If only we could stop using fossil fuels, polution levels would plummet, colicky babies would be cured, my Husky dog would shed less, and world peace would prevail. Hydrogen, solar power and electricity offer tantalizing alternatives to gasoline, natural gas, and coal. There are lots of problems with switching to hydrogen, including the cost of producing it, the difficulties in storing and transporting it, the safety issues, and the almost complete lack of infrastructure for dealing with it. Solar power seems perpetually bogged down in poor efficiency. Electricity comes with its own set of problems, largely involving the weight and bulk of the batteries, as well as the cost (both economic and ecologic) of manufacturing the batteries.
For a long time, we burned non-renewable fuels for pretty much all of our energy needs while heartily wishing that we could switch to something better. Alternative fuels are now quietly entering mainstream use and it is easy to miss the transition. The trick has been to use the alternative fuel to supplement the traditional fuel, rather than to replace it wholesale.
If you doubt that we will ever get away from petroleum products or you wonder what you can do about it, here are three stories which might lift your heart a bit.
First, Wired News reports that Truckers Choose Hydrogen Power
Hundreds of semitrailer trucks zipping along North American highways are now powered in part by hydrogen. These 18-wheelers make hydrogen as they go, eliminating the need for high-pressure, cryogenic storage tanks or hydrogen filling stations, which, by the way, don’t yet exist. These truckers aren’t just do-gooders. They like Canadian Hydrogen Energy’s Hydrogen Fuel Injection, or HFI, system because it lets them save fuel, get more horsepower and, as a bonus, cause less pollution.
The HFI system uses electricity to generate hydrogen from distilled water. The hydrogen boosts the efficiency of the diesel engine while reducing polution and operating costs.
Second, Wired News also reports on Huge Solar Plants Bloom in Desert.
Stirling Energy Systems is planning to build two separate solar farms, one with the capacity to generate 500 megawatts of electricity in the Mojave Desert near Victorville, California, for SoCal Edison, and a 300-megawatt plant in the Imperial Valley, near Calexico, California, for SDG&E….
…traditional coal or gas plants typically generate 500 to 1,000 megawatts, and that current solar farms are much smaller — generally in the 35- to 80-megawatt range. At the end of 2004, the United States had only 397 megawatts of solar-energy capacity, according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration.
The switch to solar power is happening on a commercial level, not through traditional photovoltaic cells but by resurecting the 200 year old Stirling engine and technology we all used as children: using a magnifying glass (or mirror, in this case) to focus sunlight to generate heat. The result is about 30% efficient, three times what photovoltaic systems achieve.
Last, we are all aware of the hybrid automobiles now commonly available. They do not make economic sense, as demonstrated by OmniNerd in his article Is a Hybrid Worth It?, but they do make ecologic sense.
Gas-electric hybrids are the most fuel-efficient passenger cars on the road and ecologically there isn’t a more viable option. Until something big changes, though, the industry-high efficiency can’t economically offset the steep sticker price.
The hybrid cars are not huge losers, dollar-wise, and they are a green option available to many of us.
I do have hope for the ecology of our planet, though we may still be surrounded by crying infants and mounds of Husky fur. Achieving world peace is left as an exercise for the reader.
