ELECTRICITY: 100% CLEAN AND GREEN BY 2018

August 18th, 2008 — Al Gore, Energy, Global Warming, Green household, Nuclear Power, Solar, Wind Power

The Gore Energy Challenge - 100% clean, renewable, sustainable electricity in 10 years, can be described in 3 words. Reasonable, Achievable, Visionary. Here’s how: 40% Land Based Wind = 100 GW: $200 Billion. 40% Offshore Wind = 100 GW: $286 Billion. 20% Solar = 50 GW: $325 Billion. 100% Clean Energy = 250 GW: $811Billion. Save the Earth, and the Economy - Priceless. The Stone Age didn’t end because we ran out of stones. And the age of fossil fuels is ending not because we have run out of fossil fuel, but because we have figured out how better technologies. Biofuels, Geothermal, Marine Kinetic, Solar, Wind, and of course, Conservation.

No Comments

The Popular Logistics Plan for Clean, Renewable, Sustainable Energy for the United States

August 11th, 2008 — Clean Energy, Climate Change, Global Warming, GreenTechnology, Negawatts, Nuclear Power, Solar, Texas, Wind Power

The Gore Energy Challenge: Clean and Green by 2018.  Visionary, Reasonable, Achievable. Ask T. Boone Pickens at The Pickens Plan, and Peter Mandelstam at Blue Water Wind.

We could meet the electric power requirements of the United States, estimated at 250 Gigawatts, GW, of generating capacity with wind turbines and photovoltaic solar arrays, for about $811 Billion in 10 years.

  • Land Based Wind: 100 GW, or 40%, at $2.0 Billion per GW: $200 Billion.
  • Offshore Wind: 100 GW, or 40%, at $2.86 Billion per GW: $286 Billion.
  • PV Solar: 50 GW, or 20% at $6.5 Billion per GW: $325 Billion.
  • Total Cost: $811 Billion. (less than has been squandered on the war in Iraq.)
  • Saving the earth: Priceless.

Key Benefits:

  • Good Jobs.
  • Healthy Economy.
  • Enhanced Emergency Response Capability.
  • Stronger National Security.
  • Clean Environment.
  • No Toxic Wastes.
  • No Mercury.
  • No Radioactive Wastes.
  • No Coal Mining Disasters.
  • Less Government Regulation.

This plan doesn’t exploit solar thermal, marine kinetic, geothermal, deep geothermal, cogen, biofuels, or conservation, which will be integrated into this plan in the near future. The plan also focuses on current electricity demand. It does not yet forecast increased electricity demand from population growth, transition from fossil fuels for heating or cooking, or increased reliance on plug-in hybrid cars.

Clean and Green By 2018!

No Comments

Nuclear v Wind: The Answer is Blowin’ In The Wind.

July 9th, 2008 — Nuclear Power, Wind Power

Back in May, Rebecca Smith reported in the Wall St. Journal ( click here for Popular Logistics posting ) that Florida Power & Light wants to spend $12 to $18 Billion to build a 2.2 GW or 3.0 GW nuclear plant at the aptly named “Turkey Point” facility. At about the same time, Reuters reported that T. Boone Pickens ( click here for Popular Logistics posting ) - who made his money in oil - is building a 4 GW wind farm for $10 Billion. FPL says the nuclear plants may be finished by 2020. Pickens says Phase 1 of the wind farm - a 1 GW installation - will be complete by 2011. CNN has also picked up the story.

Nuclear power requires fuel. The fuel cycle produces greenhouse gases. Nuclear power operations produce tons of radioactive waste. Wind power requires no fuel and produces no waste.

On the one hand - $6 per watt, 10 to 12 years to build, tremendous amounts of extremely hazardous wastes. On the other hand $2 per watt, 3 years to build, no waste.

No Comments