Print ArticleAmerica´s foreign policy has been for decades determined by its need for energy. Today U.S. troops are in Irak for the same reason. The Bush Administration would get us entangled with Iran, if it could, for the same reason. The Iraq war, which is approaching five years, has cost us over $200 billions and close to 4000 lives and 25,000 wounded We are hated for it by both our foes and our friends. This does not have to be this way. Petroleum is not the only material, which we have to have to meet our energy needs.
The consumption of petroleum and coal cause tremendous amounts of carbon dioxide to escape to the atmosphere and accelerate the global warming.
The United States does have the technology to live in peace with the rest of the World, except with the Taliban that we should completely destroy. Our technology can also drastically reduce the amount of carbon dioxide that escapes to the atmosphere.
An energy sufficiency in the United States can be achieved in different ways. One way is to build enough nuclear plants to supply all our electricity needs. We can make our trains run by electric power. We can have electrically operated cars (All we have to do is to research further the batteries to give the cars at least 200 miles ride without stopping) In towns we can certainly operate our busses electrically., we can heat or cool our home electrically. Nuclear energy is environmentally very benign. It produces no carbon dioxide. It only has a serious waste disposal problem and the nuclear material has to be well protected from bad people.
An other fully developed means of generating electricity is to use wind mill farms. This is also requiring no raw material, producing no carbon dioxide, and having the advantage of locating inside a town. That eliminates expensive transmission systems.
Wind mills work day and night but require storage for windless days.
Solar energy is environmentally absolutely benign, has no raw material to be purchased, and no waste to be disposed. Last week a very serious article was published in Scientific American [Vol.298, No.1, pp.64-73 , 2008] by Ken Zweibel, James Mason, and Vasilis Fthenakis. It tells how by 2020 the United States could have 84 giga watts of solar plants and how by 2050 solar plants would supply 69 % of U.S. electricity and 35 % of total U.S. Energy There are different technologies to convert sun light to electricity. The best one of proven processes is the Photovoltaic process.. In this process, semiconductors such as cadmium telluride and cadmium sulfide convert the light energy to electric current. Large panels containing a thin layer of these materials are exposed in sunny wastelands such as Arizona and their production is wired. A second proven process is concentrating the sun light in parabolic mirrors on a central pipe that circulates a heat transfer liquid. That hot liquid heats water in a heat-exchanger and is then pumped back to the parabolic mirrors. The hot water expands in a steam turbine that generates electricity.
Obviously these electricity generators don´t produce anything at night. To meet nightly demand, part of the electricity produced on day time is sent to an energy storage center. There, electricity pumps air into a tight cavern and builds there a high pressure. At night, that air pressure is released into high-pressure and low pressure turbines that produce electricity. Other means of energy storage have been practiced to my knowledge in Reinland, Germany and in the United States. The idea is very simple. Daily excess power is used to pump water to a higher lake. At peak demand or at night, water is withdrawn from the high lake and this time the water pump acts as a turbine that generates electric power.
The authors have used very reasonable assumptions in estimating future costs, from the rates at which present costs are changing. They assumed that the federal government should invest a total of $420 billion into the national energy infrastructure. That money could be raised by increasing the cost of electricity by 0.5 cent per Kwh. Actually the authors do not count that $300 billion that would be saved by not importing any oil Also , the biggest saving: by not having to wage war in the Middle East we would save another $300 to $400 billions. Thus, solar energy will be a very attractive investment for the tax payer.
Solar energy would not require all the intensive safety regulations used in nuclear industry. Thus, I doubt that any permit would be needed to built such plants.
These facts should be made known to all the politicians in this country I would call the solar industry the "Industry of peace and environmental sanity" because it would make us self-sufficient in energy and we would not have to send anymore our boys and girls oversees to secure resources of oil. By using solar energy, global warming will not worsen. Between now and 2050 world politics will change a lot. The reader can imagine himself what can be done with the hundred millions of dollars that will stay at home.
