Alternative Renewable Energy - Windmills

Abstract

America is in a transitional time.  We are on the precipice of renovating the way we think, the way we produce electricity, and how we use it.  With our current usage of fossil fuels as a means to produce electricity as well as the expectation of energy consumption to increase dramatically world-wide, we are faced with important decisions to make.  Currently, we do not have the infrastructure capable of handling such a revolution, nor do we have the regional oversight to direct it.  Nevertheless, it is a problem that will inevitably be faced as our society continues to flourish.

Alternative Renewable Energy - Windmills

Many times throughout the course of history society has found itself in the midst of a transition from one way of living and thinking to the next.  Today is no different.  Right now we are making history - we are in the necessary process of shifting our ideas and methods of energy production from harmful, uncertain and out-dated fossil fuels to cleaner, renewable resources.  This is not an easy process.  This is a metamorphosis which inevitably involves a conglomeration of technological, political, economical, social as well as environmental movement on the whole of society carrying implications far greater than what we can yet imagine for our future.  Though there are many natural resources at our disposal to utilize in achieving this goal, solar and geothermal sources for example, I will focus on perhaps the fastest growing and cleanest one available to us at this time:  wind.

Facing the Facts

Certainly when oil and coal where first discovered, they were plentiful.  There was so much more being found and produced than we were capable of using.  It was a booming time for our country, with the advent of the industrial revolution on our horizon and cross-country transportation rising from its infancy to transform the nation's frame of mind about conducting business.  America easily and exponentially grew around this fast flowing supply of energy and for many years continued to do so without a second thought as to just how long this blessing would last.  By the time that became a concern, the infrastructure was already established to handle energy for the most part primarily in fossil-fuel form - coal and oil.  There was negligible, if any, foresight into a shift in energy dependence from these methods.  Consequentially, the infrastructure we rely on was not initially built with the capacity to store and transfer energy developed from other methods.  Furthermore, as the decades pass, the infrastructure we have relied on so heavily continues to crumble, prompting the necessity of swift and decisive action.

How much oil is left?

The truth is, nobody really knows for sure.  Even with all of our technological tools, the most we can do is derive an estimate or a best case scenario.  No doubt there are still reserves world-wide that lie in wait for their discovery.  However, it is never wise to make guess in the future trajectory of a country based on something so widely unknown.  There are numerous other ways to continue the production of fossil fuels from known resources, but they quickly begin to lose their cost-effectiveness when weighing the production and processing costs against the time and effort needed to replace and rework an infrastructure that will need such attention whether or not we continue down the path of using fossil fuels.

What is known is that within the contiguous U.S., we have long since passed our peak of production; we have already depleted the oil easiest to access.  Even with the exploitation of Alaskan reserves, America has been in a steady decline of oil production for the last two and a half decades.  America has long since shifted from an oil-exporting country to an oil-importing country.  In addition, there has relatively recently been the emergence and growth of industrialized nations all over the world who are also dependent on oil such as China and the Middle East.  Given the future of other countries still on the precipice of their own revolution, it is entirely logical to expect the reserves of the world's oil to follow at least the same curve of peak and decline in production that America's already has, or possibly even more pronounced if the demand sharply exceeds the world's ability to supply for it  (Czúcz, 2010). 

What is also known is how much oil we in America use.  Strahan (2009) said it in such a stark visual way, "Eighty-five million barrels.  That's how much oil we consume every day.  It's a staggering amount - enough to fill over 5,400 Olympic swimming pools - and demand is expected to keep on rising, despite the impending supply crunch."  Eighty-five million, a day.  That's over 31 billion barrels a year.  Just for America. 

Large numbers can be a little difficult to wrap your mind around, so let me illustrate a little further just what that number means.  One barrel of oil is 42 gallons.  If you used 42,000 gallons of oil a day, it would take you just shy of 2,738 years to have used merely one billion barrels.  In order to use 31 billion barrels in less than 3,000 years, you would have to use over 1.3 million gallons per day.  Every day.  No exceptions.  America uses that much oil in one year.  And America is still growing.

Keep in mind that America only produces about 2 billion barrels a year (Czúcz, 2010).  That means we have to import the other 29 simply to meet our needs - if we stay at the same rate.  But America is still growing.  Where can we expect this energy to come from?   

How much energy does America produce from wind?

We aren't entirely reliant upon oil for our energy needs.  In fact, coal is the fossil fuel of choice when it comes to electricity generation.  In addition, there is the silver lining that renewable resources have been on the rise for some time.  "Although wind energy accounted for less than 1 percent of total U.S. energy production capacity, its growth rate [from 1996 to 2006] was significantly higher than the . . . traditional electricity generation technologies that use oil" (Sine, 2009). However, wind only accounts for less than one percent of the total electricity yield, but it remains the fastest growing alternative energy available.

            "The North American wind power market experienced another year of sustained growth,    with 12 GW of new capacity installed in 2009.  Of which nearly 10GW was installed in the United States.  These new installations brought US installed capacity to 35,086 MW by the end of 2009 and it is expected to reach 39 GW by the end of 2010."  (Wind Power Report, 2010).

