Comments on: Study: Renewable energies' potential untapped

It's realistic for the U.S. to get 10 percent of its electricity from renewable sources in 10 years but deeper penetration requires more technology, money, and consistent policies, says a new report.

[marcusmaedl]

It is a matter of political will more than anything. If we as the people chose to elect leaders with a strong and true vision down those lines, almost anything can happen. Imagine we through the equivalent of the money we spent over the last 5 decades on the military industrial complex in renewable's way!.

The technologies in various areas are being developed and will continue to show progress. The manufacturing volumes are being ramped up and will continue to lead to lower cost.

What is needed more than anything is persistence and tenacity. Our leaders must create an environment that is conducive to long term investments and planning. Administration after administration following the same basic concepts. Just as they did (and do) in military spending.

While the military spending has yielded questionable long term value (e.g. planes rotting away in the desert), technology leadership in energy will define a nation's position in the new world more than anything.

We have two options ? lead or follow. The train is beginning to roll. With or without us.

[marcusmaedl]

It is a matter of political will more than anything. If we as the people chose to elect leaders with a strong and true vision down those lines, almost anything can happen. Imagine we throw the equivalent of the money we spent over the last 5 decades on the military industrial complex in renewable's way!.

The technologies in various areas are being developed and will continue to show progress. The manufacturing volumes are being ramped up and will continue to lead to lower cost.

What is needed more than anything is persistence and tenacity. Our leaders must create an environment that is conducive to long term investments and planning. Administration after administration following the same basic concepts. Just as they did (and do) in military spending.

While the military spending has yielded questionable long term value (e.g. planes rotting away in the desert), technology leadership in energy will define a nation's position in the new world more than anything.

We have two options ? lead or follow. The train is beginning to roll. With or without us.

[krootdude]

10%! so little?!!! damn! I live in a country, where around 23-24% of the elecricity is derived from renewable sources oO

[sanenazok]

Oooh the mystery? Is it a Nordic country? You're not in Germany by any chance? How much do you pay per kW/h? I spent 6 months in DE and while not exactly 25% of the power was coming from renewable, the cost was 5x what I pay in the US.

[WriteRight]

@sanenazok
Why so sarcastic? And as for Germany, where coincidently I am presently living, well yes about 20% of the electricity produced is wind powered and a further 3 to 5% is solar. In about ten years time these two sources are planned to reach about 50% of total power generation. Most other EU-countries have similar plans. We're not exactly elated about the high prices here of course but then per person we don't use even half as much electricity as in the US. And I suppose doing something about global warming means being prepared to pay for it.

[sanenazok]

"is capable, in principle" Oh of course this renewable energy production works in principle. If it didn't hten it would be worthless. The issue they sidestep is cost. Nobody, especially in this economy will agree to pay 100% more for power, not to mention 500% more, which is probably what would be required to hit the green goals.

[americaspower]

What could be greener than taking our most abundant and affordable energy resource ? coal ? and making it cleaner through advanced technology?

During the America?s Power Factuality Tour, we?ve been traveling around the country talking to the people who are behind the production of cleaner electricity from coal.

That?s why we stopped by Mattoon, Ill., the proposed site of FutureGen, a public-private partnership to build the world?s first near-zero emissions coal-based power plant. Citizens and legislators are continuing to work towards the original plan ? and town residents are excited, too. They understand what a great boost the plant will be to the local economy ? and how much the technology will mean to the rest of the world.

http://sn.im/factuality5

[Renegade Knight]

There is no part of burning coal that is cleaner than not burning anything.

[mishmash0101]

Let's face it - for the next 20-30 years we can either have green energy or cheap energy - but not cheap, green energy.

[bwrobertson2]

First we must listen to Obama tell us about all the Green jobs that are being created so we can justify spending 4 times more on renewable energy than it would cost to use coal or natural gas.

[kgsbca]

If congress didn't relegate the function of writing and approving legislation to lobbyists, we could easily get to 2x the target in half the time, if not sooner. There is no economic or technological reason why we can't afford to make the investments that would allow a faster transition to renewable energy, the only obstacle is that those who would be obsoleted or would have to adapt to the changes, fight those changes with all of their might.

