Alternative Energy

[Copperfield]

Get real on energy .......................................
http://www.denverpost.com/framework/0,1413,36~158~2233517,00.html

By Dave Bowden
Denver

What will our children be thinking when they look back at us 50 years from now? Will they applaud our foresight in creating a sustainable society - or scold us for our wasteful ways?

Citizens in our state will soon be asked to make an important decision on the Colorado Renewable Energy Initiative. It's a gradual increase in clean energy generation from wind and solar power, offsetting electricity from polluting coal plants.

The measure is a modest and achievable call for our state's seven largest utilities to make 10 percent of our electricity from renewable sources by 2015. Sixteen other states across America have implemented these sensible guidelines to protect public health and promote our national security.

America, with 5 percent of the world's population, consumes 25 percent of the global energy supply. The majority of our oil is imported, much of it from unstable and hostile areas. Projections call for a slow, worldwide depletion of petroleum over several decades.

What about electricity use? America has plenty of inexpensive coal, and Colorado utilities generate 83 percent of our juice by burning it. An increasing amount of our electricity is also generated by price-volatile natural gas (methane), driving up demand, raising the cost and competing with your home furnace for fuel. All these fossil fuels - oil, methane and coal - are the product of ancient processes, created over millions of years. We are burning them in a geological instant. They will never be replaced. We breathe the toxic pollutants that these fuels generate, some visible, others not so apparent.

That stew of particulates lodges in our lungs, creating a sharp increase in respiratory ailments like asthma, chronic bronchitis and emphysema. But what is invisible - and truly insidious - are the billions of tons of carbon dioxide that is very likely changing Earth's climate. The scientific jury is still out on exactly how those gases will affect many vital areas on which our society and economy depend.

After considering these issues of national security, air pollution, bad health effects, depletion, and expense - let's look at the power of the sun and wind. We can capture those in our own backyards. They generate no pollution. The sun will shine for another few billion years. The wind often blows steadily across the Eastern Plains. The price is right: free.

Mile-high Colorado is ablaze with sunlight an average 330 days a year, yet very few of our homes have features to capture that abundant energy. Instead, we burn methane or use electric heat to stay warm, missing out on simple techniques to use the sun's rays. For example, solar buildings use ancient techniques from Mesa Verde: They face south, where thermal mass like stone that's exposed to the sun retains heat for many hours. When shaded in the summer, it stays cool. Solar thermal panels collect the sun's energy and circulate heated fluid for space heating and hot water. Solar photovoltaic panels, which generate emission-free electricity, are cheaper than running the grid down miles of rural roads. In the city, that juice can be sold back to Xcel. Overall, the key to economical solar energy is integrating these systems into the building when it's constructed or renovated, so the cost is amortized into the mortgage. The net savings to homeowners can be substantial.

Wind power is now the world's fastest-growing source of electricity. High-tech utility-scale turbines now generate electricity cheaper than polluting coal plants, using no water. The products of continual innovation, they're able to capture winds that vary from a modest breeze to a gusty 50 mph.

Typically located in rural areas, they offer significant economic development opportunities for farmers and ranchers in hard-hit communities. Earlier this year, Lamar embraced a large wind farm.

Solar and wind power only top the list of many other renewable energy technologies: biomass fuels can be derived from plant materials, and sustainably generated electricity for electrolysis produces clean- burning hydrogen that could replace gasoline.

Fortunately, we have the tools and the clean, inexhaustible sources to reverse the status-quo of fossil fuel consumption. The bad news is that we have not had the collective will to change. America faces stark choices on energy sources and their use. Will we continue to burn finite resources - or will we use nature's clean, renewable energy? Our children might want answers to those questions right now.

Dave Bowden is president of the Colorado Renewable Energy Society. More about energy and sustainability can be learned at the Colorado Renewable Energy Conference, June 25-27 at the University of Denver. For information, go to http://cres-energy.org or call 303-806-5317