How Much Variety of Renewables Do We Want?
A reader points out:
Craig, you seem to think that there should be a single best solution for clean energy. I would agree with you if you qualified your assertion to state that there is a single best solution for a given site. For example, a mountain top with high steady winds may be crying out for a a wind farm, but a wooded valley location with almost no wind would probably benefit from a low head hydro plant…..
I acknowlege that I am in a slim minority of those who do not favor a wide variety of renewables. I’m optimistic that we as a civilization will find our way out of the mess we’ve created for ourselves. But I find it hard to believe that this solution will come in the form of 8 – 10 different renewable technologies.
You raise a good point, of course, in that different sites lend themselves to different renewable energy technologies: the plains support wind, the mountains geothermal, the deserts solar, etc. And if you’re truly a “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” type of guy, maybe you really DO want all of them. But I ask: Why?
Let’s keep our eye on the ball. All we need to do is harvest and distribute 1/6000th of the sun’s energy. I grant that this can be done through a variety of means, but if we can choose one or two that meet all our criteria (low-cost, scaleable, safe, clean, etc.) do we really need to develop and support them all?
Of course, all this does presuppose a cost-effective way of distributing power around the continent. As I’ve written elsewhere, I believe that we have to upgrade our grid — even in the absence of deeper penetration of renewable energy. As an integral part of this upgrade, I favor high voltage DC power transmission (VHDC), minimizing line losses over long distances.
I’m not a futurist by trade. But I’ll go on record right now and make a bold prediction. Long before the midpoint of this century, the technology surrounding solar thermal will have matured to such a point that it will represent a clean and bankable path to the end of the world energy conundrum. At a certain point soon thereafter, 90+% of the Earth’s population will enjoy low-cost and very clean energy brought about by a combination of solar thermal (concentrated solar power), molten salt energy storage and VHDC power transmission.
As has often been said here and elsewhere, the barrier to this ‘solar thermal/molten salt/HVDC’ energy harvesting technique is neither one of science, nor of finance, nor natural resources, but is instead bound to the political power now wielded by those in control of, and those dependent on, our current fossil energy industry and infrastructure.
I can only hope and work and cooperate in my small ways for that gleaming day when a sufficient number of movers and shakers decide for themselves that the moment is ripe to shift to a rational energy system.
Time grows short, and either a more severe global economic collapse or more devastating and global aggression over rapidly depleted fossil resources could well remove the option from the table permanently.