Our health insurance problem can be easily resolved. Our education can be improved
If the authors of the Scientific American article can sell their idea to the American Public, the next 40 years will be a period of great change. As new solar production units are installed, more and more things will be operated by electricity, and less and less oil will be imported. Domestic oil production will go to chemical industry. As the import of oil decreases, the Pentagon´s interest in the Middle east will also decrease. That interest will concentrate on countries that host El Qaeda forces. Hopefully, there will be enough troops freed from Iraq to effectively attack the Taliban .Of course, U.S. trade deficits would be greatly reduced.
The development of China and India will not collide with American interests, since we will no longer care for oil. On this continent, United States may be selling power to Canada. In the old world, Europeans will be very interested in the deserts of Libya and Egypt where they might want to build their own solar power stations. Power might be transmitted to Europe by a cable through the strait of Gibraltar. Turkey has enough southern exposure to generate at least part of its own electricity at the Southern slopes of the Taurus Mountains. The Konia plateau might be an other attractive area. Mediterranean countries will be selling power to northern European states.
A simplistic sort of solar energy has been used in Southern and Western provinces, of Turkey, mainly in local hotels, not to produce electricity, but hot water for the showers.
In Europe, switching to solar energy will make the EU less dependent from Russia and Europe´s Russia policy will certainly change. Similarly, investing in solar energy will make Turkey free of the political influences of Russia and Iran
But the demise of petroleum will hurt petroleum producing countries like Saudi Arabia and Russia. Having no technological base, Saudis might take their camels and return to the desert. But I wonder what Russians would do, if they could not sell their oil and their gas.
The above mentioned article mentions that Japan and Germany have already serious programs to create solar energy production in their countries. There is no doubt in my mind that Solar Energy will change the world. Energy will no longer be a product that causes some superpowers to go to war for. Actually all superpowers have enough sun light to produce their electricity peacefully. Solar power is also opening a whole fertile future to energy engineers of the world.
Today we buy oil from Saudi Arabia and other Islamist countries. Our dollars finance their Madrassas that brain-wash their youngsters with hatred for America. Some of that money goes also to finance terrorist bands that try to destroy our civilization. Once solar power is established in this country, we will no longer buy any oil from the Middle East. Our dollars will stay home. Saudis will be impoverished and will no longer be able to finance their madrassas and the terrorists. Thus, solar power will help us fight the War on Terror.
The consumption of petroleum and coal cause tremendous amounts of carbon dioxide to escape to the atmosphere and accelerate the global warming.
The United States does have the technology to live in peace with the rest of the World, except with the Taliban that we should completely destroy. Our technology can also drastically reduce the amount of carbon dioxide that escapes to the atmosphere.
An energy sufficiency in the United States can be achieved in different ways. One way is to build enough nuclear plants to supply all our electricity needs. We can make our trains run by electric power. We can have electrically operated cars (All we have to do is to research further the batteries to give the cars at least 200 miles ride without stopping) In towns we can certainly operate our busses electrically., we can heat or cool our home electrically. Nuclear energy is environmentally very benign. It produces no carbon dioxide. It only has a serious waste disposal problem and the nuclear material has to be well protected from bad people.
An other fully developed means of generating electricity is to use wind mill farms. This is also requiring no raw material, producing no carbon dioxide, and having the advantage of locating inside a town. That eliminates expensive transmission systems.
Wind mills work day and night but require storage for windless days.
Solar energy is environmentally absolutely benign, has no raw material to be purchased, and no waste to be disposed. Last week a very serious article was published in Scientific American [Vol.298, No.1, pp.64-73 , 2008] by Ken Zweibel, James Mason, and Vasilis Fthenakis. It tells how by 2020 the United States could have 84 giga watts of solar plants and how by 2050 solar plants would supply 69 % of U.S. electricity and 35 % of total U.S. Energy There are different technologies to convert sun light to electricity. The best one of proven processes is the Photovoltaic process.. In this process, semiconductors such as cadmium telluride and cadmium sulfide convert the light energy to electric current. Large panels containing a thin layer of these materials are exposed in sunny wastelands such as Arizona and their production is wired. A second proven process is concentrating the sun light in parabolic mirrors on a central pipe that circulates a heat transfer liquid. That hot liquid heats water in a heat-exchanger and is then pumped back to the parabolic mirrors. The hot water expands in a steam turbine that generates electricity.
