Observations on The National Clean Energy Summit
I had the privilege of attending the National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas on August 18th and 19th. Sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the University of Nevada Las Vegas, and the Center for American Progress, the summit brought to together an extraordinary number of state and national policy makers to discuss the mandate for a clean energy agenda.
The conference opened with President Bill Clinton and included such major luminaries as T. Boone Pickens, Robert Rubin, and Michael Bloomberg, not to mention the governors of Arizona, Colorado, and Utah. In addition, there were speakers from academia, utilities, finance, and technology related initiatives.
I want to share some of my observations:
First, there is a mandate for a clean energy future. It is bipartisan and it is imminent. Greenhouse gas emissions and our dependence on foreign oil are the driving factors. While state and local governments are well in front of the federal government, policy makers are anxious for Congress to take decisive action.
Second, there were a number of common themes expressed by the vast majority of speakers -- so much so -- that they virtually became the “holy grail” of the summit. Here is what they are:
- Tax Credits - Speaker after speaker called for the extension of current energy tax credits. Beyond that, longer term tax incentives (in the form of both guarantees and credits) were considered essential to jump start and sustain solar, wind, and geothermal industries.
- Energy Conservation and Efficiency - The great low hanging fruit of clean energy. President Clinton’s “no brainer.” The thought is that through energy conservation and efficiency initiatives new generation can be avoided. Paths included utility decoupling, along with utility incentives, longer term financing, and application of new technologies, particularly in lighting and smart meters.
- A Price on Carbon - Unanimity that carbon had to have a price, for social, health, and economic reasons. Most of the time, this meant a cap and trade system. Mayor Bloomberg called for a straight-forward carbon tax. The prevailing view was that it didn’t matter who became next President as both candidates were committed to sign cap and trade legislation.
- The Electric Grid - Perhaps the most prevailing theme was the call for a revamped national transmission structure. In short, both wind and solar are located where the grid is weakest -- wind in the Midwest and solar in the Southwest. A projected $60 billion will be necessary to create an effective national grid that moves these cleaner fuels to populated markets.
The big surprise at the summit, at least to me, was Dan Reicher’s, of Google, presentation that the future of clean renewable energy lay primarily in “enhanced” geothermal energy. In essence, enhanced geothermal means uses the earth’s abundance of hot spots as a heat exchanger. Holes (using newly developed and less expensive drilling technology) are drilled to these hot zones, water is poured into the hole, and steam rises to drive turbines. Google is convinced we can produce massive amounts of clean electricity world-wide using this process.
Continue Reading...The Picken's Plan - A Look at Energy Realities
T. Boone Pickens has an energy plan and he should be commended for it. More policy makers and influential individuals should do so. Visions and ideas should be explored and discussed.
The essence of the Pickens Plan is to replace one-third of our foreign imports of oil with natural gas fired vehicles. In turn, natural gas produced electricity is replaced with wind power. Pickens believes that this transition can be accomplished in 10 years.
Wind power currently produces some 1 percent of the nation’s electricity. So, to produce an additional 21 percent in the next 10 years would require a gargantuan effort. But, what would be the impact on natural gas?
Continue Reading...Hanson's Moratorium on Coal - Considering the Implications
Practically, I don’t see how we can stop putting oil in the atmosphere, because that’s owned by Russia and Saudi Arabia. We can make our vehicles more efficient but that oil is going to get used and its going to get in the atmosphere…and it doesn’t really matter much how fast we burn it. But what we could do is stop coal.
Certainly, Mr. Hanson believes that in the context of global warming “desperate times call for drastic measures.” At the same time, the economic and national security consequences of Mr. Hanson’s proposal must be more fully considered. He calls for a phase out of all coal use by 2030 (unless plants can capture the carbon dioxide), to be replaced by solar, wind, and other renewable energy.
Some facts about coal:
- In 2007, coal constituted approximately 50 percent of all electrical generation in the US.
- In the West North Central states, coal accounts for 75 percent of electric generation.
- Our demonstrated reserve base for coal, as reported by the Energy Information Agency (EIA), is 491 billion short tons.
- In 2007, we used about 1.2 billion short tons of coal.
