Advice Network Founders Blog

America’s energy needs have changed considerably in recent years. With hundreds of millions of people running the digital devices that support modern life, our growing energy demand prompts us to question the viability of modern electricity generation and transmission. Recently, RMI’s Chief Scientist Amory Lovins wrote a guest piece for the New York Times Freakonomics Blog in which he responds to the question “Does a Big Economy Need Big Power Plants?”

In the piece he describes the benefits of distributed electric supply (e.g., wind turbines, solar cells, fuel cells, etc.). According to Lovins, “distributed benefits often boost economic value by about tenfold. The biggest come from financial economics: for example, small, fast, modular units are less risky to build than big, slow, lumpy ones, and renewable energy sources avoid the risks of volatile fuel prices.”

In addition to the economic argument, Lovins points out that a distributed electric supply can offer greater reliability than a few large units strung together by a shaky grid. For the full article, posted on the New York Times Freakonomics Blog, please click here. Also, for more information on the benefits of distributed electric resources and micropower, see www.smallisprofitable.org.

Sincerely,

Rocky Mountain Institute

Rocky Mountain Institute’s Energy and Resources Team has just published a report that shows the opportunity for 30 percent energy savings in the United States. Assessing the Electric Productivity Gap and the U.S. Efficiency Opportunity analyzed electric productivity state by state, and found a significant gap between the highest and lowest performing states.

Electric productivity measures how much gross domestic product is generated for each kilowatt-hour consumed ($GDP/kWh). This finding is significant because if laggard states achieved the electric productivity of the top ten performing states through energy efficiency, we would achieve electric savings equivalent to more than 60 percent of U.S. coal-fired generation. According to Natalie Mims, Consultant on RMI’s Energy & Resources Team (ERT), “closing the electric productivity gap through energy efficiency is the largest near-term opportunity to immediately reduce electricity use and greenhouse gases, and move the United States forward as a leader in the new clean energy economy.”

The electric productivity of top performing states, like New York, Connecticut, and California, serves as an example of what’s achievable. Those states show the nation how barriers to efficiency practices can be overcome, how state utilities can be regulated, and how new and effective technologies can be implemented. Conversely, lower performing states have a huge opportunity to learn from the successes of higher performing states by closing their electric productivity gap using known and tested technology and policy. This will be the focus of RMI’s next step, as ERT concentrates on the efficiency measures that can cost-effectively have the largest impact.

To complement the report, RMI has also released an interactive map ranking each state’s electric productivity, which illustrates the opportunities to catch up with the best performing states. If you would like to review the report’s findings in a visual and interactive way, the map is available here.

Today you’ll find that electricity is getting more and more expensive. As prices rise, more and more people are beginning to consider alternative forms of energy. More and more people today are beginning to use various types of energy allowing them to save on energy bills in a big way.

One way that you can save money on your electricity costs is to build your own wind turbine. Wind power is an endlessly renewable, free source of energy – all that is needed is to take advantage of it. When building your own wind turbine, there are a few things you should think about ahead of time.

The first thing you’ll have to consider is where to place your turbine. After all, if you build your wind turbine in an area which is sheltered from the wind, it’s not going to produce much if any energy for you. Look for a spot where there is the possibility of harnessing wind speeds of at least 10 mph; this will work well for your turbine.

There can’t be any obstructions like trees or other towers that will obstruct the flow of wind to your turbine. Remember, even your turbine is in front of them in the direction of the wind, the wind speed will still be reduced due to the fact that they’re there. Take a careful look before you start building to make sure you have a good place to put it.

Looking for local regulations on wind turbines in your area is also important. Get all the required permits, and you’ll save a lot of money in the long run. It’s not that hard, really. Make sure it’s alright with your neighbors as well.

Of course before you actually start to build a wind turbine, you’ll want to make sure that you gather together all of your supplies and tools. Figure out what you’ll need for the job. Then go make the purchase so that you have everything needed on hand.

Finally, if you are using a plan for building your wind turbine, make sure to follow the instructions to the letter. You can find detailed plans both online and in many books. A turbine which is properly built is going to perform much better than one which is simply slapped together with fingers crossed.

Building a wind turbine is really not a huge job, as long as you keep these considerations in mind. Make sure that you find the right site, check on government regulations, get together the tools and supplies, and then simply follow the plans. In no time you’ll be saving money on energy.

SOLAR ENERGY: It’s a fact that all life depends on and comes from the sun. The production of oxygen and food would be impossible without solar energy.

Farmers know the value of a large field with a plentiful supply of sunlight, and now individuals all around the world are taking this boundless source of diffuse energy more seriously as the finite supply of fossil fuels dwindle.

Today less than 0.1% of our heating, transportation and power energy comes from direct sunlight although it is now possible to meet all our energy needs with this simple, renewable resource. Demand for electricity is growing at an ever-increasing rate.

The Energy Information Administration estimates that 258 gigawatts of new electric generating capacity will be needed by 2030 to meet the growing demand. This equates to an additional 250 to 500 baseload power plants rated at between one-half and one gigawatt of capacity.

