The Great Lakes Zephyr - Wind Energy & Hydrogen Journal

The Three Technologies That Will Blow Oil Away

© By Daniel A. Stafford
01/24/2005

There are currently three relatively new technologies poised to put oil to rest in the United States. Each has been years in development, each is reaching a production price range that is directly competitive with traditional power sources. Together, they overcome seasonal limitations on renewables generation and vastly reduce atmospheric pollutants, virtually eliminating carbon dioxide being added to the atmosphere in their use. There is enough energy potential in the United States that the U.S. could in effect become an energy exporter.

Biofuels for the heating and transportation sectors:

The first is biofuels - especially biodiesel. ( http://www.biodiesel.org ) Biodiesel is wonderful, because it can be run in conventional diesel engines without modification. Additionally, (unlike even petroleum diesel) just above three units of energy are gained for every unit of energy put in to produce biodiesel. The added energy comes from sunlight stored by plants while they are growing. Biodiesel is derived from vegetable oils. It greatly reduces PAH emissions, nearly eliminates Nitrous PAH emissions, and has no sulfur content. Sulfurous gasses produced by burning petroleum diesel are a major component of acid rain. Ozone production from burning biodiesel is roughly half that of petrodiesel. Carbon dioxide emitted from burning biodiesel is the same carbon dioxide the plants the fuel came from took out of the air while growing. In contrast, the carbon dioxide put into the air from burning petrodiesel had been buried underground for millions of years.

Biodiesel is so clean, burning it will clean out sediments deposited in your fuel system from burning petroleum diesel. Be prepared to replace fuel filters for awhile if you switch from dirty petrodiesel to clean biodiesel. This also greatly extends the life of a diesel engine burning biodiesel. (Diesel engines already are long-lived compared to their gasoline counterparts.)

Biodiesel can also be burned in place of petroleum heating oil. Oil furnace technology could see a significant boost as people become more aware of the benefits of biodiesel over petroleum oil.

There are two other wonderful benefits to using biodiesel. They generate more demand for agricultural products, which will help improve the economics of American farmers. They also require no modifications to existing diesel engines or oil furnaces to use. In fact, using biodiesel that meets ASTM standard D 6751 will not not void the warranty on American-made diesel engines.

Biodiesel is able to be blended with petroleum diesel in any percentage. It is sold in various blends in every state of the nation, with more stations being added all the time. There are currently about twenty producers of biodiesel and twenty proposed production companies within the United States.

Willie Nelson recently started a biodiesel distribution company as a companion to his Farm Aid efforts. You can find his company's site at http://www.wnbiodiesel.com/index.html .

Additionally, ethanol and methanol are useful fuels for transportation purposes, and can supplement biodiesel use.



Wind-generated electricity:

The second technology is wind energy. Wind energy generation systems are going online at an accelerated rate around the world, including here in the U.S. (See http://www.awea.org ) Wind energy is also cost-competitive with fossil fuels and cheaper than nuclear power when generated with utility-scale turbines in the 1.5 MW to 3 MW size range. There is enough wind energy potential in three states to produce as much electricity as the entire U.S. currently consumes. The U.S. has more potential for wind energy production than any nation on Earth.

Additionally, land-based wind energy production often is owned by cooperatives of farmers, or produced on farmland leased from farmers. The farmers can still grow crops right up to the base of the wind mills. This generates much-needed additional revenue for our farmers.

Wind mills kill less birds by far than stationary communications towers and high-rise buildings, as they make a gentle whooshing sound that scares the birds off, in addition to the slow and usually visible rotation of their huge blades. Yet despite this, their noise levels are so quiet that you almost need to be standing under them to hear them.

Wind is generally more available in winter months than in summer months, although it is available year-round at significant levels. This means that wind power income will tend to go up for farmers precisely when they are growing the least crops.

In time, the U.S. could export great quantities of wind-produced energy to other nations, most likely in the form of burnable hydrogen, whose only exhaust is water and a small amount of nitrous oxide.


Stirling cycle solar power dishes:

The third major technology development is Stirling cycle solar energy dishes.
( http://eetimes.com/at/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleId=53700939 ) These systems have been in development by DOE and others for nearly twenty years. Unlike all other solar energy systems, Stirling cycle systems routinely achieve 30% or better efficiency. Once mass production of these systems is begun, they should be producing electricity at prices about in the middle of the production cost range for electricity in the U.S.

It is estimated that an area of the Mojave Desert 100 miles by 100 miles filled with solar Stirling dishes could produce as much electricity as the U.S. currently consumes. Additionally, this power is most available on clear, sunny summer days - at precisely the opposite times as when wind energy is most available.

Used in conjunction with wind energy, Stirling solar dishes could power direct electricity consumption, production of truly clean hydrogen, and increase energy available for export by the U.S.


Major transformation potential for the U.S. economy:

These technologies will all require large amounts of manufacturing capacity, and installation and maintenance crews. There is the potential to create literally millions of U.S. jobs in the energy sector. Additionally, all the U.S. dollars currently spent importing oil and protecting oil resource access would become unnecessary. Large amounts of U.S. dollars would be spent in the U.S. economy instead of elsewhere, and energy exports could add large amounts of income for U.S. energy producers, including our farmers. All of this would drive up U.S. GNP instead of being a drain on GNP as oil has become.


Conclusion:

The time has come for the U.S. government to move it's energy subsidies into these areas of energy technology and away from oil, coal, and nuclear power. The time has come to retrofit existing U.S. vehicle fleets to run on biodiesel or ethanol and methanol.

Our economy desperately needs this. Our farmers desperately need this. Our workers desperately need this. In the light of global warming, our PLANET desperately needs this.

These technologies will become more and more commonplace with or without government subsidies. Requirements for government funds to subsidize our existing fossil fuel energy infrastructure will only increase, as will the disastrous costs in environmental damage and global conflicts over ever-scarcer fossil fuels.

These technologies are the leaders to an energy revolution in our nation and our world, but combined with new technologies for energy conservation and energy efficient building techniques, our energy future could be incredibly brilliant and a wonderful example and benefactor of our entire world.

The time is now for We The People to stand up and demand that our government put their efforts fully behind these technologies.



Daniel A. Stafford publishes the weblog "The Great Lakes Zephyr - Wind Energy & Hydrogen Journal" ( http://www.whizzyrds.com/Windblog.html )
Dan is also a highly experienced telecommunications technician, and advocate of progressive political policies, and an accomplished poet.