10 Steps to Renewable Energy Future: A TreeHugger Review
by Matthew McDermott, Brooklyn, NY on 07.25.08
photo by Brett Danley
As I’m sure most TreeHugger readers are aware, Al Gore recently articulated his vision of how the United States can combat climate change, help national security and reinvigorate the economy through an ambitious plan to generate electricity entirely through renewable sources by 2018. However, this call to arms is just a vision: The steps to get there are another thing entirely.
10 Steps Towards a Sustainable Future
Towards that end the Post Carbon Institute has issued what they think are 10 steps that need to happen in 10 years to enable the transition to all renewable energy generation. While these aren’t instrumental steps, I think conceptually these flesh out the vision the Al Gore has presented. They read like a laundry list of perennial TreeHugger topics. Summarizing these steps, with some comments:
1. Reduce
Reduce consumption and reduce waste—not just of fossil fuels but of energy overall and of raw materials.
Glad to see that this is at the head of the list. The amount of natural resource consumption that is considered normal in the developed world, and is aspired to in the developing world, is entirely unsustainable from an ecological standpoint. Too many people consuming too many resources. And it’s not entirely a problem of population growth in the developing world—though that is a part of the equation—the eco-footprint of one person in the United States, France or Canada is much greater than a person in India, Brazil or any number of African countries.
If poverty is to be tackled worldwide, then we in the developed world will have to learn to do more with less, and do less period. This doesn’t necessarily mean a radical drop in happiness, life expectancy or comfort of living. We need to change our expectations of what is considered an adequate level of natural resource consumption and use those resources we do use more efficiently.
photo by Leonardo F. Freitas
2. Share
Sharing things we do not use all the time can dramatically reduce consumption. For instance, we can reduce the energy we use for transportation by sharing both trips and vehicles [...] Public transportation, especially when widespread, frequent, cheap and reliable...is also a highly efficient form of sharing vehicles.
This can a long way towards addressing #1, but will require a shift in how the average person relates to their community, towards more interdependence—a bigger job in some places than in others.
3. Diversify
Sources of electricity, both in terms of generator size and location, concentrating on whatever renewable resources are locally available.
Thankfully, this is very near conventional wisdom in the renewable energy world at this point. There isn’t one renewable energy solution suitable for every locale and people increasingly are recognizing this.
4. Distribute
Distribute electricity production so that households, businesses, and communities produce more of their own power.
This one still has a way to go before it gains acceptance as it will be a complete change in business model for large utilities, or their elimination altogether. Community based energy development and microgeneration though have a number of advantages that need to be exploited.
photo by David.
5. Store
We need to develop much better and more abundant electricity storage technology because most of the best renewable energy sources are intermittent.
This one seems self-evident, though some of the need for storage can be mitigated by diversifying energy sources. Storage of renewable energy will be key though.
6. Reinvest
The project of rebuilding America’s electricity infrastructure will require enormous public and private investment. The good news is that infrastructure investments pay tangible dividends for entire communities and for many generations—unlike speculative investments that only create temporary paper wealth for a few.
Yes. Yes. Yes. It may be expensive to shift to all renewable energy and a different civic infrastructure, but the local economic benefits will be great.
7. Relocalize
Rebuilding the local production and manufacturing economy while shortening supply chains will reduce transportation energy and carbon emissions, while creating jobs and supporting local economies.
I’d personally put this one higher up on the list, as I see it as crucial in a post-carbon world. Relocalization doesn’t mean that trade stops by any means, it just means that if something can be produced locally, it should be. It means eating more seasonally and regionally. It means products being produced closer to the point of sale, even if the branding is the same across regions and countries.
photo by x-eyedblonde via flickr
8. Reengineer
Even without the need to leave fossil fuels behind, America’s electricity grid is in urgent need of overhaul. It needs to be repaired, strengthened, and in many cases dramatically re-wired to allow areas with large wind and solar resources to feed the demand centers.
This is really a subset of #6. As the electric grid, both locally and nationally, is retooled is can be constructed to take advantage of smart metering technologies to allow individuals to better monitor their power usage.
9. Reskill
America’s workforce for the millions of green-collar jobs that will be created by our historic transition to renewable energy—quality jobs in projects that include re-engineering the grid, installing millions of solar panels and wind turbines, retrofitting tens of millions of buildings, and rebuilding America’s fractured manufacturing sector and industrial supply chain.
Again, a subset of pretty much all the steps above, but it remains useful to remember that a green energy revolution has economic as well as environmental benefits.
