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No New Coal or Nuclear Plants!

No New Coal or Nuclear Plants!
gather.com  by Ethan G.January 05, 2009  “……………………Advocates for clean coal and nuclear always say that we need to invest in those technologies, however risky, because it’s the American way to solve large-scale technological challenges. Yet somehow they never seem to advocate this vision for the far cleaner and more certain alternatives of wind and solar power.

Instead, solar and wind advocates are laughed off as foggy headed idealists and those alternative energies are dismissed as too far from ready.  What these skeptics—often lobbyists for the coal, oil, and nuclear industries—fail to account for is the interaction between various kinds of alternative energy and systems that deliver them.  If built right, the whole will greatly enhance the sum of the parts.

In fact solar and wind, with appropriate stimulus to encourage their growth, are ready to go a great way toward solving our energy problems.  To maximize their potential will take major new investment in the electrical grid, both to move alternative energy to where it’s most needed, and to create a “smart” grid that can deliver the energy at the best times.
Solar and wind are often criticized as having an intermittency problem—they can’t be counted on all the time and we don’t have good storage systems.  Yet solar thermal systems don’t have this problem: they store the energy they generate.

True wind and the more familiar photovoltaic solar do have an intermittency problem; yet for these sources the “smart” grid will allow us to use energy far more efficiently.  Computer systems will charge more when energy is less available, allowing people to do, say, laundry and dishes, when excess energy is available.

The development of electric cars promises even more out of alternative energy. People will plug in their cars at night, and the “smart” grid will deliver energy as available.  The automobiles will act as a kind of widespread storage system.  In cases where electrical energy is not available, these cars would then use old-fashioned gasoline.  Still, overall, our dependence on foreign oil would be greatly reduced.

No New Coal or Nuclear Plants! | Gather

January 6, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | ENERGY