How much energy do we need from wind to replace fossil fuels in electricity production?

            At the moment, wind generated power accounts for 0.8% of electricity production, with 71.3% produced from fossil fuels, 19.4% from nuclear power, and an additional 8.5% from other renewable sources.  Future targets hope to increase electricity production by a factor of 10 by 2025, bringing wind power production to 8% of the whole.  Assuming proportional growth in hydroelectric, geothermal, biomass and solar sources, this rate would completely supply electricity demand with renewable resources instead of fossil fuels or nuclear energy.  (Talbot, 2009).   However, it doesn't have to be that way.  Wind can do more.

If electricity is produced from coal, why is our dependency on oil such a concern?

            No man is an island unto himself, and no one aspect of life can be affected without an effect rippling through many other portions of life.  This is also true for the web of energy usage. 

            It is no secret that there is a strain on our oil supply.  The importation of 29 billion barrels of oil a year drives our economy and our country to do what is necessary to ensure our quality and way of life.  This leads to wars or making deals with countries we would not otherwise support.  Without check, this dependence begins to force our hand ever and ever more toward the darker shades of moral ambiguity.  And it is a weakness.  America could soon be over a barrel itself if one of those countries we relied on to supply us with our energy fix decided not to sell.

            Deep down we know this.  We know we can no longer continue down this dark and destructive path.  There has been a hard enough push from environmentalists that this issue has become interwoven into the new fabric of American living.  This is evident in the shift in the manufacture of automobiles.  For a long time, there has been a call for electric cars.  Mostly, it has been as a repercussion for emissions, global warming and greenhouse gases, but recently it has also been about oil and energy conservation.  Electric cars or hybrids are quickly becoming the "green" thing to drive.

            But that energy still has to come from somewhere.  A shift in the way we build are engines will inescapably precipitate a higher demand on electricity, including the deep-rooted need for a stronger more sustainable source to produce it as well as the infrastructure capable of handling it properly.

            "Let's assume that, 10 years from now, 250,000 electric cars will glide home every evening in, say the Raleigh-Durham Triangle, and plug in.  If Duke Energy did nothing            from now till then to prepare, brownouts would be unavoidable, especially in the          summer, when the air conditioners would be working hard.  If Duke met the challenge in           purely conventional ways, by burning more coal and gas, it would just be shifting the             carbon footprint of drivers from vehicles to other, more concentrated generators.  One        recent analysis, by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, assumed a scenario in which 25           percent of householders drove electric cars and plugged in at 5 p.m.  Up to 160 large          power plants would be needed nationwide to supply the added electricity."  (Avishai, 2009).

Unfortunately, many obstacles must be overcome first.

            "While its size and complexity have grown immensely, the grid's basic structure has changed little since Thomas Edison switched on a distribution system serving 59 customers in lower Manhattan in 1882."  (Talbot, 2009).   This statement sums up perhaps the greatest physical difficulty in supplanting fossil fuels as a primary energy source with anything renewable.  The electric grid was built as needed, with little to no fore-planning or technological innovations integrated into the process.  The existing grid was manufactured around areas of high population density, and does not currently support the transmission distances necessary to carry power from the best renewable energy production areas.  It is also currently incapable of compensating for the instable flow of wind-production.  (Talbot, 2009).   "Researchers calculate, however, that reaching this goal would require a $60 billion investment in 12,650 miles of new transmission lines to plug wind farms into the grid and help balance their output with that of other electricity sources and with consumer demand."  (Talbot, 2009).  

            A considerably larger problem is the regulatory system in place responsible for effecting change in the infrastructure.  While there is an organization responsible for national electricity rates and licensure of transmission across state lines (the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission or FERC), it has no control over the location or the way in which the infrastructure is actually built.  That power remains in control of the individual states.  As the Lifeline for Renewable Power, 2009, points out:

            "In the 1990s, many states revised their regulations in an attempt to introduce          competition into the energy marketplace.  Utilities had to open up their transmission lines           to other power producers.  One effect of these regulatory moves was that companies had     less incentive to invest in the grid than in new power plants, and no one had a clear      responsibility for expanding the transmission infrastructure. At the same time, the more       open market meant that producers began trying to sell power to regions farther away,     placing new burdens on existing connections between networks.  The result has been a           national transmission shortage. 

           

            These problems may now be the biggest obstacle to wider use of renewable energy, which otherwise looks increasingly viable."

           

            Essentially, the problem of our crumbling and antiquated infrastructure is compounded by the lack of regulatory oversight consistently stratified across state borders.  There is no hierarchy in place with a centrally located governing body which is absolutely necessary to standardize such a nationally integrated system.

            Unfortunately, until either this body is created or the FERC is empowered with this responsibility, the hope for progressive and preventive infrastructure renovation on the scale necessary to facilitate our progression into the future of wind energy is somber.  Without the legislation in place, the best we can hope for at this point is a long and twisted road of hodge-podge patchwork band-aids to the system put in place only when the system fails.

            Furthermore, this is a capitalist society.  That reason alone stalls both the utility companies and renewable-energy investors in a holding pattern from fear of the risk of making a bad or non-productive investment. 

