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By
Allen Gibson
Aug 2004
It was one year ago last Saturday that the massive power grid blackout hit the
eastern
United
States. Caused, it turns out, mostly by a computer software flaw buried deep
in a GE energy management system, that prevented operators from knowing what
the problem was, and how quickly it was expanding.
The
resulting blackout was enough to make people think about alternative energy
sources, and the shares in renewable energy companies immediately spiked in
response.
A
year later, and the possibility of further electrical outages from our aging
power grid is still very present. Electrical utilities are still vulnerable to
software flaws or cyber-attacks, according to security consultants, who say
the industry isn’t doing enough to upgrade its antiquated computer systems.
More recently, an email worm caused a safety monitoring system at
Ohio
's
Davis-Besse nuclear power plant to be off for nearly five hours.
Electrical
consumption, meanwhile, continues to grow, as does our oil and gas use. With
just over five percent of the world’s people,
America
gobbles over a quarter of the total energy.
During
the first six months of this year, the three top-selling vehicles in
America
were full size pickup trucks. That’s another million trucks on the road. And
the EPA says our love affair with trucks and SUVs
has hurt fuel economy overall while doubling their market share over the past
two decades to about half of all sales.
Energy
conservation is not a concept that has gone over big yet in
North
America
,
obviously. Indeed, the Administration has made it clear that we will get the
oil we ‘need,’ come hell, high water, or an on-going war in
Iraq
.
But with the price of oil looking to hit $50 a barrel before it hits $30
again, there may come a day when we as consumers finally decide it’s time to
change our ways, and have some ‘off the grid’ alternatives to fall back
on. For the producers of alternative energy sources, such as fuel and solar
cells, wind turbines and biomass fuels, planning and development for that day
is in full swing.
And
the beginnings of an industry are taking shape.
Toyota
can’t keep up with demand for its hybrid Prius cars, and San Diego Gas &
Electric just heralded the addition of its 1,500th
customer putting energy from wind and solar power back into the region's
energy grid. Also in
California
,
U.S. Wind Farming, which calls itself
America
's
“only publicly traded wind farming company,” hopes to establish
co-operatives to help the Public Utilities Commission meet its goal: 13% of
state power generated from renewable sources by 2010.
Globally,
wind power is growing rapidly, with installed generating capacity increasing,
by an average 32% annually, for the five years between1998 and 2002.
Europe
and the
US
create 90% of worldwide generation. Currently, that amounts to more than
enough to power 7.5 million average American homes, or 16 million average
European ones – another example or our profligate energy use!
Another
alternative energy experiencing rapid growth is using recycled wood waste to
fuel electricity generation. In
Italy
,
for example, associates
of Green Energy Resources have built 3 plants burning woodchips that produce a
total of 60 MWh. One of the advantages of woodchips as a fuel source is that
they are eligible for “Green Certificates” under new EPA rules in
America
.
Green Certificates can be traded to other companies to reduce their total
carbon monoxide output levels in order to comply with new environmental rules
and treaties, including those contained in the
Kyoto
protocol.
From Crisis:
Opportunity.
As
last year’s blackout showed, whenever what we know and trust fails us, we
immediately seek out the alternatives. Which meant that stocks in alternative
energy companies spiked
significantly in the days following the blackout. Compare the charts for
companies such as Fuel Cell Energy Inc. (FCEL), Plug Power Inc. (PLUG), Astris
Energi (ARNF), Hydrogenics Corp. (HYGS), and Ballard Power Systems (BLDP), and
you’ll see what we mean! Like most stocks over the last few months, of
course, these have all been sliding slowly downhill. The alternative energy
market is a very event-driven animal, however, and any energy supply
interruption at home in the
US
is likely to see a repeat of last year’s spike. Already, with oil prices
spiking to new records, the traffic on our RenewableEnergyStocks.com webportal
is seeing a significant increase.
Marty Kushler, of the
American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, says the ’03 blackout was
a symptom of our much larger problem – energy over-consumption. The writes
that the Great Blackout was merely the energy crisis of the week, and energy
use is costing our society in many ways:
“Even
before the Iraq War, we were spending an estimated $100 billion on defense
expenditures related to security in the oil-rich
Middle
East
.
Many people believe the war in
Iraq
was motivated in large part by our energy dependence (we import over half the
oil we consume) and the fact that
Iraq
sits on the world's second largest oil reserves. We're projected to spend
hundreds of billions of dollars on the
Iraq
effort, not to mention the tragic loss of hundreds of
U.S.
soldiers and countless Iraqi civilians.
The
list goes on and on: the threatened loss of some of our most beautiful federal
lands and coastal areas to oil and gas drilling; the worsening of our balance
of payments deficit from more and more energy needing to be imported; the
damaging effects on our economy from the mounting costs of wasteful energy
consumption in our homes and businesses.
It
is past time for federal policymakers to see the big picture. Simply building
more transmission lines (for electricity) will not only be very expensive
($100 billion in one recent estimate) … it ultimately provides no solution.
"Expanding the grid" alone is just a Band-Aid, and does nothing to
help with any of the other energy-related problems. In fact, it is likely to
make them worse, by temporarily facilitating even greater energy consumption.
The one action that helps
address every one of those energy-related problems we face is to improve our
energy efficiency. It reduces stress and overload on the transmission grid; it
reduces demand for increasingly expensive fuels; it helps reduce energy
imports; it helps put downward pressure on market energy prices; it saves real
money for households and businesses on their fuel bills; and it reduces
environmental pollution. The good news is that energy efficiency works!”
The one action that helps
address every one of those energy-related problems we face is to improve our
energy efficiency. It reduces stress and overload on the transmission grid; it
reduces demand for increasingly expensive fuels; it helps reduce energy
imports; it helps put downward pressure on market energy prices; it saves real
money for households and businesses on their fuel bills; and it reduces
environmental pollution. The good news is that energy efficiency works!”
The
Council estimates that a comprehensive set of efficiency policies alone could
save 33 percent of our projected energy budget by 2020, at a savings to
businesses and consumers of $500 billion annually, which would put real money
in the pockets of working families while creating over a million new jobs. The
makers of fuel cells, solar panels, biofuels, wind and sea power technologies
have made great advances in technology over the last twenty years. All
that’s needed now is for
America
to decide the current cost of energy is just too high.
Allen
R. Gibson
Allen R.
Gibson has over twenty-five years of experience in media and corporate
communications. He has been a reporter, television producer, and
marketing communications consultant for public companies in both the US and
Canada.
Disclaimer:
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