Al Gore's Energy Challenge

August 08, 2008

Full disclosure here. While I am indeed extremely concerned about global warming and what we can do to avert a climate catastrophe in the too-near future, there’s an ulterior motive behind this week’s essay as well. I’m hoping, albeit improbably, that my favorite Futurama talking-head-in- a- jar, former Vice-President -turned- Nobel Prize winner Al Gore, will somehow stumble upon this page via Google Alerts and actually deign to post a comment on my blog. As you can see from this picture of his Nashville office, he’s got a few things on his plate right now. But hey, Mr. Vice-President, if you do happen to be reading this, it wouldn’t take too long to pound out a few words of encouragement or wisdom, would it? And while you’re at it, sir, please feel free to weigh in on the recent controversy in this space regarding the relative merits of Survivor vs. Night Ranger when it comes to 1980s Lite Metal mullet-rock. We all could benefit from a statesmanlike resolution of that question.

                     

OK, now for the main event. Here's a video clip of a July 17 speech in which Gore once again outlined the perils faced by our nation and our planet, and proposed a bold -- some might say drastic -- solution.

Gore's blog lays out a more detailed description of his vision. Over the next 10 years, he argues, the U.S. should completely abandon the burning of coal and oil for electrical power generation, and switch to producing all its electricity from renewable, carbon-free sources such as solar, wind and geothermal energy.

What if we could use fuels that are not expensive, don't cause pollution and are abundantly available right here at home?
We have such fuels. Scientists have confirmed that enough solar energy falls on the surface of the Earth every 40 minutes to meet 100 percent of the entire world's energy needs for a full year. Tapping just a small portion of this solar energy could provide all of the electricity America uses.
And enough wind power blows through the Midwest corridor every day to also meet 100 percent of US electricity demand. Geothermal energy, similarly, is capable of providing enormous supplies of electricity for America.
The quickest, cheapest and best way to start using all this renewable energy is in the production of electricity. In fact, we can start right now using solar power, wind power and geothermal power to make electricity for our homes and businesses.
But to make this exciting potential a reality, and truly solve our nation's problems, we need a new start.
That's why I'm proposing today a strategic initiative designed to free us from the crises that are holding us down and to regain control of our own destiny. It's not the only thing we need to do. But this strategic challenge is the lynchpin of a bold new strategy needed to re-power America.

Gore maintains that the sharply escalating cost of fossil fuels, coupled with billions of dollars of investment capital that is already being pumped into the development of alternative energy sources, makes carbon-free energy increasingly economically competitive.

And as the demand for renewable energy grows, the costs will continue to fall. Let me give you one revealing example: the price of the specialized silicon used to make solar cells was recently as high as $300 per kilogram. But the newest contracts have prices as low as $50 a kilogram.
You know, the same thing happened with computer chips - also made out of silicon. The price paid for the same performance came down by 50 percent every 18 months - year after year, and that's what's happened for 40 years in a row.

What would the effects be of switching completely to carbon-free sources of energy to generate electricity? Consider that the U.S. burns a billion tons of coal each year, just to meet about half its electrical demand. Replace that coal with solar, wind and geothermal energy, and you’ll eliminate about 40 percent of the nation’s total carbon emissions.

The downsides of Gore’s proposal? Nobody has a good handle on how much it might cost, though Gore argues that it wouldn’t be any more than the expense of building new coal-powered plants to meet electricity demand. Some energy experts think it may not be practical to accomplish such a drastic shift in just 10 years. In an article for Technology Review, Kevin Bullis argues that it's impractical to try to accomplish such a drastic shift in a decade.

In 2006, the most recent year with complete figures, four billion megawatt-hours of electricity were produced in the United States. Eventually, wind, solar, and geothermal power could cover this. But right now, they account for a little more than 1 percent of the total. Going from 1 to 100 percent will require not only building the wind turbines and solar panels and steam turbines for harvesting geothermal energy: it will also require massive new transmission infrastructure for distributing this power, from the deserts or windy plains, where much of this energy can be found, to the coasts, where people actually live. And it will require massive amounts of energy storage, since solar power doesn't work well at night, and wind power is erratic.

In light of this scale, even some truly ambitious schemes seem like a drop in the bucket. Over the past couple of weeks, T. Boone Pickens, an oil tycoon, has been using some of his billions to run television ads supporting his personal energy plan for the United States. Part of that plan is his project to build what seems to be the biggest wind farm in the country. It would nearly double the amount of wind produced in the state of Texas, the state with by far the most wind power. But that project will only produce 4,000 megawatts of power. (Total electricity generating capacity in the United States is about 1 million megawatts.) And it won't be cheap. To cover transmission-line costs alone for that and other proposed wind projects, the state of Texas plans to spend about $5 billion.

