226
begun to form online support groups to talk about this grief (https://www.isthishowyoufeel.com/). Grieving is part of human nature, and has its place. Still, grief cannot
last forever, and life goes on. We all eventually buck up, face forward, and get on
with our daily lives. That must happen with the environment, too.
Readers can take heart in the fact that humans are responsible for the damage that
has been done to the environment, and therefore humans can fix it. We are not facing
some insurmountable natural disaster here like the eruption of a super-volcano or a
large asteroid impact. Our current dependence on fossil energy comes from a combination of easy use, easy money, and resistance to change. Switching to sustainable
energy resources at this point is a matter of policy. We have the technology and we
understand the economics. Policy from the highest levels of government is now
required to force the transition in energy.
Technology still has a role, and developing new, more advanced energy sources
can help the economics of transition. However, we can’t wait for technical miracles
given the urgency of the situation. We must focus on implementing existing clean
energy technologies now to power our civilization without destroying the planet.
Renewables are part of the solution, but renewables alone are not the answer. For
starters, both wind and solar are intermittent power sources, and require the development of advanced energy storage technology before they can become major
energy suppliers. The second difficulty with renewables is their low energy density,
described back in Chap. 9. It takes hundreds of wind turbines covering many kilometers of landscape to produce the power equivalent of even a modest natural gasfired generator that can be contained in a small building. Renewables have their
place, but those who advocate using them exclusively to replace fossil fuel should
do the math first. New geothermal and nuclear technologies are close to engineering
reality, and can be integrated with existing power generating infrastructure. They
can provide continuous, high-density power with zero GHG emissions, and be
implemented on a large scale as substitutes for fossil fuel. These are explored in the
following sections.
12.1 Technological Solutions
Climate change resulting from the combustion products of fossil fuel warming the
atmosphere is a technology problem, and technology is required to solve it.
Technological solutions fall into two areas:
1. We must prevent additional GHG from entering the atmosphere and making
things worse. This will require CCS on any fossil fuel combustion to keep GHG
from entering the atmosphere as described in the previous chapter. A carbon tax
on emissions can provide an incentive to install CCS. Non-fossil, compact, baseload power sources with high energy density must be developed to replace fossil
fuel in existing electrical generation facilities. Two potential non-GHG technologies are advanced nuclear power and enhanced geothermal energy. Simply
12 Moving into the Energy Future
begun to form online support groups to talk about this grief (https://www.isthishowyoufeel.com/). Grieving is part of human nature, and has its place. Still, grief cannot
last forever, and life goes on. We all eventually buck up, face forward, and get on
with our daily lives. That must happen with the environment, too.
Readers can take heart in the fact that humans are responsible for the damage that
has been done to the environment, and therefore humans can fix it. We are not facing
some insurmountable natural disaster here like the eruption of a super-volcano or a
large asteroid impact. Our current dependence on fossil energy comes from a combination of easy use, easy money, and resistance to change. Switching to sustainable
energy resources at this point is a matter of policy. We have the technology and we
understand the economics. Policy from the highest levels of government is now
required to force the transition in energy.
Technology still has a role, and developing new, more advanced energy sources
can help the economics of transition. However, we can’t wait for technical miracles
given the urgency of the situation. We must focus on implementing existing clean
energy technologies now to power our civilization without destroying the planet.
Renewables are part of the solution, but renewables alone are not the answer. For
starters, both wind and solar are intermittent power sources, and require the development of advanced energy storage technology before they can become major
energy suppliers. The second difficulty with renewables is their low energy density,
described back in Chap. 9. It takes hundreds of wind turbines covering many kilometers of landscape to produce the power equivalent of even a modest natural gasfired generator that can be contained in a small building. Renewables have their
place, but those who advocate using them exclusively to replace fossil fuel should
do the math first. New geothermal and nuclear technologies are close to engineering
reality, and can be integrated with existing power generating infrastructure. They
can provide continuous, high-density power with zero GHG emissions, and be
implemented on a large scale as substitutes for fossil fuel. These are explored in the
following sections.
12.1 Technological Solutions
Climate change resulting from the combustion products of fossil fuel warming the
atmosphere is a technology problem, and technology is required to solve it.
Technological solutions fall into two areas:
1. We must prevent additional GHG from entering the atmosphere and making
things worse. This will require CCS on any fossil fuel combustion to keep GHG
from entering the atmosphere as described in the previous chapter. A carbon tax
on emissions can provide an incentive to install CCS. Non-fossil, compact, baseload power sources with high energy density must be developed to replace fossil
fuel in existing electrical generation facilities. Two potential non-GHG technologies are advanced nuclear power and enhanced geothermal energy. Simply
12 Moving into the Energy Future