Preparing
for ‘the end of the hydrocarbon age’
Renewable
energy and the pursuit of peace
by
Colleen O’Connor
When
Amory Lovins talks about energy, as he did at the Energy Summit held in San
Francisco last summer, he is like a human computer run amok. Without pause,
he spews out reams of statistics, case studies, and the latest trends in renewable
energy. In San Francisco, the room was packed with local energy and environmental
leaders seeking the grail of a solution to California’s energy crisis.
Lovins, cofounder and CEO of the Rocky Mountain Institute in Old Snowmass, Colo.,
is a rock star of the sustainability set.
In his Power Point presentation, Lovins flashes photographs of green-built houses with no air conditioning that remain cool at up to 115 degrees Fahrenheit. At rapid clip, he moves through discussions of solar cells, wind power, and a prototype for SUVs that are powered by fuel cells. They’d use no more power than a regular SUV now uses just for the air conditioner, he says.
And then he mentions the simple fluorescent lamp. It uses four to five times less electricity, he explains, and lasts 8 to 13 times longer than an incandescent lamp – saving tens of dollars more than it costs.
"In suitable numbers – half a billion are made each year – it can cut by a fifth the evening peak load that causes blackouts in overloaded Bombay, boost poor American chicken farmers profits by a fourth, or raise destitute Haitian households’ disposable cash income by up to a third," he says. "So we can make the world safer one light bulb at a time – its not just about energy."
There’s a moment of silence as these power players ponder the implications: Something as simple as a fluorescent lamp can be an instrument of global harmony.
An energy Manhattan Project?
Like the man says: Its not just about energy. Since the terrorist attacks on September 11, energy conservation is no longer just about saving the environment. Its now layered with new meaning: national security and world peace.
"What’s needed is the energy equivalent of the Manhattan Project, the project that developed the atomic bomb in World War II," said Jesse Jackson in a newspaper column he wrote shortly after Sept. 11.
"At the very least, we should take $8.3 billion scheduled to be wasted next year on Star Wars – on top of the $100 billion already spent – and invest it in an energy independence project."
An editorial in The Los Angeles Times demanded the same thing. But it used a gentler World War II example, offering up the vision of dramatic lifestyle changes made in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor.
"People didn’t just do without; they did things differently. Victory gardens – 20,000 of them in parks, vacant plots and back yards – produced 40 percent of all the vegetables grown in the country. People also changed their tastes. Because rubber was scarce, companies stopped making women’s rubber girdles, and fashion designers created new dress styles in response. In essence, during World War II, Americans saved, substituted, recycled and proudly did with less. They invented the idea of ‘green’ – before they had the term – and put it together with red, white, and blue."
On the east coast Arjun Makhijani, president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research in Takoma Park, Md., also advocated radical American lifestyle change using potent examples of his own. "Active, non-violent resistance to evil that goes to the root of the problem in a manner that everyone could participate was the hallmark of the Gandhian struggle for India’s independence, known as Satyagraha," he said, "just as it was of the U.S. civil rights movement, and the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa. Making salt, making cloth, and desegregating lunch counters and buses were everyday acts that mobilized millions."
Freedom movements in India, South Africa, and the U.S. Victory gardens and the Manhattan Project. These are powerful inspirations for a tough problem. According to a recent poll, 78 percent of Americans want more energy conservation. Eight in ten people favor more solar and wind power. But our actions have not yet caught up with our vision. The U.S. consumes 25 percent of the world’s energy, according to the Environmental Protection Agency – more than what is used in Western Europe, South America, and Central America combined. That’s nine times the amount of energy consumed in Africa, and more than three times that consumed in China, which has four times as many people. By contrast, renewable energy – with the exception of hydroelectric power – comprises just 2 percent of U.S. electricity production.
Signs of an emerging energy shift
Change may seem hopeless. But listen to the wisdom teachers of any religious tradition, and you’ll hear about the transformative power of crisis. Breakthroughs, they say, rarely come without breakdowns. If the months following the terrorist attacks are any indication, Americans may be heading toward just such a turning point. Maybe a more accurate term is "tipping point," popularized by journalist Malcolm Gladwell as the juncture at which critical mass is reached, when radical social change happens swiftly and unexpectedly.
Consider these recent events:
Growing commitment to renewable energy reaches from state and local governments into the ivory towers of academia. Pennsylvania recently made headlines because 25 of its colleges and universities – more than any other state in the country – are now buying wind power from new Pennsylvania wind farms.
They’re in the vanguard of a resurgence of interest in wind power, which is fueled by its increased effectiveness and reduced cost. Wind power plants now produce more than 3.1 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity each year – enough electricity to supply the needs of every household in the state of Montana, with some left over
Americans also are experiencing a resurgence of interest in solar power, perhaps because its cost has decreased 71 percent since 1980. This summer, the national conference of the American Solar Energy Society had the highest attendance in its history. "People are thirsty for knowledge," says Marion Barritt, national chair of the conference.
