What energy
should we use?
We use 14 TW, terawatts, trilli
Carbon-neutral or Carbon-free
From the Vostok Ice Core data over 400,000 years, and from other ice
cores to over 600,000 years, we see that CO2 levels have been
between 200–300 ppm, not higher. We know from simple calculations
that within our lifetime, the atmospheric concentration of CO2 is
going to be twice as
high as it has been in the last million years.
Already atmospheric CO2 is higher than in the past 20 million
years,
385 ppm.
Where can we get carbon-neutral or carbon-free power?
Nuclear Power is carbon free
Because the world needs 10 TW, at minimum, 10,000 nuclear reactors
would need to be built. In other words,
we would need to build a new nuclear power plant somewhere in the
world every other day, continuously, for the next 50 straight years.
Hydrological Power is carbon free
The hydrological energy potential of the world, including the energy
from every river, lake, and stream, is about 4.6 TW. Because we
can’t build dams on every creek, all of that power cannot be used.
The amount of technically feasible hydroelectric power globally is
about 1.5 TW.
Economically feasible hydro is only about 0.9 TW.
Already, 0.6 TW capacity has been installed.
Geothermal Power is carbon free
Geothermal can produce less than a few terawatts sustainably.
Geothermal heat flux at the Earth’s surface and thermodynamic laws
show this.
Wind Power is carbon free
To make 2 TW of wind power, we need 2 million state-of-the-art wind
turbines. Wind
energy could eventually produce 10% of our total energy needs, about
1 TW.
Photo Voltaic Electricity is carbon-free
Putting 10% efficient solar energy conversion units on every U.S.
home rooftop would
Plants, photosynthesis is carbon-neutral
Even though the sun gives 120,000 TW, plants can process less than
1% of all the sunlight that hits them and can store only 0.3% of
that sunlight. More
energy from the sun hits the earth in one hour than all of the
energy consumed in the world in one year.
If we could get chemical energy from the cellulose in plants
(cellulosic ethanol, for example), we need about 5% of the
earth’s surface with fast-growing, non-food plants.
Plant energy is carbon-neutral and could meet the energy needs of
the world.
Is there enough land
to produce enough
biofuels? Yes, if we can use the cellulose to make fuel.
The American Society for Cell Biology
National Clean Energy Summit 2.0: Roundtable
