Save America NOW with Solar, Wind, and Algae Based Biodiesel

We are at the point now where we have solutions to our energy woes that can be implemented NOW. All we need is the willingness to change.

I’ve been following energy alternatives for a while and pushing for the United States to move away from oil as the dominant source of energy for our country. The point of this blog is to push for rapid change; to shift the paradigm in a dynamic temporal manner. Indeed, to advocate for a paradigm that itself embraces change and is in effect revolutionary hence a ‘Revolutionary Paradigm’.

We all realize the Bush Administration has squandered 7 precious years doing their best to keep us dependent on oil. We’ve been hand ringing and dragging our feet with respect to moving away from oil.

Along the way two alternatives have been put forth and indeed gone into production: Ethanol and Biodiesel. Initially there was hope and promise in these two alternatives but as time has gone on we are seeing the folly of these ways. Ethanol is currently being made from corn. It takes gasoline to make the ethanol. Not only is there little energy gained but it’s also creating world wide food shortages as farmers plant corn for ethanol instead of for food and livestock feed. Biodiesel made from soy beans is having a similar effect. It’s driving up the price of soy in addition to the glaring reality that we cannot possibly grow enough soy beans to make enough biodiesel to power the country.

But there is an alternative and that is green algae. Back in the 1970’s when we went through our last oil crisis the DoE launched a research program into the feasibility of producing oil from green algae. The results were very promising. The problem was as the 1970’s the price of oil did not make it economically viable to farm algae for oil.

Times have changed. With oil pushing $120/barrel green algae is now economically viable. Not only that but it is also scalable to the point where it could replace the bulk of the United States fuel consumption.

In addition to fuel derived from green algae we have two proven sources of alternative energy and those are solar and wind. There is no reason for the United States to burn fossil fuels or coal to produce electricity. The solar and wind technologies have come a long way and if pushed could be producing the bulk of our electricity.

Unfortunately some have decided ‘clean’ coal technology is the way to go. Most of the people pushing this idea are associated with the coal industry. In the beginning I even thought clean coal could be a viable alternative but the reality is the process to gasify coal is just as dirty as burning it. Burning coal in newer plants certainly helps reduce some of the pollution but not nearly enough. Especially when compared to solar and wind which in effect are 0 emission sources.

The other technology being pushed is nuclear. Technology does indeed exist that makes nuclear power safer. Proposals are to also do what France does and keep reusing spent fuel rods so that nuclear waste is recycled and reduced. That said I am against nuclear power in general. It’s just too expensive to be economically viable. We can argue about the dangers. Some claim even the newer nuke plants are dangerous others say they are as safe as can be. In principle I am against it since 1) it creates waste that no matter how it is recycled will be around for millions of years. 2) the waste itself is the base for refining the material needed to make nuclear weapons. I am against nuclear weapons categorically.

The problem is we need the drive and impetus for change NOW, not tomorrow, and not five years from now. For better and worse high gas prices and high oil prices are creating a desire to change faster than we have seen before. But for my taste, it is still going too slow.

We need solar panels on every single building in America. We need solar farms to go up in every sun rich state in the Union. We need wind farms everywhere possible. And we need this stuff NOW. We also need to develop green algae as a source for fuel.

Imagine if instead of spending $14 billion a month on Iraq we spent that money building solar, wind, and green algae energy sources. It would create jobs and stimulate the economy. Someone’s got to install the solar panels. A company has to produce the wind turbines. We could immediately and dramatically reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

But we need more than just political will. The political will in this country for rapid change will never exist. We need more than just Corporate Will as corporations will always seek the easiest and cheapest way to make money hence their push for coal and corn based ethanol.

What we need is the will of The People coupled with public demand and outrage to move this thing forward. Change must occur if we are to survive and that change has to begin outside of the political and corporate realm.

All about algae: Can pond scum power our future?

(CNN) -- Thirty years ago, the last time the world faced an oil crisis, the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) launched a program to analyze the potential algae had as a renewable fuel. It didn't take it long to realize algae was a godsend.

Actually being able to take advantage of it was another matter.

The program, run by the DoE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) lasted nearly two decades, but by 1996, it came to a close. Getting an algae biodiesel program running was deemed economically unfeasible when faced with the technology costs at the time versus the costs of using other fuels.

At that time, the price of oil was less than $20 a barrel.

With oil prices now looking like they won't drop below $100 a barrel for some time -- if ever -- and technology costs relatively lower than a decade ago, algae's time in the sun could finally have arrived.
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NREL itself said in its 1996 report that an area around the size of the U.S. state of Maryland -- approximately 15,000 square miles (3.8 million hectares) -- would be enough to cultivate enough algae to serve the entire transportation needs of the U.S.

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