Energy Policy Update

I support energy independence. Accordingly, an increased reliance on nuclear power will be required in the short term to drive this policy preference. It’s worth mentioning that France gets about 70% of its own electrical power from nuclear power plants.

However, new technologies are emerging. Though the interim costs may be stifling, substantial research and development might offer the breakthroughs for any of these alternatives more than a sideshow. In particular, Hydrogen has been touted as a way forward. Unfortunately, it has many problems, including storage and low energy density. Moreover, Hydrogen is a fuel but not an energy source. For example, oil and coal are both, while the sun and wind are energy sources but not fuels. As such, there is not a substantial, natural source of Hydrogen in the world; any Hydrogen that is used can only be generated by harnessing energy from another other source. Nonetheless, this only remains one barrier on the road to progress. Here's a roundup of recent advances in the news, courtesy of Winds of Change:

Three years after September 11th, there is more attention given to non-oil energy sources than ever: energy independence is widely recognized as an essential long-term goal in the War on Terror, and concerns about the extent of our contribution to global climate change continue to multiply.

Still, the increased public interest has not made the problems inherent in the massive project of transforming our energy systems any simpler. The goal is agreed upon, but the road is still unclear. Think of this roundup of energy news from the past two weeks as a series of signposts along several paths (including new paths using 'old' fossil fuels, which will almost certainly play an important role in the energy mix for decades at least), some of which intersect and run alongside each other, others which head in opposite directions - and some that we will doubtlessly abandon before we reach their end.

Wind Power
Solar
Nuclear
Natural Gas
The Grid
Hydrogen/Fuel Cells
Geothermal
Coal+
Biofuels
Misc

Here too are some links to a site run by retired engineer, Steven DenBeste. He runs some numbers in order to demonstrate the need for major breakthroughs before alternative energy sources can compete with oil and coal on a scale basis as well as an economic basis:

Alternative energy sources such as geothermal, solar, wind, solar satellites, tides, fission, hydrogen, ethanol and biomass all have technical and scalability problems. Conservation alone is not the answer to energy independence.