Infrastructure costs are increasing. The cost of maintaining the nations electric power grid including high-voltage transmission lines and towers, power sub-stations, and electric distribution systems is advancing in an upward trajectory. In a three year period ending with 2009, electric utility companies will need to invest $31.5 billion, a 60 percent increase over the three years from 2002 to 2005.

For the next ten years electric utilities will invest $14 billion per year on infrastructure. Compliance with environmental laws and regulations and related litigation is becoming more expensive for electric utilities. The Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, as well as a host of other state and federal laws and statutes create a maze of bureaucracy to negotiate.

Rate caps which were put in place beginning in 1997 have begun to expire giving the impression that rates are rising when in actuality costs that have already been incurred by electric utilities are being passed on to consumers. So you see why it’s so important for us to use the resources we have like the sun to fuel or world.

Listening to politicians rant about nuclear energy chaps my hide in a big way. Did you hear the debate last night? McCain had the gall to mock Obama for wanting nuclear energy to be safe! I could not believe my ears.

The problem with nuclear debates, is there is a secret code that politicians have to abide. “I’m against nuclear” really means “I’m a peace loving pot smoking long hair hippie who believes in free love and working against THE MAN cause that nuclear stuff, it’s just not right.”

So even if nuclear is a horrible idea (it is, see below) a politician can’t SAY that it is horrible for fear of being tarred with the brush used to mock politicians like Kucinich.

I have enough of a background in this stuff to know that their positions on nuclear are full of baloney, disguised rhetoric, and just plain wrong, but I don’t know enough to lay it all out there and convince you. Fortunately, I don’t have to.

I got an email today form the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI). It is copied in full below, with links intact. Anyone fearless enough to abandon left right mythos can read on their own and see why nuclear is a bad idea left right center up down and all around.

The issues of renewable energy and energy independence have taken center stage in both media and political conversations lately, but the means of achieving various energy goals have proven to be rather controversial. Proposed options dominating news headlines include clean coal, nuclear energy, and offshore drilling. Is there an energy path that we can all agree upon?

The answer is yes, and this morning Rocky Mountain Institute and Chief Scientist Amory Lovins were featured in a New York Times blog in response to last night’s Presidential Debate. Energy efficiency, a solution at the core of RMI’s work, was discussed as a viable and economically profitable resolution to both energy and economy issues. New York Times writer Kate Galbraith points out that RMI and Amory Lovins have consistently advocated the benefits of a soft-path approach to energy, with efficiency at it’s core. You can read the article here.

When it comes to nuclear power specifically, every dollar invested in new US nuclear electricity will save approximately 2-11 times less carbon, and will do so roughly 20-40 times slower, than investing in the same dollar in energy efficiency and “micropower” (cogeneration plus renewables minus big hydro dams). Buying new nuclear capacity instead of efficiency causes more carbon to be released than spending the same money on new coal plants!

These conclusions and the empirical evidence supporting them are summarized in “Forget Nuclear,” and fully documented in “The Nuclear Illusion,” available for download here, which is to be published in early 2009 by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences’ journal Ambio.

Hopefully our vision will help put these widely publicized issues into perspective and move us all toward a better understanding that takes us beyond politically divisive issues to collective and viable solutions.

I was listening to an old podcast of the Commonwealth Club radio program yesterday. Gayle Pergamit, CEO and Founder, Agua Via was talking about water and Africa. She spent a good 40 minutes talking about why the problem is so incredibly intractable. I was ready to drive off a bridge.

Then, she spent 20 minutes talking about a new water filtration technology that her company has developed. This is a world changinng technology.

Most water filters are thick. It takes a lot of energy to force the water through them, and they get gunked up easily.

Agua Via has invented a process for creating a membrane that is 1 molecule thick, with an opening that is exactly the size of a water molecule. Water pours through it at the incredibly low pressure of 1 PSI (that is a 27 inch colum of water in earth gravity). This technology can remove poisons, toxins, anything living, and more importantly SALT. Yes, it desalinates! Imagine, low energy desalination. It is the holy grail of water. The promise of nanotechnology with the power to save millions of lives. A small unit can filter 100,000 gallons a day.

You can listen to the podcast here. (Skip to about minute 40 [or if you are short on time] if you have a good understanding of the problem, [you probably don't the problem is worse than you think])

All of the Amory Lovins lectures I talked about in my earlier post are now online.

http://www.advicenetwork.com/audio_files/

It’s hours of listening, and if you care about energy or the envionment, it will blow your mind.

Alex

“To be truly radical is to make hope possible, rather than despair convincing.”

- Raymond Williams

I’ve been listening to podcasts of Amory Lovins this week, and I must say, he is my new hero. Find them here. (I’m not sure if all of the talks are listed, but you can also look here.)

Lovins is the Cofounder, Chairman, and Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute. RMI is a think tank that focuses on energy efficiency and policy.

Their mission statement: