O Tempora!

“Alternative” Energy

“Alternative” energy – what a wonderful concept! Imagine wind power, solar panels, ethanol, or fuel cell technology as replacements for energy from fossil fuels. Spokesmen for various alleged alternatives tout them as the answer to clean, efficient, environmentally friendly energy.

But TANSTAAFL – There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. Alternatives to fossil fuels have their own problems – problems generally glossed over by the proponents of these alternatives. Suppose we examine some of these substitutes more closely.

Wind PowerHere are a few problems that wind poweristas gloss over.
1) Wind farms take a lot of land, and some may consider hundreds of enormous windmills unsightly.
2) They chop birds to bits.
3) Producing 60 Hz. alternating current at the proper voltage for the American power grid from winds of varying speeds requires either complex controls or conversion of DC to AC with a power inverter. There are other problems, too.[1]
4) What happens when the wind doesn’t blow? Electricity can be stored in batteries, but batteries are made of acid or other caustic electrolytes and heavy metals such as lead and cadmium. Battery ingredients are hazardous to produce and dispose of, and batteries can emit explosive hydrogen gas. [2]
5) What will lightning or excessive wind do to a windmill?
6) Wind power is expensive – it is only “competitive” if subsidized.
7) If we take energy from the wind, will that affect the downwind climate?
8) Wind-generated electricity is not easily portable, but petroleum distillates such as gasoline and diesel fuel are.

Photovoltaics
Consider photovoltaic energy – solar panels. This is also an infinite source of power that requires no combustion. But it has many drawbacks, some of which are the same as wind power.
1) Vast amounts of land are required, with large numbers of panels all over the land.
2) Solar panels produce direct current from a variable source; power inverters are needed.
3) The sun only shines in the daytime, and not always then. Batteries will be needed.
4) Production of solar panels involves hazardous materials.
5) Solar panels are subject to breakage. What would a good hailstorm do to a solar array?
6) It is expensive, just like wind power.
7) Absorbing heat that would otherwise warm the earth may have environmental consequences.
8) It is not easily portable.

Ethanol, the Gas Hog
Ethanol seems a likely candidate as a fossil fuel alternative. It is nothing but alcohol, the same alcohol that some of us imbibe in our beer, cabernet, or distilled grain beverages. It burns very cleanly and efficiently, and it is easily transportable. Internal combustion engines can use it, and their emissions of noxious gases are lowered by ethanol. But there are questions.
1) Ethanol is counter-productive. It takes 46 units of energy to create an amount of ethanol that contains only 30. [3] Of course, the subsidized farmers don’t care about that minor detail.
2) Alcohol comes from plants, which (guess what?) take a lot of land to grow.
3) It is expensive, just like wind and solar panels.

Hydrogen
What about fuel cells? These devices burn hydrogen to create electricity. Burning hydrogen creates only water vapor, so there is no generation of CO2, the “villain” greenhouse gas. But think about these things.
1) Free hydrogen is not readily available. It can be created from water – but at the cost of electricity. There are hydrate compounds that store hydrogen, but they are difficult to obtain or manufacture.
2) Hydrogen gas is very dangerous – remember the newsreel of the Hindenburg? If gaseous hydrogen is to be used as a fuel, it must be compressed and stored in very strong tanks.
3) Does hydrogen, in fact, burn cleanly using plain old atmospheric air that is 78% nitrogen? Fuel cells may create nitrogen compounds the way that internal combustion engines do.
4) The technology is complex and (you guessed it) expensive.

Energy is important to civilization, and we need a continuing supply of it. Though fossil fuels are plentiful and cheap, oil will run out in a century or so, and coal some few hundred years from now. Fossil fuels, like their alternatives, have problems (but remember that fossil-fuel-induced global warming is hysteria, not fact). All energy options should be researched, including the alternatives of nuclear breeder reactors and fusion, two other potentially long-lived sources. Private enterprise, if left alone by “helpful” politicians (miracles could happen), will find solutions by weighing the advantages and disadvantages of each in the marketplace.


[1] http://www.energyadvocate.com/fw90.htm
[2] http://www.energyadvocate.com/batts.htm
[3] http://www.energyadvocate.com/heatvals.htm

posted by Dick T. @ 3:45 PM