The sun shines, wind blows, tides hit the shore and now our eyes have opened to a new today and a better future. Innovations in renewable energy have began to rapidly advance. With the latest global events like the recession and the Copenhagen Summit, the focus on renewable energy in the world has increased exponentially. May it be global warming; choking air pollution, fossil fuel addiction, high utility bills or creating job opportunities, the world is now speaking about a single common solution to save the planet - GO GREEN! Novel ideas like solar roadways, solar islands, solar powered cell phone towers, fuel cell based waste water treatment plants, electric vehicles, HVDC wind power transmission are exploring newer areas where conventional fossil fuels could be replaced by clean energy.
According to a new study, coauthored by Stanford researcher Mark Z. Jacobson, the world can be powered by alternative energy using today's existing technology in 20-40 years. The research provides interesting and thought provoking results and gives us a new direction to start thinking. Today, the main factors prohibiting the use of unconventional energy in the conventional manner are its cost and variable nature. The research proposes ‘bundling up renewable energy sources’ in order to meet the ‘base load’ energy, the minimum amount of energy that must be available to customers at any given hour of the day. As we know, solar and wind are complementary as wind often peaks at night and sunlight peaks during the day. Using hydroelectric power to fill in the gaps allows demand to be precisely met by supply in most cases. Other renewable sources such as geothermal and tidal power can also be used to supplement wind and solar power.
The study found that to meet the world’s energy demand with wind, water and solar resources, the footprint needed is about 0.4 percent of the world's land (mostly solar footprint) and the spacing between installations is another 0.6 percent of the world's land (mostly wind-turbine spacing). Jacobson said, "The actual footprint required by wind turbines to power half the world's energy is less than the area of Manhattan."
Looking at Texas, it is a well known fact that Texas is number one in installed wind capacity touching 8,800 MW by the end of 2008. However, Texas lags far behind when it comes to solar energy. Interestingly, the State Energy Conservation Office (SECO) of Texas evaluates, ‘The energy from sunshine falling on a single acre of land in West Texas is capable of producing the energy equivalent of 800 barrels of oil each year.’ Why is Texas nowhere close to California when it comes to solar even though we have the highest solar resource in the US? Most wind farms in Texas are located in the south west and surprisingly, solar footprints are concentrated in the very same area. Why not integrate the two and use land more wisely?
With the winds of change and an aroused interest in pursuing Renewable Energy in the state of Texas, Texas A&M University is steering research into different renewable energy technologies. Whether it be integration of renewable energy to the grid or achieving cost parity of solar power, TAMU is working in every facet of renewable energy.
The ground is set, resources are at our disposal, now all that remains is our contribution. With an interest and new ideas to contribute we are surely not far from making a difference. New ideas when explored and realized can find better solutions to existing problems. Renewable energy is still in its adolescence compared to conventional energy. It is ideas, innovations and implementation that will take this technology from adolescence into maturity and finally make clean energy a dominating force.
- Beautiful Mind
Weblink: http://www.thebatt.com/opinion/green-energy-may-be-closer-than-we-thought-1.1978209
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