Radical Avenue

The residents of Toksook Bay, Alaska don’t worry much about getting shipments of heating oil on time in the winter months anymore. A trio of new wind turbines now generates electricity all year round in this remote fishing village.

In central Africa, solar ovens are saving lives. Displaced Sudanese women living in refugee camps near Darfur now cook meals without having to build a fire. This means that no one needs to venture out into the countryside in search of firewood, where militia groups prey on unarmed civilians. The solar ovens are really just cardboard boxes lined with tin foil, a refreshingly simple solution to a terrifying problem.

That’s the beauty of renewables. Virtually anyone can collect energy from the sun and wind using relatively inexpensive tools. Consumers don’t need incoming electrical lines or shipments of oil to survive anymore. Power to the people!

The minerals and gases we burn for fuel here in the United States are destroying lives.

Coal
In Kingston, Tennessee a billion gallon coal ash sludge spill inundated fifteen homes last month, rendering some of them uninhabitable. Coal ash sludge is a mixture of ashes from burnt coal and water. The toxic brew sits in open air lagoons surrounded by earthen dikes. One of the Tennessee dikes ruptured and unloaded on the neighborhood.

Coal ash sludge contains a number of poisonous heavy metals, including arsenic and uranium. Even small amounts of arsenic and uranium will cause cancer in humans. Coal ash sludge also contains high levels of mercury, another lethal substance.

According to an inventory obtained by the New York Times, the Kingston plant also produces 49,000 pounds of lead, 1.4 million pounds of barium and 91,000 pounds of chromium every year. All of these dangerous chemicals have now begun to contaminate Tennessee streams and rivers in the middle of the rainy season.

Natural Gas
PG&E, the organization that made Erin Brockovich famous, is at it again. The company seems to have no explanation for a natural gas pipeline explosion which leveled a home in Rancho Cordova, California on the day before Christmas. The explosion killed one of the home’s inhabitants, and left two others in critical condition.

Although several local residents reported smelling natural gas in the days leading up to the explosion, no action was taken to protect the public. The expert appointed by the National Transportation Safety Board to investigate the explosion said “typically, if you smell gas, you’d evacuate the whole neighborhood.”

These incidents give US voters one more reason to demand more investment in clean energy. Wind turbines and solar panels don’t kill people.

Scientists love a challenge and the need to find viable new sources of energy is a technological doozy.

Powerful Pond Scum
Swimming pool owners can attest to the fact that algae multiplies faster than almost any other organism on the planet. Now entrepreneurs are extracting oil from these rabbits of the plant world and converting it to biofuel, suitable for burning in airplanes and automobiles. Algae also consumes carbon dioxide, a major contributor to global warming.

A California company called Valcent uses a closed, vertical system to grow algae in long rows of moving plastic bags. This exposes the slime to more sunshine, something it can never get enough of. The bottom line is that while crops grown in the dirt look better on the dinner table, they can’t compete with muck when it comes to producing clean energy.

Whispering Winds
Wind turbines have a whole new look this season. The northern New York landscape is now dotted with energy producing structures that resemble giant stacks of Venetian Blinds. Engineers at an organization called ETLLC claim that their machines are quieter, safer and more efficient than propeller style turbines. And since all of the mechanics are at ground level rather than 300 feet, these turbines will also be easier to maintain.

The inner workings of turbines are getting an upgrade as well. Traditional power plant generators are built to operate at a constant speed. But a new model designed by Exro Technologies of Vancouver, British Columbia uses an electronic transmission which can adapt to variable wind speeds, so dealing with gusts and lulls is all in a day’s work.

Drive east along Highway 50 toward South Lake Tahoe, California and you’ll spot some unusual looking pine trees among the tall timbers of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. In fact these aren’t trees at all. They’re cellular phone towers adorned with fake bark and branches in order to blend in with the surroundings.

Wind turbines won’t melt into the background as easily as cellular towers. They have too many moving parts and tend to dominate the open prairie. But if they won’t blend in, why not make them stand out? After all, aren’t these things really just giant pinwheels? Paint the towers green and the blades orange and we’re in business.

The massive new turbines popping up in windy regions all around the world look cold and imposing. A few candy stripes and polka dots would give them a more whimsical appearance. Some glitter to reflect the sunshine would be even better.

It takes awhile for the artists to catch up with the industrialists sometimes. Yes, the plain colored wind turbines currently in vogue are perfectly serviceable. We could all drive blacks cars and live in white houses too. Weren’t those the original colors? Gray turbines are an eyesore. Who wants to live in a monochromatic world?

Windmills have been immortalized on canvas by many legendary artists, including Van Gogh, Monet and Rembrandt. The hero of Miguel de Cervantes classic tale, Don Quixote, had a few encounters with a windmill. The only people interested in immortalizing our modern day turbines work for the advertising departments at GE and Vestas.

The nuclear energy industry still has a few well placed lobbyists whispering in the ears of American politicians. That would explain why both US presidential candidates continue to champion nuclear energy despite its many drawbacks.

Too Toxic
Nuclear facilities produce radioactive waste which must be stored in leak proof containers for a hundred years or so. Radioactive material that falls into the wrong hands can be used to create horribly destructive weapons. The reactor meltdown at Chernobyl clearly illustrated the dangers of nuclear power production.

Wind turbines generate no toxic waste. If a wind turbine were to have a catastrophic failure, at the most it might topple over and injure someone standing on the ground nearby. Wind energy production doesn’t have the potential to make the surrounding environment uninhabitable for decades.

Too Costly
Poor countries are in no position to fund the construction and operation of nuclear power plants. It requires an enormous financial commitment to not only build the reactors, but also to provide enough security to safely store the radioactive output. The power must then be distributed across electrical grids to outlying communities. Nuclear power is really only an option for very wealthy countries ready to invest substantial sums of money in an extraordinarily dangerous process.

Solar panels are assembled and brought on line for a small fraction of the cost of a nuclear power plant. Remote villages can aim an array of solar panels skyward and collect enough energy directly from the sun to live comfortably.

Too Centralized
Wind turbines and solar panels make communities more self sufficient by reducing their dependence on incoming electrical lines and shipments of oil. Nuclear power presents an inferior solution by comparison.

Nothing relaxes the mind like a barefoot stroll across the park. The world slows down on a well worn bench under an old Oak tree. The energy I feel is in the wind, in the bright sunshine and right here under my feet. Often overlooked, grass has proven its worth to us time and time again.

In the middle of the Dark Ages, someone began harvesting alfalfa grass and using it as livestock feed in the winter months. By keeping domesticated animals alive year round, alfalfa hay helped cold weather communities thrive in the modern era.

Farmers still feed alfalfa to their livestock in the winter. But now a new type of grass is poised to change life as we know it. A January, 2008, United States study at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln showed that switchgrass (also known as prairie grass) produces five times more energy than it takes to grow. The infrastructure to burn switch grass as fuel is currently under construction.

Pelletizers
As the name suggests, pellitizers reduce switchgrass to pellets, which can then be used for home heating. Mobile pellitizers have only come out as prototypes so far, but the future looks promising. The day when farmers can bring their switchgrass crop in to the local cooperative and leave with enough fuel to heat their homes for a year may not be far off.

Better Ethanol
Most ethanol in the United States is produced from corn. Corn must be replanted every year and takes far more energy to produce than switchgrass. Switchgrass energy production is an environmentally friendly activity which reduces greenhouse gas emissions. And since switchgrass grows well in poor soil, it won’t impact food crops as directly as corn grown for ethanol.

The forecast calls for increasing wind power production in the near future. As a ridge of high pressure builds over cash strapped municipalities, utilities look for answers in gusty conditions out on the open prairie.

Expect some low grade disturbances as the dig it up and burn it crowd urges us to turn our backs to the wind. But for outdoor enthusiasts who enjoy a refreshing breeze, tomorrow looks like a good day for sailing.

Big Wind
General Electric understands the changing political climate and has invested in a variety of wind harvesting projects. The company recently announced its intention to spend $141 million on a wind farm along North Dakota’s border with South Dakota. The wind blows relentlessly on the Great Plains of North America.

New wind turbines rising up in West Virginia will supply electricity to Columbus, Ohio over a period of at least twenty years. Now that meteorologists have been tracking wind speeds for decades, scientists can accurately predict how much power a turbine will produce over the course of its lifetime. There’s no chance of the well running dry. Purchasers of energy love predictability.

Small Wind
Wind turbines designed for homes, farms and small communities are also gaining popularity in the US. Small turbines benefit the entire country by allowing individuals to lower their energy bills, take stress off the electrical grid and reduce greenhouse gases.

Isolated hamlets on the Alaskan frontier typically get by without incoming power lines. These towns rely on fuel shipments to survive in the winter. Small wind turbines give remote villages a level of autonomy which they have never enjoyed in the past. Wind works for America.

T. Boone Pickens has finally seen the light. Al Gore and the Sierra Club were correct all along in their assessment of America’s need to invest in alternative energy sources. As Pickens’s new clean energy commercials emphasize, our increasing dependence on foreign oil has lead to an enormous transfer of wealth from the United States to Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries.

Oil Intoxication
The Oil Companies got drunk during the Bush presidency, just like Wall Street. And now our addiction to sweet crude has left us in such a sorry state that seasonal price fluctuations send tremors throughout our entire economy. According to lifetime oil man Pickens, it’s a problem we can’t drill our way out of.

McCain/Bush Offer More Drilling
Apparently the Bush/McCain team never got the Pickens memo. Mr. Pickens says that more drilling will not break our dependence on foreign oil. This calls into question Republican sponsorship of new drilling off our coasts and in the Arctic National Wildlife Preserve. Instead Pickens favors heavy investment in alternative energy, like wind and solar power.

Pickens v. McCain
Despite his lifelong support of Republicans, Pickens obviously believes that President Bush will never deal effectively with the current crisis. His commercials clearly state that energy policy has to be a priority for the next president and Congress. He could have said that it can’t wait until the election, but he did not.

The senior senator from Arizona must be seething as he watches Pickens publicly advocate progressive energy solutions. John McCain’s energy policy is identical to George Bush’s in almost every detail and looks ineffectual when compared to the Pickens plan.

Peer down from the ninety ninth floor of an urban skyscraper and commuters look like little bugs. Every day thousands of worker bees cram into giant steel buildings to produce a little honey for their favorite customers. Unfortunately there’s never enough room on the narrow downtown streets to deliver all of these go getters to the hive on time. Enter mass transit.

Commuting daily from an outlying community into downtown will test anyone’s patience. Traffic crawls along at a snail’s pace. Parking is expensive. And with sky high fuel prices, every extra mile behind the wheel pinches the budget a little more. All of these obstacles are making mass transit an attractive option for a growing number of workers.

It makes sense to have parking structures and transit centers along the freeways out in the suburbs. Trains and buses can efficiently transport several people at once. Trains often run on electricity and buses on natural gas, so these vehicles generate less pollution.

Alternative fuel filling stations cost a lot to build right now. But buses make strong candidates for alternative fuels because they follow the same daily route and can refuel at the same pump every night.

GM, Honda and BMW have all begun selling hydrogen powered cars to a few well heeled customers in southern California. Large suburban transit centers would be ideal locations for hydrogen refueling stations. It would allow commuters to drive their hydrogen powered vehicles to the train station every day and fill up on the way home, thereby substantially reducing air pollution from automobile emissions. Welcome the future.

mass transit, trains, buses, hydrogen powered vehicles

While oil companies and public utilities continue to seek the Holy Grail of alternative energy, smaller businesses are quietly developing innovative new ways of reducing power consumption. The latest devices on the market conserve energy by automatically adjusting artificial light during the day. Several promising technologies have emerged.

Daylight Harvesting
Conventional light fixtures always burn at the same intensity. Manual dimmers have been around for a while now, but as the name suggests, they require someone to adjust the brightness by hand as called for during the day. However the newest light fixtures can automatically dim in proportion to the glow from the sun. So now that funky skylight will finally come in handy for something other than leaving a weird fade pattern on the carpet.

A Nebraska company called Axis Technologies has introduced a type of florescent lighting ballast that turns itself down gradually with an increase in sunlight. According to the company their product “allows significant and sustained lighting energy reduction without compromising lighting quality and can be integrated into new and existing fluorescent lighting without special requirements”.

Variable Lighting
American workers often ply their trade in cubicles or small offices with overhead fluorescent lights that stay on all day. Smarter lights that turn off or dim when a workspace occupant leaves use less energy according to a Canadian study.