            What that means is that the interest of the utility companies is only in line with providing stable electricity to the populace inasmuch as it makes a profit.  The CEOs and those in control of these companies have a vested obligation to make decisions that produce a bottom line for the company.  They have a duty to the share-holders to expand the company in such a way that makes money.  For better or worse, the consequence of running business in this style is awareness of proper incentives.  Because it is simply not a wise business decision to pour the resources into building new transmission lines, they "are reluctant to build new transmission capacity until they know that the power output of remote wind and solar farms will justify it."  (Talbot, 2009).

            The same principle applies for the renewable-energy investors.  They are  ". . . reluctant to build new wind or solar farms until they know they can get their power to market.  Most often, they choose to wait for new transmission capacity before bothering. . ."

(Talbot, 2009).

So what is the next step?

            Urban planning is not a new concept.  Some of the earliest known examples in the world come from the Indus valley, notably Moenjodaro and Harappa.  It has revolutionized the way people live their lives in contributing greatly to the quality of life since the bronze age.  This system was utilized in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Rome, and Greece, continuing to be an effective way to create and expand cities and countries.  Urban planning was used to dictate where roads, sewers and market places were built.  It was the organizing concept responsible for allowing people to live in large cities effectively.  Many wonderful cities alive today, even in America, were built using this practical approach.  Though this method has been greatly exploited during the original construction of cities, this idea has even more gifts to give civilization if we would only apply it more forcefully towards maintaining our cities as well.

            On the bright side, America already has the workforce it needs to make this happen.  On a given day, and especially during election season, you can turn on any news channel and expect to hear about our current economic crisis -- how many factories are outsourcing and shutting down, how unemployment is on the rise, how Americans are losing their jobs or are not able to find work.  A unified attempt to rebuild the infrastructure would give job opportunities nationwide to laborers and engineers alike who are in desperate need of employment.  Featherstone points out one county's story in her article, Help Wanted for Green Jobs, (2009):

            Clinton County -- part of what is called the North Country -- has endured much upheaval   in recent years.  Plattsburgh Air Force Base -- the oldest military post in the nation --            closed in 1995 and has been turned into an industrial park, occupied by a mix of biotech,        pharmaceutical, engineering and other companies.  The area's many small farmers     struggle, like small farmers everywhere.  Manufacturing jobs have been gradually   ebbing.  But the North Country is one of the windiest spots in the nation and thus has            become a thriving Gold Coast for the wind industry, with five wind farms producing a   total of 690 megawatts of clean energy."

            We also already have numerous plans on how to make it happen.  There is a wealth of information and resources available.  There is a large community actively involved in researching the problems and developing solutions with a great interest in solving this problem before it becomes a crisis.  There have even been recent congressional hearings before the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.  

            We certainly possess both the technology to start the process and the ingenuity to face the problems as they arise in accomplishing this enormous task.  What we lack at this point is the coherent oversight and the organizational structure to set this plan in motion and the drive to see it completed before it becomes a tangible threat to our way of life. 

            On the one hand, given the relative historical infancy of electrical technology (the first distribution system created a mere 130 years ago), perhaps we shouldn't be so hard on ourselves.  This is not the only issue our country faces, and though it has the potential to become critical if we ignore it, it is also not the most pressing.  We know it is a dilemma that we will have to focus on, and the sooner the better.  However imperfect we may be in our methods of operating as a country in an entirely coherent way, all signs point to the problem at least being addressed.

            What we need in order to expedite this process is a shift in priority that supplants using our many resources to make money with building our future and our country.   We need some champions that can get the ball rolling from the top by creating incentives that appeal to our best interest in a way that motivates the utility companies and investors.  Perhaps we need a little more of that original American spirit -- the one that encourages us to step out onto the ledge of the unknown and take risks for the promise of a better future. 

           

References

 (2010).  The Wind Power Report:  Seventh Edition, 2010.  Wind Power Report, 71-695.  Retrieved from Business Source Premier database.

Avishai, B.  (2009).  THE CONNECTED CAR. Inc, 31(9), 74.  Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Czúcz, B., Gathman, J., & Mcpherson, G.  (2010).  The Impending Peak and Decline of Petroleum Production:  an Underestimated Challenge for Conservation of Ecological Integrity.  Conservation Biology, 24(4), 948-956.  doi:10.1111/j.1523-1739.2010.01503.x.

Featherstone, L.  (2009).  Help Wanted for Green Jobs.  Nation, 288(6), 18-24.  Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

Sine, W., & Lee, B.  (2009).  Tilting at Windmills?  The Environmental Movement and the Emergence of the U.S. Wind Energy Sector.  Administrative Science Quarterly, 54(1), 123-155.  Retrieved from Business Source Premier database.

Strahan, D.  (2009).  Scraping the bottom of the barrel.  (Cover story).  New Scientist, 204(2737), 34-39.  Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

Talbot, D.  (2009).  "Lifeline for Renewable Power.  (cover story)."  Technology Review, 112(1), 40.  Retrieved from MasterFILE Premier database.