- Lennon/McCartney

Well… Let’s do it! Join the National Wildlife Federation in pushing Congress to take action for renewable clean energy and climate.Sign on to the Declaration of Energy Independence in time for Earth Day (April 22, 2010).

The Model S can be recharged in 45 minutes using a 480V outlet, though I’m not sure where you get one. You can also recharge using 110V and 22V outlets with longer recharge times. The battery pack comes in 3 sizes, equating to 160, 230 or 300 miles. The battery pack can be swapped out in 5 minutes, which could lead to battery swapping stations as a business.

Tesla Motors is still relatively unproven with regards to mass production. they have delivered only 300 Roadsters so far. They are looking to receive $350 million in federal loans to build an assebly plant in San Jose, California. The Model S should qualify for a $7,500 tax credit from the federal government, but that still leaves you with a price tag of nearly $50,000. They do provide some long term savings with less maintenance (no oil change) and and expected cost to drive 230 miles of about $5.

Geothermal power, like many renewable sources of power, is more readily available in some geographical locations than others. For example, Iceland has a lot of surface level geothermal activity, and produces nearly 20% of its electricity and heats more than 85% of its homes using this resource. But Iceland is one of just over 20 countries around the world that utilize geothermal power.

Geothermal resources have been used for centuries for bathing and heating. It wasn’t until 1904 that the first geothermal power generator was tested in Italy. The first commercial geothermal power plant was built in the same location in 1911. New Zealand built the second commercial plant nearly 50 years later, in 1958. Most of these early power plants relied on existing steam vents. Hot Dry Rock (HDR) geothermal power was developed by pumping water down into the porous hot rock a few kilometers below ground. The resulting steam powers generators and is recollected as water to be pumped into the ground again. Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) use cold water or chemicals to create the cracks and pores necessary to generate sufficient steam and therefore power. As EGS technologies continue to improve, the energy potential for geothermal can reach 2,000 ZJ as reported by an MIT study in 2006. The study predicted that this would be enough to sustain the worlds present energy consumption for several millennia.

Like solar and wind, geothermal power utilizes a free source of energy with very little harmful emissions. Unlike solar and wind, geothermal power is fairly constant and unaffected by the weather, allowing it to be easily used for base load power generation. It is considered nearly sustainable since the heat extraction is small relative to the total heat reservoir. Geothermal power is already economically competitive in some geographic locations and can often scale to provide large generation capacity. The largest dry steam field in the world is at The Geysers, north of San Francisco, CA, which can produce 1,360 MW of electricity. One of the power plants at The Geysers is pictured on the left.

There are some drawbacks to geothermal power. Geothermal fluids are corrosive and realtively low temperature (compared to steam). The lower temperature causes less efficient transfer to power. Trace amounts of toxic elements such as mercury and arsenic may also be present, so the fluids must be disposed of properly. Some systems such as EGS can cause land stability due to the injection of water. Some plants emit low levels of carbon dioxide, nitric oxide and sulfur, but at roughly 5% of the level of fossil fuel plants. Most of these emissions can be captured and sequestered back in the earth to drop the emission levels to less than 0.1%. While the overall geothermal source is relatively limitless, some local cooling may occur. Care must be taken to design plants at sustainable production levels, allowing their heat reserve to replenish from deeper in the earth’s mantle.

Like most of the renewable sources I have looked at, geothermal is probably not the single answer to the problem. However, it appears to be a viable solution for large base load power generation which can be supplemented with various other renewable sources. My next challenge is to start a head-to-head comparison of the various energy sources to really see how they stack up over a full life cycle assessment; or maybe I’ll take the easy way out for now and jump into transportation alternatives. Check back to find out!

“We’re borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that’s got to change.”

The former vice president alludes to some of the potential solutions with the following factoids:

• Enough solar energy reaches the earth every 40 minutes to supply 100% of the worlds energy needs for a year.
• Enough wind blows through the Midwest corridor to supply 100% of the US energy needs.
• Geothermal is another relatively underutilized source of energy.

Mr. Gore’s ultimate challenge was this:

“Today I challenge our nation to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years.”

He likened this challenge to Kennedy’s challenge to land a man on the moon and return him safely in 10 years. Mr. Gore makes reference to falling prices of the specialized silicon for solar cells, the continuing performance increases in the semiconductor industry and the rising prices of oil as indicators that now is the time when we can meet a challenge such as this. Mr. Gore also notes some of the obstacles to reaching this goal, such as the need for a Unified National Grid for power distribution and a switch to an all electric vehicle fleet. He also stresses the need for an increased commitment to efficiency and conservation.

The speech includes some specific steps to get us moving in the the right direction. One of his key objectives is to sharply reduce payroll taxes and start taxing carbon emissions. Mr. Gore summed this up with “tax what we burn, not what we earn.” Another objective is for the US to rejoin the global community and lead efforts to secure an international treaty to cap CO₂ emissions.

Personally, I think this is the call to arms we really need to get moving. Unfortunately, unlike JFK in the 60’s, Mr. Gore is not the President of the United States of America. It remains to be seen what sort of influence this former VP and noble prize winner will have on the next administration. Will anyone running for the presidency or any of the top offices in the Congress be bold enough to take up this challenge?

“We must now lift our nation to reach another goal that will change history. Our entire civilization depends upon us now embarking on a new journey of exploration and discovery. Our success depends on our willingness as a people to undertake this journey and to complete it within 10 years. Once again, we have an opportunity to take a giant leap for humankind.”

For more information, join the WE campaign at wecansolveit.org. You can find the text of the full speech here.