Antinuclear

Heart of American West can pioneer 100% renewable energy

the West, rich in renewable energy, can pioneer the way to a 75- to 100-percent renewable future.

A Green Energy Plan for the Red Heart of the American West, THE HUFFINGTON POST,  Christopher Thomas, 15 Dec 10, Yesterday, HEAL UTAH released  a study that could change the way the West thinks about energy.

The new report, as reported on by the New York Times today, shows that smart renewable energy development with storage can meet 100 percent of Utah’s growing need for electricity by mid-century, using only technologies that are commercially available today…….

Even though a federal carbon tax didn’t pass this year, the future for “King Coal” remains decidedly hazy. Carbon dioxide will soon be regulated as a pollutant. And coal-burning damaging effects on public health could force expensive retrofits at Utah’s operating coal plants, driving up electricity bills. Finally, forecasts indicate Utah’s coal mines may run out of coal in a little over a decade.

Even in an overwhelmingly Republican state like Utah, where many leaders seriously doubt the scientific consensus on human-caused climate change, coal’s shaky future is causing state leaders to contemplate a massive conversion of our coal plants to natural gas. That may be a mistake. An over-reliance on natural gas, which is important as a bridge fuel to reduce CO2 levels, could drive up the fuel’s cost and lead to damaging environmental consequences, such as potential groundwater contamination seen in Colorado, Texas and Pennsylvania.

A better option exists: Utah’s plentiful renewable energy. Yet, many say that renewable energy sources like wind and solar are intermittent and can never substitute for the baseload (or around-the-clock) power that coal and nuclear reactors provide today.

That assumption is no longer valid.

The eUtah study, commissioned by HEAL Utah and authored by Dr. Arjun Makhijani with guidance from an advisory board of leading Utah energy thinkers, found that careful development of Utah’s abundant renewable energy resources along with utility-scale energy storage can provide a technically sound, economically feasible and reliable long-term strategy to meet Utah’s growing energy needs through the middle of the this century…..

This report comes at a critical time.

Today, many Western states already require between 15- and 33-percent of their electricity to come from renewable sources in coming decades, including Arizona, Colorado, California, and New Mexico.

But this new study shows how the West, rich in renewable energy, can pioneer the way to a 75- to 100-percent renewable future. At a time when Congress seems unable to act on bold energy and climate legislation, Western states – red and blue alike – can lead the way to a brighter, healthier energy future.

Christopher Thomas: A Green Energy Plan for the Red Heart of the American West

December 16, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized