Renewable Energy and the Military

When it comes to our United States military and their “needs” there is what some would call a demand for results in technology when it comes right down to it. Anyone that has worked with the military in the private sector knows that the contracts go to the people with the best idea for what they “need”. There is no better source of expedience when it comes to the private sector than facing a military contract to supply X at date Y and if they like it then contract Z is awarded. The competition for military contracts in the private sector is intense, extremely intense, and a life or death existence for many companies all across America. Make no mistake about it, the people with the best plan can charge the value they think it is worth.

Maybe it would be a good idea for the Pentagon to put out a call to arms for all of the garage inventors in America to hasten the effort to expand renewable energy sources that could be used in the business end of protecting America? One thing is certain with this article from Reuters is that the end result will be something that will eventually pay it forward in your home down the road…

Military wants to lead U.S. into the green

By Bernie Woodall

FORT IRWIN, California (Reuters) - The U.S. military has a history of fostering change, from racial integration to development of the Internet. Now, Pentagon officials say their green energy efforts will help America fight global warming.

By size alone, the Defense Department can make waves. It accounts for 1.5 percent of U.S. energy consumption.

The military has set a goal that 25 percent of its energy should come from renewable sources by 2025 and aims to create machines and methods to help Main Street America reach similar targets, said Alan Shaffer, a retired Air Force officer who leads the Pentagon's research and engineering arm.

Snip and “Atten Hut!”

Renewable energy is not new to the military. Wind turbines supply much of the power used at the isolated U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and the geothermal power plant at the China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station in California has been in operation for two decades.

But urgency to ramp up the program increased in 2006 after Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Richard Zilmer said bringing solar and wind power to the battlefront would cut down on casualties.

"Cost matters. Lives matter more," said Shaffer. "Every time we have to send a convoy out to refuel tanks or deploy forward locations, it puts people's lives at risk." -Reuters

Make no mistake about this article from Reuters, the Pentagon is hurting from the price of oil and that money has to come from somewhere else to pay for our troops movements. If the money for energy use comes from somewhere else then programs the military really cares about have to be canceled. This policy of our military will change the imprint that our military and their use of energy has and will funnel down to the bases all over the world and thus onto the economy of America. What I find interesting about this military intervention is the fact that they are not embracing renewable energy because they like the idea but the simple fact that they have no choice in the matter. Something all of us in the private sector have faced for two years now and it is looking like we will all have to adjust our energy use for a long time to come.

In the long run, what the military invests in today for renewable energy will be in our homes in five to ten years at the latest. Be it solar, wind, or even pulling energy out of the air in a Tesla type experiment, the end result is the expenses in research and developed applications of our military today will be in our homes in the not so distant future. I would not be surprised to see solar energy conversion go from 30% to 80% in less than five years. Battery technology breaking new barriers and charges that last for days or weeks. Electric powered cars that can run for a week on just one charge. The possibilities are extreme and it will take the power of the U.S. military budget dollars to make the change in our energy sources and usage possible. They alone have the purchasing power to move renewable energy beyond what it is today as a science.

Papamoka

*****Reuters has picked up this post!!! Thank you!

Electric Cars

Make no mistake about it, we in America are behind the eight ball when it comes to our love of cars and getting from point A to Z. We as a people love the zero to sixty in seconds because we are power addicts in our cars. More power, more horsepower, and then we do that Tim Alan thing with the grunt as we pass a school bus with our mini van on a double lane road. Then we get to the gas pump and wonder why out loud with many expletives under our breath why it cost sixty, seventy or even a hundred dollars to fill our gas tank.

One of the things that is going to happen in America over the next decade is the extreme change to our choice of motor vehicles. It isn’t by our choice rather than our need as a people to move from one point to the other freely and the rising cost of gasoline will be the ultimate reason behind the engineering changes. You can blame OPEC, Wall Street, or the money grabbing oil companies with billions of profit per quarter or you could just look in the mirror. No matter how you look at the cause of blame, the car market is going to have to move to new forms of transportation or go the way of the stage coach. Just as the horse and buggy was replaced with the combustion engine, the same is going to happen to the combustion engine form of transportation.

Europe has been paying grotesque prices for gasoline for decades and in doing so has been the front runner on new technology to save money on the family budget. Over at Reuters they have this video on the latest car show featuring electric cars…

Wind power and Solar power is growing in America like a virus out of control and for a good reason. Our nation is in trouble when it comes to our energy needs and changing the source of that need is the only way out of it. All across America wind farms are going up like a wild weed overcoming the oil giant garden and this weed is not easily wiped out by insecticides or political lobbyist. What is amazing is that many people in the private sector are taking the initiative and installing their own wind turbines.

