Powering the Sustainable Society

Currently most of the energy used today is provided by fossil fuels. With concerns surrounding “Peak Oil” and when this phenomenon may occur, along with rising volatility of oil prices, interest in alternative energy has been increasing. 56% of our energy is provided by hydrocarbon extraction, and 10% coal fired power generation plants. These technologies are responsible for high levels of heavy metal and atmospheric pollutants such as greenhouse gases, heavy metals like mercury, SOx, NOx, and particulates. Hydro power is not as polluting, but it has large ecological consequences to natural water habitats.

http://peakoil.org.uk/

So how would a sustainable community provide its power? Well as mentioned in previous discussions, sustainable means that something can be sustained for a long time without running out. If we are worried about scarcity of hydrocarbon deposits, no matter how far in the future, this is not a sustainable choice for future generations. Alternative energy sources like solar photovoltaic, solar thermal hot water, geothermal, regional district, waste to energy, wind, or biofuels are all new technologies gaining interest in the classification of “green technology.” Although these all have great potential it is important to consider more than just the ability to generate power. For example, Energy Returned on Energy Invested (EROEI) the efficiency of each technology proposed. This measurement takes into consideration the units of energy produced per unit of energy required to make it. When looking at some simple figures, hydrocarbons and hydro are by far the most efficient technology to date.

• Oil – 20

• Natural Gas – 20

• Coal – 9

• Nuclear – 4

• Hydro – 11

• Wind – 7

• Solar (photo voltaic) – 5

• Geo-thermal – 6

• Wave / tide power - ?

• Ethanol – 1.3

Ling , C. (2011). Energy. ENSC 301, (p. Slide 25). Victoria.

The production of biofuels is inefficient because it requires hydrocarbon fuel to provide energy to farm equipment. Although biofuel itself is supposed to be cleaner burning, the use of farm equipment still contributes to greenhouse gas emissions associated with the fuel. Biofuel is also a concern because increased demand for corn, grain or other fuel sources will create scarcity and market prices to rise. The problem is that more people will not be able to afford to eat due to allocation of resources.
http://www.bigpictureblog.info/?p=120

Nuclear power has been implemented in some areas. At first nuclear appears to be a clean power generation source, but under further scrutiny, the impacts associated with nuclear appear to be environmentally detrimental. To build the power plant requires massive amounts of concrete which creates a large greenhouse gas effect. Also the radioactive waste such as plutonium is produced, the wastes are highly dangerous and there are still no plans for the final handling of these products. This creates headaches for future generations to deal with. Also mining of uranium still requires fuel to power and transport to the facility. Nuclear power generation is not a closed loop system because it still requires energy to obtain inputs, and it creates waste which is extremely difficult to dispose of.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=coal-ash-is-more-radioactive-than-nuclear-waste

While it is difficult to fulfill all of our energy needs by just using one form of renewable energy technology, combining the most efficient technologies can often have the best results. Solar photovoltaic and wind power directly produce electricity with no input other than the equipment production and weather conditions. Solar thermal hot water and geothermal technologies provide hot water to reduce energy consumption for heating costs, and have potential to provide electricity if steam energy is harnessed. Although these technologies are highly expensive, require a large investment upront and have long payback periods, if tied into a district heating system costs can be shared and benefits wide spread.

http://www.volker-quaschning.de/articles/fundamentals4/index.php

It has also been noticed in pilot projects for alternative energy such as the T’Sooke nation solar powered project that once alternative energy technologies are installed, conservation efforts increase. Electricity consumption was estimated to decrease by about 10% after the project was complete. This can be attributed to to increased awareness, and social programs. The community members have actually become so efficient, on weather permitting days, they are able to charge back up batteries for future energy use, and sell power back to BC hydro. Although when hours of sunshine are restricted they may still need to use electricity from hydro power, this is an example of sustainable energy development. If coupled with another form of more reliable green back up energy such as tidal power, T’Sooke nation would be completely self-sufficient in terms of energy production. It took full commitment and leadership to be so sucessfull in this project, but in no short of economic, environmental, and social benefits.