March/April 2006 and July/August 2007 WebSite Supplements

Biofuels: Science or Fiction, by Ron Swenson [2007 July/August]

"The quest to reduce our oil addiction and to develop new liquid fuels has a new focus, the siren song of biofuels — literally and figuratively, the last straw."

click here to view the articles (pdf)

Dawn of the Solar Era, five articles, see below [2006 March/April]

1. Francis de Winter & Ron Swenson: A Wake-up Call (html)
   The sun is the only energy source that can meet the oil depletion challenge. But solar energy ramp-up must be large-scale and immediate.
   • The Production Peaks in Petroleum and Natural Gas: Information, Misinformation, Awareness, and Implications
     This paper given at the ISES meeting in Orlando, August, 2005, has extensive references relative to these Solar Today articles.
   • Can Solar Energy Replace Oil?
     This Powerpoint [2.3 mb] was used for the presentation of the above "Production Peaks" paper in Orlando.
   • Renewable Energy Policies: Built Upon Economics or Thermodynamics?
   • Facts and Myths about Solar Energy
2. Ronal Larson: Chair's Corner: The Future is Renewable Energy
   The days of cheap oil are numbered, but RE is growing fast enough to fill the breach.
3. Colin J. Campbell: The Second Half of the Age of Oil Dawns
   The question is not when the world will run out of oil and natural gas, but how we will prepare today.
   • Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas (ASPO)
   • Writings at www.oilcrisis.com
4. Tom Starrs: Imagine
   Picture a world where peace, health and prosperity reign. It’s no utopian vision, but one built on renewable energy.
   • Making the Transition: Solar Energy’s Role in a Sustainable Energy Future, by Tom Starrs, San Diego Solar Energy Week [2005 September 29]
5. Congressman Roscoe G. Bartlett: Transitioning to a New Paradigm
   Now is the time to establish a strategic plan to address the inevitable end of cheap oil.
   • Congressman Roscoe Bartlett, 6th District, Maryland

SideBars

• Estimated Net Energy Yield of Conventional and Renewable Sources in the U.S.
• How Will We Fill the Fossil Fuel Gap?
  Solar energy far exceeds all other possible forms of substitution, with none of nuclear energy’s safety and waste-disposal challenges.
• A Solar Future Long Anticipated
  When Hubbert predicted global peak oil, Farrington Daniels focused on the solution.
• Making the Transition
  A sampling of excerpts from proposed roadmaps for getting to a sustainable energy paradigm.

Web Supplements

• Roadmaps

  Some highlights:

  • Midcontinent Perspectives: The Solar Prospect, by Denis Hayes, Director, Solar Energy Research Institute, Vice President, Midwest Research Institute at Midwest Research Institute, Kansas City, Missouri [1980 April 8]

    "I grew up to the strains of the musical Oklahoma and thought that everything was up to date in Kansas City. I expected to find all of the houses here with solar collectors on them. However, I found that the drive toward solar energy here is substantially slower than would be indicated by economics, by environmental concern, or by a desire to build a city that is in the best interests of the citizens of today, or the children of tomorrow. Kansas City is not unique in this regard. The same can be said for most of America and for most of the world.

    "This is tragic. For we are in serious trouble. We are in trouble as a nation and as a civilization. America runs on oil, and for the last ten years we’ve been running out. Domestic production, excluding Alaska and Hawaii, peaked in 1969 and it has been going down steadily for the last decade.

    "As a consequence, we have turned increasingly to foreign sources for this most valuable of our energy sources. In the process, almost without realizing it, we have stumbled into a vulnerable position. This vulnerability was brought home with traumatic emphasis in 1973-1974 during the Arab oil embargo.

    "As a result of the oil embargo of 1973-1974, an interagency group of the federal government developed a crude but far-reaching national energy plan known as Project Independence. It is perhaps fitting in 1980 to look back on the ambitious goal of Project Independence, which was to make the United States a net exporter of energy by 1980. It is now 1980, and we import three times as much oil from the Middle East as we did in 1972, the year before the embargo."

  • Parliaments and the energy conflict: How to Create Majorities in a Hostile Environment, by Rudolf Rechsteiner, Member of the Swiss Parliament [2005 December]

    "When Parliaments decide on energy policy, they normally start with proposals from the government. Governments like to swim in the mainstream – and they get information and advice from so called experts of organizations such as the International Energy Agency (IEA) or the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

    But up to now you barely find an international body who is in favour of renewables. Why is this so?"

  
• Net Energy
  • Sugar Cane and Alcohol in Brazil, a spreadsheet analysis.
  • The Biofuel Myths and Truths, by Tad Patzek (See Net Production of Biomass in US, at right) [2006 September 28]
• Advanced Solar Powered Transport
  • See Skytran, which includes an analysis of PV for electric propulsion.
• Electric Vehicles, Well-to-Wheel Analysis
  • The 21st Century Electric Car, by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, Tesla Motors Inc. [2006 July 19]
• Solar Today, Jan-Feb 2006
  • Scientists Chart New Horizons: Researchers look to cutting-edge advances for the solar technologies of tomorrow, by Nathan S. Lewis, Ph.D., and George Crabtree, Ph.D.
  • Photovoltaic Industry Pushes the Limits: One company looks to thin-film production efficiencies as the path to widespread adoption, by John R. Tuttle, Ph.D.