On the other hand, Gore contends that we really don’t have a choice but to try.

To those who say 10 years is not enough time, I respectfully ask them to consider what the world's scientists are telling us about the risks we face if we don't act in 10 years. The leading experts predict that we have less than 10 years to make dramatic changes in our global warming pollution lest we lose our ability to ever recover from this environmental crisis.

So what do you think? Should the U.S. aim to generate all its electricity from clean, renewable sources by 2018? Or should we take it slower, or just stick to what we're doing now? Express your opinion below.

Comments

[Caffeine Driven Stress Magnet]

I think it would be possible to achieve Gore's vision. The question is whether we have the politicial will to do it. The current "drill here, drill now" debate over energy policy in the Presidential campaign isn't very encouraging.

[Thad]

I agree. But can we do it?

[quantomfoam]

I hate to say it but Al is correct, everything about life on this planet is powered by the sun. In the future we must turn this into energy we can use. I think the future is polar orbiting solar collectors beaming the energy to the grid. I think this will not happen because of government but because of industry and science, the government will only make it more inefficient, costly and longer to realize. Government need to spark the dream then get out and let R&D drive the process. This made America great, government is killing us with regulations.

[Dave (long winded but passionate and worth it)]

It seems that we must do something. I'm ashamed that the leading superpower in the world is less than eager tto lead the world into a new era. Like the industrial revolution, the technological revolution, etc. We face REAL problems. People can't afford gas to get to work in order to pay for their electricity, which in return destroys the world.
Why not fix all of these problems at once and at least try Al Gore's plan. Is he the only person trying to do anything?
All politics aside, are problems come from our energy source, mostly the middle east. Where are most of our soldiers? Middle east. Politics aside let's put two and two together. Get out of war and into progress. The world sees US as a wasteful, dirty, unappreciative people. It's obvious to me that we need to change.
It costs money to mine and distribute coal and oil. How Much? How much money do we spend on getting oil and coal from the earth into our cars and houses for consumption? and the price keeps going up. All the news is about gas prices and pollution.
I feel that if we just get out of the carbon loop, things will be ok.
Before it's too late.
Mr. Gore is backed by scientists, and genuine concern for our world and lifestyle. What if he had become president?

I could go on, but my point is if we take the money we spend on fossil fuels and war (to secure fossil fuels) we could, nope WILL save the world.

Soldiers fight for freedom, right? My belief is that lately they've been (told to) fight for submission, the united states submitting to foriegn powers in order to continue our bleak life-style.

No Brainer!!!!
Take the money from bad things: war, where people die, Actions that make other countries want to terrorize us;
fossil fuels that KILL our home (earth)
Stop doing bad things.

Put that money towards good things: renewable energy, fixing the economy with power from home (we don't have to pay for the fuel (sun wind earth) we don't have to pay for foriegn leader to let us have it, we don't have to kill people to make sure that we can get it, our people don't have to die. We won't have to pay our soldiers to possibly die so we can drive to Best Buy.
and the only thing we have to do is pay for a bunch of Solar cells and batteries (which are becoming exponentially better and cheaper by the day) Buy wind farms, explore geothermal energy. These are extreme return investments.
Picture all of the coal miners, oil wells, oil tankers, coal trucks, pipelines, excavators, tanker trucks, Opec, gas stations (GAS PRICES!!!!), pollution, pollution related disease, etc etc etc. GONE
and all we would have to do is clean some solar panels every once and a while.

I'm in!

[Dave (long winded but passionate and worth it)]

AND it would not be expensive compared to the alternative.
Finding a new place to live.
the longer we wait the more difficult the transition.

I stayed with a person that had solar power and spring water, completely off the grid. NO ELECTRIC BILL, NO WATER BILL. With a green car, it's a MUCH cheaper way to live. Even after the initial purchases which are a little more expensive than conventional methods but he said they've all paid for themselves in less than 1 year.
Imagine that multiplied by the population of USA.
We'd be sittin' pretty and proud to be Americans once again.

