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Elizabeth Cutright Elizabeth Cutright Distributed Energy Editor

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DE Editor's Blog

December 29th, 2008 11:26am PST

Can We Be Saved by the Green Dream Team?

Posted By Elizabeth Cutright 3 Comments

When President-elect Barack Obama picked Nobel physics laureate, Stephen Chu, to head the Energy Department, many saw it as a significant shift away from the Bush administration’s efforts and attitudes towards climate change.  Add John Holdren – a Harvard University expert on climate change – as the new White House science adviser; former environmental lawyer and US Senator Ken Salazar, as Interior secretary; former New Jersey environment chief Lisa Jackson, as head of the US Environmental Protection Agency; and Carol Browner – former head of the Clinton administration’s EPA – in the new White House position coordinating policy on energy, environment, and climate change, and it’s easy to see how these new appointees have been anointed “the green dream team.”  With additional promises of five million new green jobs and a $150 billion investment in renewable energy sources, and the future looks bright for efficient energy sources – including onsite power.

What is the connection between distributed energy and the call for sustainability? Well, at the annual Sourcing USA Summit (a biannual meeting, jointly hosted by Cotton Council International and Cotton Inc., that “gathers global leaders along the cotton supply chain for an open exchange of ideas”), David Pumphrey, Deputy Director and Senior Fellow, Center for Strategic and International Studies, discussed the relationship between efficiency and climate change in a presentation entitled, “Outlook for World Energy: Is There a Sustainable Path?” 

Among Pumphrey’s main points was the assertion that we “must transform the way we produce and consume energy.”  In order to mitigate the effects of global warming and reduce carbon emissions, efficiency and technology must be forged together into one powerful tool for change.  Key to Pumphrey’s plan for a new energy policy are renewable energy sources and increased efficiency.  In particular, Pumphrey discussed wind and solar, pointing out that while the former is now competitive, the latter still suffers from “intermittency and grid constraints.”  Nevertheless, we in the distributed energy industry know that grid constraints and intermittency are not significant liabilities when renewables are used for onsite power.

Pumphrey summed up his presentation with his list of “imperatives for new energy policy,” which include:

1)      Creating a new market framework for carbon pricing

2)      Addressing all forms of energy supply

3)      Encouraging investment in strategic facilities and infrastructure AND research for new technologies

4)      Global changes designed to encompass security, foreign policy, environmental and economic considerations.

5)      Focusing on transportation and power generation/transmission, and uses as priorities

6)      Requiring political leadership at every level.

What do you think?  Can a direct link be made between reducing carbon emissions, mitigating global warming, and encouraging distributed energy?  Or are we all just whistling in the graveyard?

What Do You Think?

Post a Comment

RealSteve

December 30, 2008 8:43 AM PT

I thought the man-made climate change line would stop now that the old politicians are back in power. Off-grid power promotes independence and security. The dreamer team will only give away my tax dollars to dependents, not independents.

modbrick

January 2nd, 2009 7:03 AM PT

From: Frank Grassi 1793 Manchester Blvd. Grosse Ponte Woods, MI 48236 313 886-1354 Please forward my letter to the appropriate people. My wind power system and electrolyzers can work in synergy. My proposal is for a hybrid wind/gas-turbine power plant that can operate by using a hydrogen enhanced natural gas as the fuel and a wind machine using static air foils. This new power plant can be the prototype power plant of the future much as coal was 100 years ago. I am the inventor of a wind power system using static airfoils. Power Towers can demonstrate that wind power is the way forward and knowing the effort that you are placing on wind power, this project may interest your magazine writers.. I envision these twin slender skyscrapers size towers that can used as both habitable structures and power generating towers. They would have an airfoil shape and produce 50 MW of power. These slender towers would be wild life friendly and will use 1/10 the land needed by horizontal turbines. I have discovered a means of producing electric power from the wind that is many times more efficient then the horizontal turbines now in use. My patent pending wind machine will power the 21st. Century! Imagine a 50 MW wind power plant that can integrate a hydrogen enhanced natural gas as the fuel and is operational 100% of the time. There will not be need to cover landscape with thousands of ugly wind turbines. The cost of wind electric energy must be reduced to below $.03/ kWh. and made more reliable in order for wind power to become competitive with coal. My discovery is an innovative machine using static airfoils. Rotors produce power proportional to the diameter squared. My patent pending invention produces power from the wind not by increasing rotor diameter to immense sizes but by increasing the wind velocity, and since power is proportional to the cube of the velocity you immediately see the advantage. A wind tunnel test was done this fall semester at University of Michigan. The test confirmed my calculations, and will provide data to direct my next steps. If you are able to assist me please do. The importance of this project can not be minimized. Imagine how the world will change if the world knew what I know about wind power and its abundance. Enclosed is a confidential patent pending proposal. You can reach me at 313 886-1364 or at modbrick@gmail.com Sincerely: Frank Grassi

denisdubois

January 7th, 2009 12:13 PM PT

Those are broad imperatives, hard to disagree with (unless one's head remains in the sand about global warming altogether). It's no stretch to find a link between DE and CO2. Where DE delivers a kWh with net lower emissions, DE is part of the solution. On-site solar would top the list. A diesel genset probably doesn't qualify. Cogen using waste biomass is a good compromise. DE allows more facilities to participate in demand response, which helps utilities avoid using their oldest, smokiest power plants to meet peak demand. (The Clean Air Act of 1970 set emission standards, but 800+ of those plants are still operating, exempt from the emissions rules.) DE provides reliability where needed. A small percentage of ratepayers have sensitive industrial processes or data centers. I would rather see capital go into developing clean energy sources, rather than T&D to deliver highly reliable "digital-grade" power to every meter.

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