Alternative Energy: Hope versus Reality

The high price of oil has reinvigorated alternative energy possibilities.  Chief among these are solar power, wind power, and biofuels.  Hydroelectric power is mature enough to be excluded and thermal power is too small to consider currently.

Solar power benefits from one obvious point - our earth is already a solar-powered system.  Additionally, there have been large advancements in solar panel technology in the last several years, notably from MIT students and researchers.  Combined with better battery technology, solar power has become feasible for many "green-home" applications.  A simple internet search will reveal many clever builders and home owners, some of whom have gone off the electric grid entirely.  Yet, the technology there does not scale up, nor does it appear likely the average consumer would willingly change their lifestyle to cope with the necessary trade-offs.

On a larger scale than single dwellings, solar power still suffers from energy storage and transmission issues.  Simply put, how is excess energy stored for later use and how is solar power creation delivered to the grid without losing significant portions of it?  Current technology still does not deliver the same power for the same cost as our current coal, oil, and natural gas electric grid.  Large-scale solar farms also require significant amounts of land.  People may like the idea, but no one seems to want a facility built near them - the "not in my backyard" syndrome (NIMBY).

Wind energy is another "clean" source of renewable energy often discussed.  Yet, serious downsides remain.  As with solar power, large tracts of land are required to produce meaningful energy.  Besides basic NIMBY issues, there is growing anecdotal evidence that wind farms cause hearing and nervous problems to people living near them.  Some environmentalists have claimed they can interfere with bird flight patterns, among other things.  These complaints will make it even harder to site large number of windfarms in the future.  Even if we could, some commentators have mentioned we could build windfarms on all currently-proposed sites and still be disappointed with the output.

Biofuels hold great promise, mainly for internal-combustion engines as a substitute for gasoline.  There are already many kits built by DIY tinkers and inventors that can convert cars and trucks to run on cooking oil and/or other biomass.  Some cities, like Hoover, Alabama, are running their entire fleet off alternative fuels.  Hoover has an operation that takes used cooking oil from area restaurants to create biodiesel fuel for its 160 plus biodiesel vehicles.  They also send woodchips and other biomass to a plant in south Alabama that creates ethanol from it. Together these two programs have made Hoover 90% self-sufficient in providing their own vehicle fuel!

Large-scale ethanol production in the US, however, has mainly used corn as the base.  The increased corn demand caused by ethanol production has caused food prices to spike, not just in the US, but all over world since corn is used in so many products.  The increased demand for corn also requires more land to be cultivated.  These two factors, among others, has led many commentators to declare ethanol to be a net loss economically and environmentally.