Solar Cheaper Than Coal in 2 Years - Then What?

Fast Company posted yesterday that Solar power is projected to equal Coal power in terms of costs* by 2013. At that point, in a sane world, we would not install another Megawatt (MW) of Coal power. Yes, we still need Coal for back-up and consistency (solar is not a reliable 24/7 power source), but you'd have that in place with the now redundant coal plants as we install more and more solar power. I think this is actually already happening in California, and I'd be shocked if California ever built another coal power plant.

But will it spread to the fly-over states, the ones that don't believe Global Warming is real, the ones that have major coal-mining industries, and the entrenched business and union interests that go along with them? I'm not so sure.

This is where our innate resistance to change collides with a Pareto Optimality. We'll be able to get incredibly clean power on the cheap, save the environment, save lives, save money, and we'll come up with a bunch of excuses why we shouldn't do it. I'm sure the Koch Brothers will play a role in convincing the public that solar power isn't a good alternative to coal, not even when it's cheaper.

As a reminder, courtesy of Seth Godin, here's how many lives Coal power costs us relative to other energy sources.



*The caveats are that it is equal if you're a big, West coast utility that can by solar panels at volume and can install them in an area with ample sun.

Mafia renewable laundering

I have a mildly unhealthy obsession with Cosa Nostra (aka the Sicilian mafia), a healthy respect and hope for renewable energy, and will read just about any story with the phrase "money laundering" in it. It's not too often a story comes along that combines all three.

The man at the center of the controversy is named Vito Nicastri and is obviously known as "Lord of the Wind." You just cannot make this stuff up...

The seizure of a record 1.5 billion euros from a Sicilian businessman known as "Lord of the Wind" has put the spotlight on Mafia money-laundering through renewable energy ventures....The haul included no fewer than 43 wind and solar energy companies and around 100 properties including swank villas with swimming pools in Sicily's western Trapani region, along with cars, a catamaran and bank accounts, the interior ministry said.

Read the entire article here.

Machine turns plastic into oil

You read the headline right, an inventor in Japan has invented a machine that turns #2, 3 and 4 plastic into oil. Before we all collectively lose our shit over this potentially world-changing invention, it still requires a good amount of power to complete this task. Make no mistake, once they really work to develop this and make it more efficient, it could have immediate benefits. Obviously, this isn't the same as replacing our dependence on oil with a renewable energy source, but it's still cool and for the next 50 years, could make a big difference.

From Big Think and authored by my favorite nerd, Maria Popova, an excerpt below, full article here:

To harness this energy while addressing the waste problem, Japanese company Blest has created a machine that converts several types of plastic into oil.

Rather than burning the plastic using flame, which generates CO2, the machine uses a temperature-controlled electric heater to convert plastic into crude gas, which can then be used to power gas-based household appliances like stoves, boilers and generators or, if refined, can even be pumped into a car or motorcycle. Small yet highly efficient, the machine produces nearly one liter of oil – gasoline, diesel or kerosine – from every kilogram of plastic, requiring only 1 kilowatt of electricity for the conversion.

What's Next?

From the "it was only a matter of time file"...

The International Energy Agency (EIA, no those initials are not backwards just French...so maybe the same thing?) reported yesterday that China had surpassed the United States as the world's largest energy user. China put away 2,252 million tons of oil equivalent last year compared to 2,170 for the US. The oil-equivalent metric represents all forms of energy consumed, including crude oil, nuclear, coal, natural gas and renewable sources such as hydropower.

Given China's population size I suppose it was only a matter of time, but the urgency with which it happened is shocking. Ten years ago, China's energy consumption was half that of the US. Whoa.

If you're looking for an energy category we still lead, fret not there are still a few. According to the same report by the EIA the average American uses five times as much energy annually compared to the average Chinese citizen. We also annihilate an impressive 19 million gallons of crude a day compared to 9.2 million in China. At TCD we definitely do not look forward to the day when China surpasses us in that final statistic because it's the same day we will have to cash out of the blogging biz, call up Branson, and have him take us on his space ship to the next inhabitable planet.

Interactive Grid

Wind? Solar? Hydro? Natural gas? Advanced metering? There is no silver bullet for our country's energy problem, but Oil Gate 2010 is only further proof that the US needs to move forward with an array of solutions to break our addiction to oil, innovate out of this economic malaise, and acknowledge the explicit and implicit damage our energy choices bring to bear on the environment. This month's National Geographic takes a look at what a 21st century energy package looks like through the eyes of the electricity grid. While the article is available online, the more exciting digital feature is available here.

The link is to a very cool online tool that shows what areas of the country are best for wind, solar and hydro, as well as what areas are already dealing with a congested grid system. The latter areas are also collectively known as the Mid Atlantic region. More impressively, the map has GIS-like layers that you can turn on and off to see where proposed energy projects- including increased transmission capacity - are located.

What About the Children?

The Gulf oil spill has gotten a lot of deserved coverage on TCD, mostly from a "30,000 foot point of view" - what does the spill look like? Where is it moving? How did it happen? All great questions with pretty disturbing answers.

But what of the economic effects and the ramifications for people who rely on the resources produced by the Gulf and in the estuaries that buffer the coast of Louisiana from the sea? Jim Tripp, Client 9's former boss, has spent the last 36 years working to restore the wetlands of coastal Louisiana. To put wetland loss in that part of the world in context, one football field worth is lost every 38 minutes. Whoa. Last week, Tripp appeared on Charlie Rose to discuss the effects of the Gulf oil spill on coastal Louisiana's ecosystems and the communities that rely on resources - shrimp, crabs, fish - produced by those wetlands.

Here's a quick three minute clip from Tripp's appearance on Charlie Rose...



The full episode is below. As usual, Chucky's show was representative of a diverse set of views. If you have the time, I suggest checking this out.



And finally, for more videos, images of coastal Louisiana and insight into the type of restoration work going on in Louisiana before, during and after this latest calamity, click here.

About Damn Time

Absent a price on carbon, the development of alternative energy sources on a commercial scale - i.e., wind farms and solar installations to feed the grid - no longer makes sense. In fact, from a purely economic point of view I am not sure it ever did. Coal is too cheap. Demand for renewable energy is only created by renewable portfolio standards, which are voluntary in many states. Government subsidies don't quite cut it. And natural gas is the likely next bridge fuel anyway because of the proximity of shale-gas formations to major demand centers, immediate job creation possibilities as a result of the extraction process, and because natty gas doesn't suffer from the problems of intermittent delivery that plague solar and wind.

But I am loving residential applications of renewable energy sources. I know a guy in Palm Springs, Ca who gets PAID BY HIS UTILITY COMPANY 9 months out of the year because he generates more electricity than he uses, and then sells his excess back to the grid to help his utility company meet peak demand in the land of excess golf courses and air conditioners.

Check out the newest in residential renewable energy technology from Dow, called Powerhouse.



Powerhouse is not without its problems, though. As this article points out, these solar shingles are too expensive for the relatively small amount of electricity they produce ($10 a square foot for 3.5 kilowatts of power). However, as this sort of solar technology becomes more popular and thus more competitive, hopefully more exciting and less expensive products will come out of this market.

Now, the true skeptic would ask whether or not the life cycle of this product - from the mining of whatever crazy crap goes into these things, to the manufacturing and installation process, to their ultimate disposal - actually results in more carbon emissions than the delivery of electricity via fossil fuel. My guess is that skeptic would be wrong, but maybe not by much. Either way, that's a dangerous road to go down, so we won't.

All I have to say is that I would LOVE to be getting paid by United Illuminating Company instead of forking over ample burrito cart fundz to Davo to cover our electric bill each month.