Obviously these electricity generators don´t produce anything at night. To meet nightly demand, part of the electricity produced on day time is sent to an energy storage center. There, electricity pumps air into a tight cavern and builds there a high pressure. At night, that air pressure is released into high-pressure and low pressure turbines that produce electricity. Other means of energy storage have been practiced to my knowledge in Reinland, Germany and in the United States. The idea is very simple. Daily excess power is used to pump water to a higher lake. At peak demand or at night, water is withdrawn from the high lake and this time the water pump acts as a turbine that generates electric power.
The authors have used very reasonable assumptions in estimating future costs, from the rates at which present costs are changing. They assumed that the federal government should invest a total of $420 billion into the national energy infrastructure. That money could be raised by increasing the cost of electricity by 0.5 cent per Kwh. Actually the authors do not count that $300 billion that would be saved by not importing any oil Also , the biggest saving: by not having to wage war in the Middle East we would save another $300 to $400 billions. Thus, solar energy will be a very attractive investment for the tax payer.
Solar energy would not require all the intensive safety regulations used in nuclear industry. Thus, I doubt that any permit would be needed to built such plants.
These facts should be made known to all the politicians in this country I would call the solar industry the "Industry of peace and environmental sanity" because it would make us self-sufficient in energy and we would not have to send anymore our boys and girls oversees to secure resources of oil. By using solar energy, global warming will not worsen. Between now and 2050 world politics will change a lot. The reader can imagine himself what can be done with the hundred millions of dollars that will stay at home.
Our health insurance problem can be easily resolved. Our education can be improved
If the authors of the Scientific American article can sell their idea to the American Public, the next 40 years will be a period of great change. As new solar production units are installed, more and more things will be operated by electricity, and less and less oil will be imported. Domestic oil production will go to chemical industry. As the import of oil decreases, the Pentagon´s interest in the Middle east will also decrease. That interest will concentrate on countries that host El Qaeda forces. Hopefully, there will be enough troops freed from Iraq to effectively attack the Taliban .Of course, U.S. trade deficits would be greatly reduced.
The development of China and India will not collide with American interests, since we will no longer care for oil. On this continent, United States may be selling power to Canada. In the old world, Europeans will be very interested in the deserts of Libya and Egypt where they might want to build their own solar power stations. Power might be transmitted to Europe by a cable through the strait of Gibraltar. Turkey has enough southern exposure to generate at least part of its own electricity at the Southern slopes of the Taurus Mountains. The Konia plateau might be an other attractive area. Mediterranean countries will be selling power to northern European states.
A simplistic sort of solar energy has been used in Southern and Western provinces, of Turkey, mainly in local hotels, not to produce electricity, but hot water for the showers.
In Europe, switching to solar energy will make the EU less dependent from Russia and Europe´s Russia policy will certainly change. Similarly, investing in solar energy will make Turkey free of the political influences of Russia and Iran
But the demise of petroleum will hurt petroleum producing countries like Saudi Arabia and Russia. Having no technological base, Saudis might take their camels and return to the desert. But I wonder what Russians would do, if they could not sell their oil and their gas.
The above mentioned article mentions that Japan and Germany have already serious programs to create solar energy production in their countries. There is no doubt in my mind that Solar Energy will change the world. Energy will no longer be a product that causes some superpowers to go to war for. Actually all superpowers have enough sun light to produce their electricity peacefully. Solar power is also opening a whole fertile future to energy engineers of the world.
Today we buy oil from Saudi Arabia and other Islamist countries. Our dollars finance their Madrassas that brain-wash their youngsters with hatred for America. Some of that money goes also to finance terrorist bands that try to destroy our civilization. Once solar power is established in this country, we will no longer buy any oil from the Middle East. Our dollars will stay home. Saudis will be impoverished and will no longer be able to finance their madrassas and the terrorists. Thus, solar power will help us fight the War on Terror.
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