back to the ocean. Moving water can be used to power water wheels that drive mechanical processes. Water Wheels are useful for generating mechanical energy to grind grain or saw wood, but are not practical for generating electricity because it is bulky and slow. Water energy emits about 30 times less greenhouse gas than modern natural gas power plants and 60 times less than coal-fired plant, which makes it a clean source of energy.
• Wind Energy is captured by wind turbines and used to generate electricity. The costs of wind energy are going down as mass manufacture of turbines becomes more accepted. It costs the same as setting up a new coal or nuclear power station. More importantly, external cost to health care and the effects of acid rain are 50times less than when using coal.