Powering Up
Low-impact energy is finally going high profile, in the valley and planet-wide.
Powering Up
Methane gas being released in massive quantities by our planet’s melting ice caps could either accelerate global warming or provide an entirely unexpected energy bonanza, if we can figure out how to tap it instead of letting it escape and damage the atmosphere. Metal rods suspended underwater near the bottoms of rivers and oceans may be capable of creating a clean, inexpensive new form of hydro-power using tides and currents. A Calgary, Alberta, company called EarthRenew is using high-temperature cookers to convert abundant and polluting feedlot cow manure into dry granules for fertilizer and generate electricity in the process.
And soon the Energy Fairy will bring us all free Priuses.
Yes, banking on technological panaceas often amounts to no more than wishful thinking. But at least there are some truly alternative source possibilities out there for our traditional carbon- and hydro-supplied power. The term “alternative energy” gets abused a lot these days and too often ends up meaning new spins on the same old shibboleths, including “clean” coal, oil shale and nuclear.
Meanwhile, available technology for wind and solar is reaching new levels of affordability and accessibility for individuals. Colorado is a national leader in both areas, which admittedly have ongoing issues. The Aspen Skiing Co.’s test wind towers on top of the Big Burn at Snowmass actually blew over in September 2008. But that might be a good sign, right? The major problems for wind and solar are irregular availability and lack of adequate transmission lines. A variety of new large-scale power storage systems are being developed, including sodium-sulfur batteries and molten salt heat exchangers. And some of President Obama’s stimulus money may help fund the vital next-generation super-grid power lines, which vastly increase energy efficiency. They could be up and running across the country within 10 years at about the cost of two nuclear reactors that will take 25 years to build.
Power companies nationwide are also moving toward “smart meters” that match individual electrical needs to lower usage periods during the day when the power is more available and cheaper. A big test of these takes place this summer in Boulder, Colo. And state senator Gail Schwartz from Snowmass Village is helping sponsor legislation for Climate Smart Loans to homeowners for solar and other energy-efficiency measures.
Given the challenges of renewables, utility companies such as this valley’s Holy Cross Energy, which endorses wind and solar but still mainly relies on coal, aren’t always eager to embrace them as primary energy sources. Skico and its director of sustainability, Auden Schendler, have helped lead two efforts in the past two years to replace existing Holy Cross board members with more progressive candidates, winning two of three races.
Home solar is also burdened by high installation costs and too many municipalities, including Aspen, that limit its use through zoning regulations. Even so, Basalt town council member Peter McBride found out solar can be easy and cost-effective in his story, “Here Comes The Sun.” And geothermal ground source heat pumps such as the one recently installed by the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies (read about it in this magazine’s Summer 2009 issue at aspensojourner.com) are becoming more affordable ($7,500 for an average home), paying for themselves in 10 years.
To see how much we’re already accomplishing and how much more can still be done if we have the will, read Greg Mebel’s inventory of our valley’s usage of renewables in “Community Scoreboard”.