Meanwhile, that same week in California, a leading homebuilder named Clarum announced an agreement to make solar electric power a standard feature in two of its new communities. AstroPower, a Delaware-based solar company, will supply 277 solar electric home power systems within the next three years. They’ll be standard on every home in the new neighborhoods, and they will also be net-metered.
"By including these features as standard, Clarum is enabling homeowners to reduce their energy consumption by up to 60 percent," says Bob Ruggio, manager of residential system sales at AstroPower.
Fuel cells at Yellowstone and a ‘green’ skyscraper
Even national parks are investing in renewable energy. Last May, fuel-cell technology debuted at Yellowstone, the nation’s oldest national park. Fuel cells, the cleanest emerging source of alternative energy, convert energy produced by a chemical reaction directly into electric power.
To better spread the seeds of this innovative technology to the American masses, the 4.5-kilowatt, propane-powered fuel cell was installed at the park’s West Entrance in West Yellowstone, Mont., where it provides electricity and heating to offices and ticket kiosks. This location now draws exceptional attention to the introduction of the cutting-edge technology to Yellowstone because, over the next year, more than one million visitors will pass within a few yards of the fuel cell. Education is paramount, so the staff are demonstrating how the fuel cell works to park visitors – many of whom will return to their homes around the country, spreading the news to their friends and neighbors.
As an emerging technology, fuel cells are now touted as one of the most promising solutions for an energy-independent future. They’re popping up everywhere. At the Energy Summit held in San Francisco, for example, Amory Lovins zoomed in on a slide of the Conde Nast building in Manhattan, which is the country’s first ‘green’ skyscraper.
"It was designed to use half the energy of an ordinary office building," he says, "and with the saved construction costs, the developers were able to equip it with the two most reliable known power sources – fuel cells and solar cells."
Like Lovins, many experts believe that fuel cells will play a critical role in the coming hydrogen economy, which is expected to eliminate the carbon burning of fossil fuels by using pure hydrogen in fuel cells.
Perhaps most remarkable is that the head of a major oil company is leading the pack. Just three weeks after Sept. 11, Phil Watts, chairman of Royal Dutch Shell, stunned the audience at the United Nations Development Program when he announced that Shell was preparing for "The End of the Hydrocarbon Age."
His vision of the future is like a road with two forks. One is an evolutionary path, moving at a stately pace from coal to natural gas to renewables: By 2050, petroleum’s current 40 percent global energy share would decrease to 25 percent, the natural gas market share would increase to 20 percent, and all else would come from nuclear and various renewable sources.
But the other path is a radical shift in thinking that he believes will lead to "the potential for a truly hydrogen economy, growing out of new and exciting developments in fuel cells, advanced hydrocarbon technologies and carbon dioxide sequestration."
The end of the hydrocarbon age, experts say, is rushing toward us because we now consume fossil fuels 100,000 times faster than they are made. Eventually we’ll run out of them, but hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe. Its also non-toxic, renewable, and offers more energy per pound.
Fast-growing industry
Fuel cells, predicted to be the driver of the coming hydrogen economy, aren’t exactly new. They fueled the 1960s Gemini spacecraft, still power the Space Shuttle, and have been utilized by NASA on other space missions. A fuel-cell industry is growing quickly, and leading companies include Avista Laboratories of Spokane, Wash.; Energy Research Corporation of Danbury, Conn.; and H Power of Belleville, N.J., which made the fuel cell used at Yellowstone. Fuel cells are becoming available in products such as computers, cell phones, residential and small business power generators, and large-scale power generators. All major car companies have fuel-cell cars in development, and this summer, the DaimlerChrysler NECAR 5 powered through the single longest trip yet in a fuel-cell car: more than 3000 miles from San Francisco to Washington, D.C.
"I think fuel cells are a very important part of the energy mix," says Lovins. "It’s important to use them in ways that make sense, that integrate stationery and mobile deployment so each can help the other happen faster."
Lovins notes that just a 2.7 miles-per-hour gain in the fuel economy of America’s cars could displace our Persian Gulf imports entirely. It’s a popular concept these days. Jesse Jackson likes to say that if we all drove cars like the hybrid Honda Insight, which gets 70 miles per gallon, we’d save more oil than OPEC produces each year.
To learn more
Episcopal Power & Light and The Regeneration Project: affiliated with the Episcopal Church, this organization works on climate change. Thanks to advances in energy efficiency technologies, the deregulation of the electric industry and the development of renewable energy resources, religious people have a historic opportunity to put their faith into action and help reduce the threat of global warming.
www.theregenerationproject.org
National Religious Partnership for the Environment: NRPE is a formal alliance of major faith groups and denominations across the spectrum of Jewish and Christian communities and organizations in the U.S. NRPE integrates care for God’s creation throughout religious life: theology, worship, social teaching, education, congregational life and public policy initiative. It seeks to provide inspiration, moral vision and commitment to social justice for all efforts to protect the natural world and human well-being within it.
Target Earth: a national movement of Christians active in 15 countries – buying endangered lands, protecting people, saving the jaguar, sharing the love of Jesus, reforesting ravaged terrain.