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Technology Alone Isn’t the Answer
December 8, 2009
Growing demand, environmental costs and regulatory issues add up to make an adequate, affordable future supply of electricity uncertain. Alternative sources of power have been held out as the greatest hope for U.S. energy independence. Renewable energy is a key part of a plan promoted by politicians and others who want to cut down on fossil fuel use in electricity production.
Growing demand, environmental costs and regulatory issues add up to make an adequate, affordable future supply of electricity uncertain. Alternative sources of power have been held out as the greatest hope for U.S. energy independence. Renewable energy is a key part of a plan promoted by politicians and others who want to cut down on fossil fuel use in electricity production.
That’s a commendable ideal, and while sources that harness the sun, wind or water to generate power are no perfect solution, we shouldn’t count on them too heavily in the near term.
Some of the issues with these sources are already known, and some are beginning to crop up as the technologies become more widely used.
Take wind, for example. Installation of wind power is growing rapidly, especially in West Texas. Wind is an ideal solution, many believe, because it is “free” to use and doesn’t cause pollution.
However, wind turbines must be located in places where the wind blows constantly, and in Texas, those places are largely away from densely populated areas. So an expensive network of transmission lines must be built to carry that power to where it is needed in urban centers. The cost of building those lines will be borne by ratepayers like you.
In addition, the wind is not always steady, meaning that when it doesn’t blow with sufficient force, power production at wind farms is nonexistent. This makes wind unsuitable for baseline power, the constant flow of electricity on which we all count.
That’s where solar power could come in, at least in daylight. But on cloudy days, power production drops dramatically. To get around that, companies are building plants in the often-cloudless desert—both photovoltaic arrays, which convert sunlight directly into electricity, and solar-thermal plants, which turn the sun’s heat into steam used to drive turbines.
Those plants are clean, yet they have another drawback: They need lots of water to run. A recent article in The New York Times detailed a conflict in Nevada between a developer who wants to build two large solar farms, which would need hundreds of millions of gallons of water a year for cooling, about 20 percent of what’s available in the area, and local residents who worry their wells will go dry.
The lack of available water is similarly throttling plans for other water-intensive renewable facilities like biofuel and clean-coal plants, a hurdle that was not evident in planning processes.
This goes to show that while new technologies are important to solving our energy problems, we can’t count on innovation alone. We’ve got a long way to go before some of these technologies can fill the majority of our power needs. That’s why it’s important that, right now, we all embrace conservation and efficiency.
Be conservative in your use of electricity. Last month, we introduced TogetherWeSave.com to you. This is a rich resource of information showing you how little changes can add up to big savings. If you have the means, make an investment in weatherizing your home. With tax credits and other incentives, not to mention lower electricity bills, such investments will pay for themselves.
As always, South Plains Electric Cooperative stands ready to help you with advice and ideas on how to make the wisest use of electricity.