I used to wonder why oil companies didn't embrace biodiesel and ethanol - after all, they have the distribution channel, the brand names, and the technical know-how to build and deliver biofuels more efficiently than any new company. Then I realized they have hundreds of billions of dollars in sunk costs in the existing fossil fuel technology - refineries, tankers, transport terminals, exploration, etc., that would have to be written down if all of a sudden, oil (and coal) were obsoleted. So they will do everything they can to protect their investment, because they like their lifestyles, and they don't want to have to learn a whole new business. Kind of like politicians, who like being in office, and can only get jobs as lobbyists if they are voted out. So they take contributions from the incumbent energy providers, and, while pretending to care about our energy security and our environment, do the bidding of those energy incumbents.

So until voters hold politicians accountable for something other than gay marriage, the study is probably right, we won't see any real change for a long time.

[finleyd]

I wonder if you are willing to take on some of the biggest opponents to renewable projects: Environmentalists themselves. Environmentalists have opposed both wind projects on Cape Cod and the Appalachians, as well as power distribution lines in California meant to bring renewable energy to California cities.

[maeckg]

This article shows that it is finally dawing on policy makers and businesses that technology is really not the issue, but like others have commented, political and public will. A long term consistant energy policy stressing clean energy would put us on the path to a robust, sustainable energy system. The reason we do not have more than just a couple of per cent of electricity production from renewable sources is that we have had a confusing policy and actually have subsidized fossil fuels significantly for over 50 years. It is time to give renewables a chance. When we recognize that clean energy is an economic value, then we can expect other energy sources to compete on the basis of how clean. It would give the businesses, industry and the public a clear choice to invest in cleaner energy, which will provide a lot of jobs.

Coal industry likes to advertise itself as being the cheap and abundant energy source, but just maybe not the cleanest. If it is so cheap, then it can afford to clean itself up without further subsidies to compete with renewables on a fairer basis. The billions of tax dollars to be invested into CO2 sequestration should be invested into wind, solar thermal, solar voltaic and grid infrastructure. The power generated will be clean automatically and not put into a dubious, unproven process to clean up inherently dirty fossil fuels. Sequestration of CO2 will be very expensive and may not work, leak or have unintended consequences. It is a large scale project that is a subsidy for an long established industry that has received many subsidies in the past.
One question I have had for a long time, is how the pollution from a coal fired power plant is calculated? Does it include the methane, heavy metals and coal dust that is given off by the mining, transportation and storage of coal. Also the pollution of diesel fueled vehicles involved should be counted like it is for ethanol and bio-fuel production. Site restoration after the usual process of terra forming done by open pit mining operations here in the US should be included.
Coal is a powerful, very useful resource that can be used for a lot of industrial processes; petroleum is really a magic stuff that might be considered too valuable to burn. I do not suggest stop utilizing fossel fuels, but utilize them better, cleaner and more efficiently. We will not be able to close down coal power plants except the dirtiest since coal provides about half our power, but we can make it a policy to invest in renewable energy and efficiency because it solves the issue for the long term.

[dargon19888]

Lets face it. Nuclear energy which is cleaner than most of the alternatives isn't even mentioned.
And we should also focus on R&D to get fusion also working.

[EMerge_Alliance]

The most important highlight of this report is the challenge of industrial scale. There needs to be significantly more groups of companies and individuals with the common interest of creating better performing, more sustainable building infrastructures, developing industry-wide processes and guidelines to break down the barriers and accelerate market adoption of renewable energy. Some of the leading building products manufacturers, designers and green building advocates from around the country have created the EMerge Alliance to develop a standard that facilitates the direct connection and use of native DC power from solar, wind, or other alternative energy sources and improved efficiency through integrated load and source management. Working with DC power already present within common infrastructures of commercial interiors enables the building to be more flexible, sustainable and energy efficient.

[zelrik]

How clean is wind energy? What is the environmental cost of manufacturing/maintaining those turbines??? What about this solar energy? What is the current cost in terms of material? I dont think we have a clear idea of where we are going. Everything in the cycle has to be clean and reusable, we are not there yet.