Micropower, The Key to Our Energy Future – Blog Post 4 - September 9

Today’s society is dependent on fossil fuels.  As page 110 of The Energy Reader shows, about 86% of the world’s energy usage comes from fossil fuels.  As John Michael Greer discussed in “Progress v Apocalypse,” fossil fuels gave people access to energy to power machines to do more work for us, which enabled the world’s economies to grow, which enabled the world’s food production and population to grow.  Now that fossil fuels are becoming less abundant, Greer discusses the two myths that people today currently have.  He discusses the myth of progress, which states that all of human history has been an improvement of the human condition, and that people can invent their way out of the problems of a limited world.  The other, much more pessimistic view is that people have been heading downwards since farming began and that civilization is heading towards a complete and utter crash.  Greer argues that neither of these myths is really accurate because the facts show otherwise, and I agree with his predictions.  The myth of progress is not true because for most of human history, the human condition stayed the same.  In addition to this, the world’s economy cannot grow indefinitely on a limited planet.  The myth of apocalypse is also incorrect because the decline of fossil fuels will be slow and dependent on price, not on the actual reserves.  Climate change and other negative environmental effects will also not devastate the planet all at once, but will gradually if people do not start reducing greenhouse gas emissions soon. 

On the other hand, I disagree with Greer’s idea that the future is headed towards a pre-industrial society similar to the world before it knew fossil fuels.  I predict that the future will be a good amount different from pre-industrial society.  First of all, in the past people had used water and wind to generate power, as well as sunlight to grow crops.  Now, new technologies allow people to access the energy within the ground (geothermal energy), from the sun to produce electricity and heat, from the wind, from biomass, and maybe even from other sources as people become more creative.  I think that even after the reign of fossil fuels, people will still have more energy available than pre-industrial societies because people now understand energy and how to harvest it naturally from the environment better.  Additionally, I see fossil fuel usage slowing dramatically as prices rise, but never really being eradicated completely until a new technology is ready to take its spot; therefore, I do not really see the United States regressing to a pre-industrial society. 

I discussed the key to this revolutionary change in energy in my last blog post, but will expand on it here.  The third part of The Energy Reader discusses the different types of energy sources that are around today.  Most of the alternative energies listed face some of the challenges listed by David Fridley, all not seeming suitable to fully replace fossil fuels.  It is not the parts that matter, but the sum of the parts.  Integrating many alternative energies, all with their own positives and negatives, is the best answer I can think of for turning around the energy crisis that is currently developing.  The idea of micropower is an idea that I agree with a lot.  Micropower uses the most appropriate local energy for a certain area.  It uses solar photovoltaics in sunny areas, wind in windy areas, hydropower near rivers and hopefully in oceans in the future, geothermal near active geothermal sites, and a various array of other technologies where they are most effective.  This local scale energy production is beneficial because it reduces the distance energy sources must travel, is more sustainable for many of the alternative energies because it generally pollutes less, and is many times more efficient because electricity is not lost throughout long power lines.  If alternative energy is used in this way, it may be able to phase out fossil fuels much faster than people think.  For example, industrial wind energy has the potential to generate a megawatt or two of energy for one wind turbine.  That is incredible!  A few turbines could power a small city for years and years, with only repair costs once it is set up. 

When looking at the list of energy sources in Part Three of The Energy Reader, there is one thing that worries me.  I see plenty of alternative energy sources that generate electricity that seem viable and close to, if not already, commercially available in some form.  However, I do not see many alternatives to the gasoline used for cars.  Because fuel for cars needs to be energy dense, it is much harder to design an alternative energy to replace gasoline because most alternative energies have low energy densities.  The electric-powered cars and hydrogen-powered cars are possible, but need a lot more improvements before they really become popular, or even possible.  Are there any other solutions to this problem?  A new technological innovation in this area seems the most necessary, at least in my opinion.