We Demand

Frankly, I'm getting tired of it. "It" is a full-on daily assault from WE, Al Gore's We can solve the climate crisis campaign. "To Our Leaders: Free us," the ad demands with images and music behind it. "Free us from our addiction to oil. Save us from $4.99 per gallon gas. Save our economy. Save us from this climate crisis. Give us truly clean energy. Use the wind. Use the sun. We demand that we use them. We demand that we repower America. There is a solution. There is no time to waste. We want a better future. We demand a better future. We the American people are no longer asking. Give us 100% clean electricity within 10 years." It ends with a "link" to the website.

What is it of which I'm tired? I'm tired of being told that there is a climate crisis when science still isn't quite sure of it. I'm tired of being spoken for. I wasn't aware that I was making this demand. Apparently every American is demanding this "100% clean electricity within 10 years." No one asked me. I'm tired of this entire concept of "we demand" without any reference in the slightest to how. Oh, sure, wind and sun, that's all it will take. Sign me up. Except I know that this is, first off, a lie and secondly it is incredibly expensive. Current technology does not exist to power America by these clean forms. The technology that does exist is phenomenally expensive. Did you know, for instance, that using current technology to harness the sun to power my house (and only my house) would cost $40,000 to install? One house ... $40,000. That's without transmission lines. And that's in the very small section of the United States that can actually use solar power. Extrapolate that out to include every house and every business and the vast system of transmission that would be required and we're not talking "cheap" or even "affordable" in our current economic climate. (And remember, the "demand" is not simply for "fossil-fuel" free energy, but "clean" energy, which eliminates nuclear, gas, coal, wood, solid waste, or any other "dirty" sources.)

Take a look for a moment at the cost of changing our power generating structure in America. According to the Energy Information Administration, we currently have a capacity for 1,075,677 megawatts of power. Of that, 977,711 megawatts are "unclean". (It may be more, since "other" includes some clean and some not so clean.) So how much would it cost to replace that power with clean, renewable power? Well, APS here in Arizona is building one of the world's largest solar-thermal plants here in the area of Gila Bend. They are spending $1 billion to produce 280 megawatts of power, enough for 70,000 homes. Now, let's see ... if we do the math, all we would need is about 3500 of these plants to replace the "bad" generation. And at $1 billion, well, that math is easy ... that would be ... oh, wait, that's a really big number. We're talking $3.5 trillion. The other cost to consider is space. The plant will cover 1900 acres. without accounting for transmission lines or boosters or the like, to generate sufficient power to replace existing sources, we would need to occupy 6,650,000 acres or roughly 10,390 square miles. No small area to consume.

Okay, so maybe that's not entirely viable. We can surely go to wind power as well, right? T. Boone Pickens is planning to build a 4,000 megawatt wind generator system. His expected cost is between $10 and $12 billion. Now, to use wind to replace the existing "bad" energy sources, we would need another 245 of these systems. (By "systems" I simply mean a field of wind generators.) That would cost somewhere between $2.45 to $3 trillion. (I can't find any figures on land use.)

There is, of course, one other option. Geothermal power uses the planet's internal heat to create electricity. Now, all we really need to do is take over Yellowstone National Park with its many geysers ... no, wait, that's not going to work. Okay, so surely we can just drill some deep holes and get there that way, right? Well, it's not quite that easy. Geothermal energy production has its environmental concerns. The fluids are often corrosive, and the process can make land areas unstable. Still, currently we are getting something like 8,000 megawatts of power worldwide from geothermal sources with the United states leading the way by producing some 1,935 megawatts. The DOE has calculated an average cost of $1.68 million for a geothermal plant built in America. Of course, experts estimate that, with enhanced technology, we could possibly produce 138,100 megawatts of power worldwide. Since America would need around 980,000 megawatts, that isn't going to help at all. Besides, estimates put the building of a 1,000 megawatt geothermal plant at $3 billion. Even if we could figure out how to do it, that would require nearly $3 trillion to replace the existing sources.

One thing about that commercial ... you know, the one that bugs me so much ... is that it includes a demand to "Save us from $4.99 per gallon gas." In the commercial, right there between our oil addiction and our economy, the commercial shows a counter with a rising price of gasoline for our cars. Now, what, in all this plan, will help with our cars? How will that help lower fuel costs? The truth is that we don't use a whole lot of petroleum to power our generators. Natural gas is by far the biggest source. So how will it help the rising cost of driving our cars if we were to manage to switch to other sources of electricity? But I guess I'm not supposed to ask questions like that.

"Give us solar power and give us wind power and give us geothermal power -- clean energy." That's the demand. Farther than that, "we want it in 10 years!" And don't get me wrong. I like clean energy and renewable energy and cheap energy. That's all good. But, the technology to do that is limited and the space it will take is much more than is currently used and the cost to accomplish it is massive. Still, we demand it and we demand it now! Listen, while you're at it, why not ask for some other useful impossibilities? You know, "a million dollars in every wallet" or "peace on earth" would be nice ... as long as no one asks "So ... how are we going to do that exactly?" or "Who's going to pay for that?" or other practical considerations.