AltEnToday

I just wrapped Solar Revolution by Travis Bradford, so I wanted to take some time to share some of my notes & thoughts from this very intriguing book. Ultimately, Bradford (who is the President and Founder of the Prometheus Institute for Sustainable Development) attempts to make the case that not only is solar a viable energy option - it’s an inevitable solution to nearly all of our energy needs in the 21st century. He argues, passionately and with economic justification to boot, that solar will become cost-competitive not only in the United States, but also provide great opportunities for the developing world.

These notes & thoughts are just a sampling of the material in the book - essentially the “ooh & aahs” combined with the “ah-ha!” moments that caught me. I wholeheartedly recommend you give the book a read if you want to better understand a potential future for our energy-driven society.

Chapter 1

• Energy income, energy savings, energy expenditure. Essentially setting up the language to discuss the fact that the most abundant income source on our planet is delivered daily courtesy of the sun. Our energy savings include our oil & coal deposits, and our expenditures, globally, are rising fast.
• “[S]unlight is the only renewable-energy source that is ubiquitous enough to serve as the foundation of a global energy economy in all of the locations where energy will be required, from the industrialized world to the developing one.”
• “One of solar power’s great attractions for utilities - apart from zero fuel costs and low maintenance requirements - is that consumer electricity demand and the power that utilities must provide throughout a typical day neatly track the daily and seasonal energy cycle from the sun.”
• “… global solar production continues its historical growth rate of 29 percent annually.”
• He makes the case that solar-energy discussions need to move from environmental doomsday scenarios to one about economics, wealth, and opportunity.

Chapter 2 - A Brief History of Energy

• A history of energy, electricity, and our ability to seek out the most effective source with the least expense (or labor) to produce what we need.
• Civilization follows a pattern of harnessing energy - for example as wood became the source of energy, deforestation provided (a) ample sources of fuel and (b) places to create agriculture & support ever larger civilizations.
• “Coal-By-Wire” : Grid distributed electricity. Instead of shipping coal to where power is needed, electricity grids provided the ability to produce in 1 location and distribute where need exists.
• “Natural gas is perhaps the most versatile form of fossil fuels, and is used in heating applications, as a feedstock for everything from nitrogen fertilizer to methanol to plastic, and as a direct fuel in many new ‘clean vehicle’ programs.”
• “The three fossil fuels together (coal, oil, and natural gas) provide about 86 percent of US industrial energy produced, with coal and natural gas dominating the stationary applications and oil dominating transportation.”

Chapter 3 - An Unsustainable Status Quo

• “Substandard air quality [due to the consumption of fossil-fuels] no longer affects only urban centers or even the nations that create it.”
• 700,000 deaths per year caused by air pollution; could rise to as high as 8 million per year by 2020 (World Health Organization & World Resources Institute)
• 85 percent of the emissions that lead to climate change are derived from the burning of fossil fuels, and potentially half that figure is from human production of electricity - primarily from coal-fired power plants
• Oil peaks:
  • US peaked in 1970
  • UK peaked in 2002
  • Norway may have peaked in 2004
  • Mexico may have peaked in 2005
  • Nigeria is expected to peak in 2007
  • Saudi Arabia is expected to peak in 2010
• Supply disruptions and price volatility create unnecessary risk in the marketplace. Many foreign businesses must live with potential brownouts and blackouts, and in the US price uncertainty is built in to the economics of everything we produce and consume. Businesses prefer stability (even if slightly higher in price) to the volatility of a fluctuating global energy marketplace.

More notes to come…