[Johnny Boutsikakis]

We spend 1 billon every week on,"The war on Iraq Freedom" easilly. An thats not counting the billions we Americans spend at the pumps each day then when you figure in the price on electricity spent at our homes or bussnesses. We are the richest country in the world. Most everyone wants to live here on our great nation. But cannot aford to move here.
Vice Presadent Al Gore has hit it right on the botton when he says we need to change within 10 years. If you look at China and the amount of smog their pumping out. My god if you just got up as eairly as I do and look at the bay area or San Deigo and look up at the sky at the amount of black smog that is causeing some of us lung cancer and alot of other alements. It would be so nice to look at my mail box and every month see maybe a $10.00 or $20.00 monthly gas bill
and maybe the same on elecricity. The government takes from us more than enough each year to stop fighting wars. I'm not saying to stop any of sience avancemant in the milatary or anything else I like to see the advancemance each year. But with like with the fires here in California every year and this year 2008 by far has been the worst on record.I've live here for 31 years and walking out side and to see the skys darkend by polution and smoke from the fires because of the lack of rain. for part of the year its the south and the other part it the north that is slowly becoming waist land. So I say lets get our butts in gear and quit giving the other countrys our hard earnd money.

Johnny Boutsikakis

[Barack Obama for President]

Barack Obama, unlike John McCain, wants to create a single unified national power grid, a system that would allow electricity generated by windpower in Texas and the southwest to be transmitted all over the country. This is very similar to what T. Boone Pickens is proposing, and would be an important step toward switching the U.S. over to carbon-free electricity.
http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/08/on-energy-barack-obama-and-t-b.html

[ordinary voter]

Yeah, but he's a celebrity! Just kidding.

[Thomas]

With a heavy heart I write this comment. It would be ideal for us to be using solar power but people are people and that won't change. The general public sees solar panels as insufficeint and oil/coal as the only real means of power (vehicle,electricity and other). They don't realize that collectively we can make a tremendous impact on our carbon emmisions. If every household and commercial building had solar panels what a difference we would make, If other technologies for vehicles were made available to the average person we would make a difference. The problem has two heads. One is society. We all know what is going on with global warming and change. No one (in general)will do anything because we all think someone else will take care of it. In psychology it is called responsibility diffusal. There once was a woman that was raped and murdered IN PUBLIC, it all took place in front of many people and noone called the police, no one offered help, they just watched this poor woman die. They all thought some one else would help. That is a TRUE story.
The other part of the problem is our so-called leadership. The government at all levels, spends money unwisely, and is too wrapped aound other things. By the way, who in the world got paid to come up with that retarded FREEDOM FRIES and FREEDOM TOAST idea???
I think that the government should spend some serious time thought and money into education!! The kids we bring up now will be running thigs in the future and that thought troubles me. Education here in the U.S. is absolutely horrible. I would say that 90% (a guess but probably close)of Americans don't actally know the fundamentals and/or ideals that founded this country. Did you know George Washington wanted to be looked upoun like an ancient Roman General and Dictator by the name of Cincanatis? Did you know that's how we got the name for the city Cincanaty?

As a father, a career soldier, a citizen and a student I hope everyone will open thier dam eyes and mover thier feet to try and keep pollution/carbon emmissions down!!!

[Chauncey]

This is from http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/07/28/energy_efficiency/
"A 2007 report from the international consulting firm McKinsey and Co. found that improving energy efficiency in buildings, appliances and factories could offset almost all of the projected demand for electricity in 2030 and largely negate the need for new coal-fired power plants. McKinsey estimates that one-third of the U.S. greenhouse gas reductions by 2030 could come from electricity efficiency and be achieved at negative marginal costs. In short, the cost of the efficient equipment would quickly pay for itself in energy savings."

[Mothra]

I think it's necessary. It's going to be hard, but it's really crucial. It makes you think..we really don't think or plan. We're just used to doing things whenever we want to, which is a bad, energy-wasting habit.

[Liam]

Yes we can do it with right amount of funding, which would be worth every penny spent!!

[Jeffrey DeWitt]

Ideally we would get our power from fusion reactors and orbiting solar power satellites, and vehicles would be powered by bacitators and hydrogen.

And we may get there eventually, but it will happen because of economics and people developing those technologies because they see them as a way to make a profit, not because of some goofy notion that we are destroying the planet with our SUV's.

You may believe global warming is "settled science", well it wasn't all that long ago that a geocentric universe was considered "settled science", as was eugenics.

Al Gore will one day be recorded as the most successful con man of our era and the people of that time will look back upon the current climate change hysteria with the same amusement as we look back at the people who believed the Earth was the center of the universe.