Nothing to Chance: An Argument for Distributed Systems
Horrible as they were, last Tuesday's terrorist attacks have given us a golden opportunity to reconsider the Administration's proposed national energy strategy.
As America comes to grips with the horror of the unprecedented terrorist attacks, the topic of future energy supply may seem a wee bit trivial. But it's not: The attacks, and the prospects of a protracted "war" they have inspired, have given us a golden opportunity to reconsider the Administration's proposed national energy strategy.
Building even more fossil fuel power plants and nuclear reactors to deliver electricity, the lifeblood of the American economy, looks pretty naïve if one looks at the U.S. through the eyes of a terrorist. Distributed renewable energy systems, such as rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, suddenly seem like an enlightened approach to generating electricity that bolsters national security while addressing global climate change.
Let's take a quick look at natural gas pipelines. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, information about the nation's natural gas pipelines is much more widespread since power markets were deregulated. Sever the natural gas pipelines flowing into California, where 96 percent of all new power plants burn natural gas, and rolling blackouts could reverberate for days on end. An oil company representative acknowledged the national security weak spots our natural gas pipelines represent, saying "There's a feeling that if we start talking about our security program, it's almost like putting a target on our bodies."
Sure, the nation's oil and natural gas companies are busy reassuring us that stepped-up security measures on natural gas pipelines will continue to allow this popular fossil fuel to flow to the scores of new natural gas power plants coming on-line in California and elsewhere. But like our airport security systems, these systems have never been fully tested.
And then there are our nuclear power plants. Edison International, still teetering on the verge of bankruptcy, has asked the Highway Patrol to monitor traffic along Highway 5 near the Orange and San Diego county borders in California because of the nearby San Onofre nuclear power plant. Like the 103 other nuclear reactors scattered about this country, each and every nuke represents a terrorist target because of the uranium fuel and radioactive waste. Do we really want to be constructing new nuclear power plants when one strike could spew radioactive particles, contaminating land for decades?
These kinds of headaches, and huge potential costs and liabilities, are avoided entirely with solar photovoltaics (PV) and other distributed, renewable energy systems. One favor this horrible tragedy may teach us is that our energy supply is far too dependent on unnecessary security and military interventions. It is indeed time to bring our grid into the 21st century with benign, clean power generation technologies that represent the types of innovations that fueled the computer and telecommunications revolutions.
Just how valuable can these distributed renewable energy systems be?
With solar PV and small wind turbines, there are no fuel costs and associated military expenditures, no vulnerable pipelines that require security surveillance, no need for miles upon miles of gigantic transmission lines that could also be terrorist targets. Indeed, these distributed micro-generators can operate independently from the existing grid or be grid-connected. In California, the state pays half of the installation costs of grid-connected systems, whose owners sell back to the grid the electricity they can't use to help stabilize the grid. At today's volatile prices, these systems will be paid off in less than ten years and then provide literally free electricity to the lucky consumers that purchased them.
There are no big terrorist targets in a truly decentralized renewable energy system. Now, no one is suggesting dismantling existing transmission superhighways of electrons. But in the future, the focus of a national energy strategy should be on diversifying risks: economic, environmental as well as national security.
Instability in the Middle East is again driving up the price of oil. Industry experts say we must increase natural gas supplies by 23 percent just to maintain current production levels since the current old wells keep declining in output. With hundreds of new power plants coming on-line all across the country over the next few years, the demand for natural gas and other fossil fuels could stay high for years to come. The price volatility and occasional blackouts, experienced in California, Texas, New York City, Boston and Chicago over the past two years, reinforce the dire warning signs that we can no longer support the status quo.
The Bush energy strategy is as archaic as our century-old electric transmission grid - and would make America a less-secure nation. Distributed networks of clean micro-power systems offer national security benefits that the Bush administration ought to embrace as it ponders energy supply in the aftermath of America's darkest hour.
----------------------------------
Peter Asmus is author of Reaping The Wind: How Mechanical Wizards, Visionaries and Profiteers Helped Shape Our Energy Future and Reinventing Electric Utilities: Competition, Citizen Action and Clean Power, both published by Island Press.
Building even more fossil fuel power plants and nuclear reactors to deliver electricity, the lifeblood of the American economy, looks pretty naïve if one looks at the U.S. through the eyes of a terrorist. Distributed renewable energy systems, such as rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, suddenly seem like an enlightened approach to generating electricity that bolsters national security while addressing global climate change.
Let's take a quick look at natural gas pipelines. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, information about the nation's natural gas pipelines is much more widespread since power markets were deregulated. Sever the natural gas pipelines flowing into California, where 96 percent of all new power plants burn natural gas, and rolling blackouts could reverberate for days on end. An oil company representative acknowledged the national security weak spots our natural gas pipelines represent, saying "There's a feeling that if we start talking about our security program, it's almost like putting a target on our bodies."
Sure, the nation's oil and natural gas companies are busy reassuring us that stepped-up security measures on natural gas pipelines will continue to allow this popular fossil fuel to flow to the scores of new natural gas power plants coming on-line in California and elsewhere. But like our airport security systems, these systems have never been fully tested.
And then there are our nuclear power plants. Edison International, still teetering on the verge of bankruptcy, has asked the Highway Patrol to monitor traffic along Highway 5 near the Orange and San Diego county borders in California because of the nearby San Onofre nuclear power plant. Like the 103 other nuclear reactors scattered about this country, each and every nuke represents a terrorist target because of the uranium fuel and radioactive waste. Do we really want to be constructing new nuclear power plants when one strike could spew radioactive particles, contaminating land for decades?
These kinds of headaches, and huge potential costs and liabilities, are avoided entirely with solar photovoltaics (PV) and other distributed, renewable energy systems. One favor this horrible tragedy may teach us is that our energy supply is far too dependent on unnecessary security and military interventions. It is indeed time to bring our grid into the 21st century with benign, clean power generation technologies that represent the types of innovations that fueled the computer and telecommunications revolutions.
Just how valuable can these distributed renewable energy systems be?
With solar PV and small wind turbines, there are no fuel costs and associated military expenditures, no vulnerable pipelines that require security surveillance, no need for miles upon miles of gigantic transmission lines that could also be terrorist targets. Indeed, these distributed micro-generators can operate independently from the existing grid or be grid-connected. In California, the state pays half of the installation costs of grid-connected systems, whose owners sell back to the grid the electricity they can't use to help stabilize the grid. At today's volatile prices, these systems will be paid off in less than ten years and then provide literally free electricity to the lucky consumers that purchased them.
There are no big terrorist targets in a truly decentralized renewable energy system. Now, no one is suggesting dismantling existing transmission superhighways of electrons. But in the future, the focus of a national energy strategy should be on diversifying risks: economic, environmental as well as national security.
Instability in the Middle East is again driving up the price of oil. Industry experts say we must increase natural gas supplies by 23 percent just to maintain current production levels since the current old wells keep declining in output. With hundreds of new power plants coming on-line all across the country over the next few years, the demand for natural gas and other fossil fuels could stay high for years to come. The price volatility and occasional blackouts, experienced in California, Texas, New York City, Boston and Chicago over the past two years, reinforce the dire warning signs that we can no longer support the status quo.
The Bush energy strategy is as archaic as our century-old electric transmission grid - and would make America a less-secure nation. Distributed networks of clean micro-power systems offer national security benefits that the Bush administration ought to embrace as it ponders energy supply in the aftermath of America's darkest hour.
----------------------------------
Peter Asmus is author of Reaping The Wind: How Mechanical Wizards, Visionaries and Profiteers Helped Shape Our Energy Future and Reinventing Electric Utilities: Competition, Citizen Action and Clean Power, both published by Island Press.
