Economics and politics of renewable energy
By Rick Yencer
MUNCIE, IN - Renewable energy like wind, solar and geothermal could be the norm in 50 years and Delaware County continues to lead the nation and world in manufacturing and application of wind turbines and geothermal heating and cooling systems.
Despite a Tom and Jerry episode between Democrats and Republicans over tax incentives given to Brevini Wind and its German handyman, VAT Energies, the market for renewable energy still comes to Muncie to see that $90 million plus geothermal system that Ball State University will ultimately use to heat and cool its campus.
It was amusing to see big media turn renewable energy into a folly and failure without mentioning one word about Congress and the Indiana General Assembly failing to create more tax incentives and even mandates for renewable energy. And it was also troubling not a word was mentioned about renown physicist Amory Lovins who offered a 1984 review that the United States was losing the energy war to Germany while spending time criticizing German national Oliver Viehweider for never creating a single job while promising to build a wind vane to brand Delaware County just like the Nestle Quick Bunny in Anderson as the renewable energy capital of the word.
Sure, millions in tax incentives were provided to Brevini and VAT and some of that money will never be recovered. That is still small comparing nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in property tax abatement to General Motors and Borg-Warner Automotive just to see the Chevrolet plant become a gravel lot and the Borg-Warner factory an empty shell.
Brad Bookout, county redevelopment director, pointed to neighbor Ohio to explain what needed to be done to continue to future of renewable energy. The Ohio Legislature mandated public utilities acquire a portion of their energy from renewable sources that developed both wind and solar facilities.
Indiana and its Republican controlled Legislature is beholding to oil and coal and state utility regulators are more interested in unproven technology like coal gasification that Duke Energy is spending billions to build or to support Indiana Michigan Power and its dependence on that big Cook Nuclear Plant besides other fossil fuels.
Indiana Michigan has taken steps to use renewable energy like the wind farm, Wildcat One, that is being built north of Elwood in Madison and Tipton counties. Indiana is not the windy state like the great West and both sides of the Rocky Mountain.
But as Ball State proved, Indiana has vast water resources like the rest of the Midwest with the largest fresh water source in North American, the Great Lakes. And Ball State seems to attract the attention of dozens of universities and institutions that want to kick the coal and oil habit.
Lovins also pointed out during his speech on the Ball State campus that Congress effectively killed the renewable energy industry in 2010 with denying incentives and funding. That Republican crowd that again is supported by big oil and coal continues to push for the Keystone XL pipeline to bring oil from coal shale from Canada to Texas.Even President Barack Obama signed on to support a portion of that project much to the concern of environmental groups and renewable energy advocates.
Lovins described sustainable energy as reinventing fire and predicted it could take half a century for the greatest country in the world to evolve. It could take Germany less than 10 years with plans to shut down nuclear reactors and go totally with wind, solar, and geothermal power.
And Germany and its Volkswagen industrial and military machine, will be mass producing electric, carbon fiber body cars next year with a new battery guaranteed to last for days while United States motorists pay nearly $5 a gallon for gasoline while spending a trillion dollars a year to keep the military securing Mideast oil fields in the name of fighting Islamic terrorism.
Mr. Yencer, I would hope
Mr. Yencer,
I would hope that in the future you would actually do a little research on the energy structure in Germany as it stands now versus writing about the semantics of alternative energy there. At the following link an energy expert actually looked at the facts, and a few are listed below. Spain failed in this venture, so now Germany looks to be the next model. Both sides to be debated, but the negatives need to be explored.
http://notrickszone.com/2012/01/25/energy-expert-germanys-renewable-energy-transition-will-fail-spectacularly-heavily-damaging-the-economy/
"The problem is that these alternative energy sources are weather-dependent and thus their sporadic supply is starting to wreak havoc on Germany’s power grid and is even now threatening to destabilize power grids all across Europe. The other problem: the power grid needed to distribute the decentralized green power is simply not there yet. They forgot to build it!"
Germany had been a net power exporter; today it is a net power importer and is at times severely straining neighboring power grids since shutting down 8 nuclear power plants after the problems in Japan.
To compensate for the missing nuclear power, the German government is now heavily promoting even more weather-dependent offshore wind power, which is further destabilizing the German and European power grids who are importing power into Germany. Oh, and they "Forgot" to plan for the building of 3,000 km of new power transmission lines that are needed to link the new offshore wind farms. Plus, environmentalist are blocking the building of many of these lines, and so far only a measly 214 km have been built.
Germany has also been re-commissioning old mothballed, inefficient coal-fired plants to help with the energy deficiencies created by the jump to renewables with no planning because it sounds and feels good to go green.
And finally, if you think any robust manufacturing economy like the U.S. can go totally self-sufficient on wind, solar, and geothermal power then this a belief and not a reality with today's technology, and that of the long-range foreseeable future. Alternative energy is now very inefficient, sporadic, and expensive to implement over new Smart Grids. This all means a steady supply of electricity from nuclear or fossil fuel powered plants is needed for the foreseeable future to keep the grid at a constant supply voltage. If we didn't have this, then just about every electronic device you plugged in at your house would get fried by the voltage surges and dips that come with sporadically supplied renewable energy. And, there just isn't enough power generated to run manufacturing, or the capability to store it for later use very cheaply.
Even "Net Metering" from solar panels on your home doesn't power your house during a power failure in most states unless you illegally wire it that way after the inspector leaves. They want no power going into the grid if there is a power outage and lineman need to work on dead power lines that might not be dead if someybody's solar panels are still feeding the grid. So, your system is down and your house dark during power failures if you "Net Meter" since you either give or take to the grid by their rules - legally.
Perhaps some of the politicians over here know about what those politicians over there did without thinking it all through. Plus, we can't afford many more Solyndra's where throwing many at green energy just to be throwing money at green energy is unsustainable.
Good Luck in your Research.
Mike Nordloh