When you think about it, every single wind turbine is stealing away from the harmful alternatives that we use for electric generation every single day. Every single megawatt turbine is that less energy from coal powered power plants. Every single megawatt turbine is that much less energy needed from a natural gas fired power plant.

As for the solar power market and people embracing that new and improved energy source, the industry can not grow fast enough. Here in New England, Governor Deval Patrick has endorsed and put his money where his mouth is on green energy, and the solar power industry can not keep up with demand for the product that just sucks up energy from the sun.

Would it not be nice to throw up a solar panel on your roof and a small wind turbine to generate enough energy for not just your car to get from A to Z but also power the toaster, the fridge, the television and of course your computer to read posts like this one?

Anywho, electric cars are coming to America. They need to work on making them look more conventional and macho. Real men, macho hairy men, will be the worst enemy of the electric car industry. Little two seater’s that look like a sardine can will never wash. Get past that hurdle and it will sell like the next coming of Christ. Put the technology of electric cars in a midsized Ford or Chevy model and America will embrace it in a heartbeat.

Papamoka

*****Reuters has picked up this post... Thank You!

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Clock is ticking for Big Oil

It’s a fact that when a dam breaks it started with one drip of water seeping through one little crack. As the drips turn into a trickle the crack in the dam is slowly widened and soon the dam will be breached. In the same logic, big oil is slowly being breached with every new renewable energy idea that comes to fruition and generates it first watt of clean power.

Renewable energy sources are only as far away as the human mind can imagine. Whenever I see the latest ideas on generating clean power it simply amazes me to no end. It all starts with one persons imagination and not long after that its being tested somewhere in the world. The latest such experiment is happening off the coast of Oregon and of course the debate has already begun amongst those for it and those against it. They have a great starter piece on wave power generation over at the New York Times…

The coastal Northwest is one of the few parts of the West where water is abundant, but people are still fighting over it. Amid concerns about climate change and the pollution caused by generating electricity with coal and natural gas, Oregon is looking to draw power from the waves that pound its coast with forbidding efficiency.

It might seem a perfect solution in a region that has long been ahead of the national curve on alternative energy. Yet the debate over the potential damage — whether to the environment, the fishing industry or the stunning views of the Pacific — has become intense before the first megawatt has been transmitted to shore.

“Everyone wants that silver bullet,” said Fran Recht of the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission. “The question is, Is this as benign as everyone wants to say it is?” - New York Times

It isn’t a far reach to think that every new technology that comes along is going to have its positive effects on our world and of course its detriments. And yet the alternative to not having these new technologies available to the energy market is not acceptable.
I’d like to think that the end of Big Oil and its dominance in the world energy markets needs a dooms day clock. Every single time that a new potential source for energy comes up to the testing stage we need to move the minute hand one minute closer to midnight.

One last thought, if the vast possiblilities of renewable energy sources are the water behind the damn then the little Dutch Boy with his finger in the dam is about to be swept down stream.

Papamoka

Cross posted at MichaelLinnJones.com

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Traitor In The Energy Debate? Guilty; With An Explanation

Picture courtesy of www.drilshop.com & Google

This post is courtesy of my very good friend Michael Linn Jones. I highly recommend his site as a daily read. I personally can not thank him enough for letting me post it in its entirety here at Papamoka Straight Talk.

Traitor In The Energy Debate? Guilty; With An Explanation

Scott Tinker has some interesting opinions in the Houston Chronicle concerning Big Oil and conceptions therof. THE CHOICE: BIG OIL OR CHAVEZ? contains some of Tinker’s “myths” and “realities” of oil science and oil politics.

The American public is severely misinformed about energy. A few energy myths:

• American energy independence is possible.
• “Big Oil” companies control gasoline prices.
• “Big Oil” companies make obscene profits.
• We are running out of fossil energy (oil, natural gas and coal).
• There are renewable (clean) alternatives to oil, natural gas and coal available today.
• People will pay more for clean energy.
• The oil industry is a major polluter today.
• Energy efficiency and conservation can solve the problem.

Here are a few energy realities.

• Political spin has little basis in energy reality; talk about energy independence is misleading and naive. America is energy interdependent for the foreseeable future and policies should be made accordingly.
• The cost to transition the transportation infrastructure to nonliquid energies is in the trillions of dollars and will take many decades, even if we implemented a full-scale commitment today.
• Big Oil companies combined control less than 10 percent of the world’s conventional oil reserves. So “Big Oil” cannot control gasoline prices.
• U.S. political leaders beat up on Big Oil with unfounded rhetoric about obscene profits. Big Oil companies, even in the past few “obscene profit years” have typically made less than 10 percent profit annually, which is not very good relative to many other industries. A healthy industry does not exhibit the kind of layoffs and mergers that continue to characterize the U.S. petroleum industry.
• Oil, natural gas and coal provide 86 percent of global energy. Consumers must be prepared to pay for cleaner forms of fossil energy, such as electricity from gasified coal plants that are ready to sequester carbon dioxide emissions underground, and unconventional oil and gas reserves whose exploitation demands more expensive technology.
• Because of its massive pursuit of coal-based power, China must be a major part of any global strategies to reduce carbon emissions.

Now, I don’t subscribe to everything Mr. Tinker puts forth. Or more accurately, what he does NOT say. In a nutshell, Big Oil are too good at lying for their own good. Are they taking advantage of the situation to increase profits? Sure. Is it immoral? In a pure and simple world maybe. But that is not what we inherited, nor what we will leave our children.

Having said that, I must also confess to being wholly unconcerned about oil companies during the boom days of consumers. It IS bad that there have been so many mergers, and I believe competition is greatly stifled by them. On the other hand, when gasoline was flowing into my car at 80 or 90 cents a gallon I wasn’t complaining about how little oil companies were making.

Reading Tinker’s article I had a memory flash, no doubt induced by years of inhaling God knows how many varieties of pollutants. I think it was The Discovery Channel, doing one of its more un-Disneyesque broadcasts showing how life (and death) in Africa really is.

During the wet season there is a large body of water that is teeming with life and it is frequented by animals dependent upon it for sustenance. Then the dry season comes and there are large numbers of hippos and crocodiles jammed together like sardines in an ever-shrinking water hole. Baboons and wildebeasts are regular victims of the crocs as they brave danger to quench their thirst. The hippos bide their time, relieving their boredom occasionally by basically daring a croc to have a go at a young hippo.

Then the rains come again and all is well. Life thrives and the cycle is repeated. You would think the animals might figure out after several million cycles that there might be a better way of getting through the year.

Of course, they are not human. But WE are, and to be honest, since the early 70’s our petroleum lake has shrunk and expanded, in cycles that are not conducive to any form of steady planning of an economy. Let’s face it; we are at the mercy of oil supplies, and I must agree with Tinker somewhat in acknowledging the fact that Big Oil does NOT cartel the supply; nations do. They are NOT our friends, and never will be.

Now, like our African friends with brains the size of walnuts, we await the late Autumn each year….gasoline prices drop, oil prices drop, and all is well again. Then along comes Spring and Summer, and the vultures in the commodities markets prey upon ANYTHING that smells remotely like a quick profit. They are, in many ways, the crocs of the dwindling pond. Used to be it took a major hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico to drive the market up. Now, a Nigerian oil worker can have a fight with his wife and that is good for $5 a barrel.

We are spoiled in two ways: cheap and constant energy is a birthright. Along with that is the growing realization that hydrocarbons are not all that desirable from an environmental point of view. I am NOT speaking of global warming. I don’t need to. It is still scientifically debatable in my opinion. But, what I’ve seen with my own eyes is not.

Years ago someone who had a small plane took me up for some flying (terror rides I called them). Although in the middle of summer, the pilot explained that once we got above 5,000 feet or so we would escape most of the humidity in the atmosphere.

“Of course,” he said, ” we’ll also have to fly through the ’shit belt’.” Upon inquiry, he showed me. As I scanned the horizon there was this blanket; a brown layer that looks like a dirty stew. It is mostly the byproducts from all those vehicles pumping it out every day. We don’t see it because we’re not normally up there. I am neither a rocket scientist nor a meteorologist, but one doesn’t need to be to figure out that this brown blanket is not exactly good for everyone.

Whatever direction we take in the future it is going to be expensive. But, this is a time for a mixture of JFK’s asking us to ask what we can do for our country and Reagan’s eternal optimism of the American Spirit. As an incorrigible baby-boomer I can say with some firmness that there is little that is NOT possible if this nation…as a nation….puts its mind to it.

It is great political theater to demand that Big Oil be punished through taxation. Leave them be, or confine government action to redirecting their motives for investment.

There is a way to satisfy our energy needs for far into the future. If Big Oil becomes Big Energy, then so be it. As consumers we have eaten our cake and gotten it, too. We can still do so but the cake is going to be a bit more expensive.

In my next post I’ll attempt to expand this by delving into the real sleeper of the future of energy: fusion.

Michael Linn Jones