The study was conducted in partnership with Canada’s Program on Energy Research and Development, Public Works and Government Services Canada, BC Hydro Power Smart, and Ledalite Architectural Products. Three lighting control devices showed promise: occupancy sensors that gradually switch off lights when people leave a work area, light sensors that slowly dim lights when there is enough daylight to maintain illumination levels, and personal lighting controls that workers operate from their computer screens.

Energy Conservation, Light Conservation, Daylight Harvesting

To understand the importance of energy, try turning off all the power to your home for 24 hours, then see how your day goes. No, you don’t get to jump in the SUV and drive to a motel either. Energy is a vital resource and diversifying our energy production portfolio will strengthen America in the long run.

Protect the Economy
Whenever the OPEC countries decide to squeeze us, they reduce oil production and trigger an increase in the price of gas in America. This wreaks havoc on our economy. Our country’s dependence on foreign oil unnecessarily jeopardizes America’s national economic security.

Support Local Farmers
American farmers traditionally sell their products on global commodities markets. As a result, Oklahoma wheat farmers must compete with Russian wheat farmers and Colorado cattle ranchers compete with Brazilian cattle ranchers. But the high cost of living in our country puts American farmers in a bind. Foreign farmers on the other hand don’t supply power to the US because energy is expensive to transport. Wind farms sell all of their output to local utilities.

Save on Equipment Costs
Oil wells run dry after a few years of pumping. Then you have to pull up the pipes, plug the hole and go drill another well. After a wind turbine goes up, it continues to generate electricity for as long as the wind blows. Wind turbines have a much longer shelf life than oil wells.
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Seeking the perfect gift for that environmentally conscious special someone in your life? Why not shop for your loved one on the Chicago Climate Futures Exchange (CCFE)? Carbon offset futures not romantic enough for you? It’s comforting to know that you can also purchase carbon offsets from Qantas airlines before your next flight to Australia or relax in a carbon neutral luxury resort. The possibilities are endless now that a new kind of green has flooded the markets.

The Exchange
Investors help to reduce world wide CO2 emissions because the carbon offsets they purchase fund ongoing conservation projects. The Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) first opened for trading in 2003. It is “the world’s first and North America’s only active voluntary, legally binding integrated trading system to reduce emissions of all six major greenhouse gases (GHGs), with offset projects worldwide.”

Reforestation
Forests combat global warming because trees capture and store carbon dioxide. A number of conservation organizations in the business of selling carbon offsets have initiated ambitious reforestation programs in environmentally sensitive areas. Carbonfund.org is one such group. It funds reforestation projects in places like the Tensas River Valley, Louisiana and Rivas, Nicaragua. In the Tensas River Valley, Carbonfund.org supports a 1,100-acre project which will “help restore native bottomland hardwood species to Louisiana and protect over 400 species of mammals.”
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Americans love a challenge. The need for long term energy independence becomes more obvious with each passing day, but we just keep finding new ways of satisfying our voracious appetite for power. Politicians should take note of recent trends, which are turning farmers into sellers in the market for gas and electricity. Here are some examples of the new energy farms in action.

Methane
You wouldn’t normally expect to have a manure broker knocking on your door, but gas companies are looking at livestock waste in a whole new light these days. Pacific Gas & Electric recently opened a pipeline that will deliver methane to the utility from a manure to gas facility at a 5000 cow farm near Fresno, California. A machine called a digester converts the animal waste into energy. PG&E has announced plans to construct more methane pipelines in the coming years.

Biofuel
In the last century, public investment in biofuel often went toward the production of ethanol, made from corn in the US or from sugar in Brazil. Now our country has pivoted to switchgrass as a superior energy crop. Farmers can mow or bale switchgrass using conventional equipment. It’s a hardy, adaptable perennial native to the American plains. Once established, switchgrass can be harvested for 10 years or more before replanting. And unlike corn, switchgrass produces five times more energy than it takes to grow.

The Department of Energy oversees switchgrass farms in Alabama, Nebraska and the Dakotas. Environmentalists like switchgrass because the plant has a deep root system which uses water efficiently, retains nitrogen and prevents topsoil erosion. Switchgrass farmers also spend considerably less on tilling, planting and fertilizing, thereby reducing their own energy consumption.
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