10. Remobilize
Our transportation system needs to run on renewable electricity and human power. This means developing and deploying electric automobiles with related renewable generation and charging infrastructures, reviving and re-investing in electric trolley buses, streetcars, and electric rail - both light and heavy. We also need to revive and re-invest in pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure, and bring in light neighborhood electric vehicles (NEVs) for both personal and shared use.
Agree entirely. I wouldn’t add much to this. It addresses both the implications for urban areas, as well as less densely populated ones: An all electric transportation fleet doesn’t tie us in to the source of generating power and allows for decentralization and diversification of electric supply. Also glad to see an emphasis on human powered transport. As TreeHugger has pointed out before, the bicycle is the most efficient form of transport for shorter trips.
photo by Michele Aquila
Read more detail on each of the steps that the Post Carbon Institute recommends, :: 10 Steps in 10 Years to 100 Percent Renewable Energy .
Renewable Energy
“A Generational Challenge to Repower America”: Al Gore’s Energy & Climate ‘Moon Shot’ Speech
Renewable Energy Feed-In Tariff Legislation Introduced in U.S. Congress
Residential Solar Power Without Buying the Panels: Helio Green Energy Plan
Could Microgeneration Be as Powerful as Nuclear Energy?
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We might bicker about the ordering of these steps, but taken as a whole I'd say they're spot on. It amazes me how many people haven't figured this out yet.
Hi this is john from www.GlobalSolarCenter.com
I find this list very enlightening. A lot of times people come to our website thinking that solar power is THE answer to an environmentally sustainable future. The truth is, there is no one answer. There are thousands of ways to save the planet. Solar is just one of them.
Great article; the first step is the most important one, since it addresses the key issue of overconsumption. A simpler lifestyle is needed, and the fewer we are on the planet, the less the footprint.
The steps described are excellent ones, but no mention is made of an important an important corollary. If we want to greatly reduce our resource use and invest heavily in 'green' infrastructure, then the probability is extremely high that we will have to sacrifice economic growth. You fail to distinguish between wealth preserving investments and wealth increasing investments. For example, we have to keep investing in our transportation infrastructure by repairing road, bridges, etc. These investments do not make us richer. They merely keep our wealth from decaying away. Replacing fossil fuel generating systems by renewable renewable energy generating systems will not make us richer unless this replacement also increases our total productivity. If we need to make this change just prevent damage from global warming or to replace dwindling supplies of fossil fuel, then no a-priori reason exists to believe that such a change will increase our wealth. It will merely prevent our wealth from decaying away faster than it would otherwise. If we have decided ahead of time that any response to climate change and resource depletion must preserve per capita income increases in every society on earth for decades or centuries into the future our chances of successful adaptation to the new economic situtation with which we are faced is extremely low.
About Distribution:
I feel that the vast majority of power will still be generated via centralized (i.e. not located on the building using the power) power plants. The kinds of systems that can produce baseload power all require economies of scale and large upfront costs: concentrated solar, solar thermal, geothermal, tidal, wave, nuclear, and fusion. Even wind has better economies of scale. Many small turbines generate less power and require more maintenance than a single large turbine, for a given capacity.
Power will become more distributed that it is today. Whereas fossil fuel plants usually generate 500 MW or so, various types of solar plants are in the 50 to 200 MW range, and individual wind turbines range from 1 to 5 MW. With 1000 GW of power generation to replace, that's 10s of thousands of various types of power plants scattered across the country.
Other than solar hot water, other types of individual power generation will mostly fill niche needs. Most houses in the future won't go through the trouble of installing PV (unless it gets really cheap) or small wind turbines.
About Remobilize:
Whereas the change from fossil-fuel based systems to alternatives will largely be invisible to the general public, remobilizing will require a total change in lifestyle. Families will be lucky to own one car in the future, and electrified public transportation (rail trunk lines, local lines, and street cars and buses) will be the way most people get around. I don't see us producing 1 billion battery powered vehicles to replace all the ICE powered vehicles on the roads today in the next 15 years or so.
@ John
Gracious words, but without solar, civilization is dead in the water. Nothing (except fusion) has the kind of longevity, reliability, and power to run a modern civilization.
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One of the easiest ways to reduce global warming is to switch your method of transportation. Although biking is the most efficient way to do this, a lot of people have longer commutes to work/school to bike it. Public transportation is the next best bet. Ridership has already risen a considerable amount overall in America, and it will be good to keep that going. http://blog.posipeople.com/2008/07/29/mass-transit-riders-increase-in-record-numbers/