- At this rate, there is about 409 years worth of coal resources remaining in the US.
This is why the US has been called the Saudi Arabia of coal.
Currently, renewable energy constitutes approximately 3.5 percent of electric generation. Thus, under Mr. Hanson’s proposal -- either renewable energy must increase by more than 1,400 percent in the next 20 years or coal-fired power plants must find a way to capture carbon. These figures don’t even take into account the growth in energy demand projected over the next 20 years. EIA projects as much as a 39 percent increase in US electricity usage by 2030.
Continue Reading...Climate Change Compliance as a Business Opportunity
A great deal of attention is being paid to the development of multilateral and national accords and legislation designed to compel private industry to reduce carbon emissions. The key assumption underlying these efforts seems to hold that private industry worldwide cannot be counted on to initiate or facilitate carbon emissions reductions voluntarily, and certainly not as part of a preferred business model. But suppose for a moment that this assumption is not entirely correct, that private industry is in fact ready to start embracing climate change as a function of its own self-interest. The implications of such a trend could be far reaching.
Continue Reading...Renewable Portfolio Standards: An Avenue for Fostering Alternative Energy Projects
Government’s response to the focus on climate change must be holistic and visionary. One regulatory avenue for fostering alternative energy projects that assist in the battle against climate change is a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS). At its core, an RPS is a requirement that retail electricity suppliers purchase a certain percentage or quantity of renewably generated energy. Currently 25 states and Washington DC have mandatory targets for retail electricity purchases and 4 states have non-binding goals. In 2007 the House of Representatives passed an RPS, but the US Senate did not.
While most RPS programs share a common goal of encouraging the production of renewably generated energy, they vary in terms of purchase goals, timeframes for compliance and eligible technologies. Wind, solar, and geo-thermal are eligible under most of the RPS programs, but eligibility criteria varies widely with respect to other technologies and fuel sources such as bio-mass, landfill-gas, municipal solid waste, hydropower, and fuel cells. While the advantages in terms of climate change impacts associated with renewably generated energy may seem obvious (no emissions), less obvious may be the results stemming from the expansion of several states’ RPS programs into non-renewable areas.
Continue Reading...Climate Change and Aviation Fuel: A Tough Problem to Solve
Large aircraft require high energy fuel, and lots of it. But jet fuel is very difficult to clean up to satisfy climate protection imperatives, which has led to a major dispute in the US over the role coal-to-liquids and other alternative aviation fuels may play. Congress, the US Air Force, the major airlines, the US Environmental Protection Agency, its Federal Aviation Administration, a special Defense Department task force, coal-state senators, and many, many others are getting into the dogfight, which may go on for a long time.
Continue Reading...Coal: The Energy Source of the Future?
Gas, oil, nuclear energy, biofuels, other alternative energy, energy conservation – are they enough to cause plentiful, Btu-rich, relatively inexpensive coal to take a back seat to post-Kyoto climate concerns in the developed and developing economies of the world?
With high prices for oil and gas and other promising sources of energy, precisely the opposite appears to be happening, with uncertain implications for carbon dioxide emissions levels and the success of technological fixes for Old King Coal’s dark side.
Continue Reading...Food vs. Fuel and Impacts on Climate Change: Biofuels Under Siege
Concern about world food prices and shortages is causing law makers in both the EU and the US to consider either a moratorium or a cutback in biofuels production. In particular, ethanol produced from corn is being blamed as a significant contributor to the world food crisis. [summary]
Continue Reading...International Wind Power
The annual 2007 survey by GWEC and Emerging Energy Research (EER) reflect that wind power ownership and installations continue to increase in North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia. EER reports that while the United States in 2007 remained the largest market with 5.2 GW of new installations, it was closely followed by Spain and China, which added 3.5 GW and 3.4 GW, respectively, to their total capacity of wind power. The other leading international markets include Germany, Canada, India, Denmark, Italy, the UK, Portugal, and France.
The development of wind power is now a global opportunity. For many companies, establishing operations in new international markets may be a sound and profitable part of their strategic growth, particularly markets in which sponsors can achieve greater cost efficiencies and profitability.
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