Science News & Science Current Events
 
Email a Friend Send to a friend
Printer Friendly Print Renewable energy wrecks environment

Renewable energy wrecks environment

July 25, 2007

Renewables fail environmental test

Renewable does not mean green. That is the claim of Jesse Ausubel of the Rockefeller University in New York. Writing in Inderscience's International Journal of Nuclear Governance, Economy and Ecology, Ausubel explains that building enough wind farms, damming enough rivers, and growing enough biomass to meet global energy demands will wreck the environment.




Ausubel has analyzed the amount of energy that each so-called renewable source can produce in terms of Watts of power output per square meter of land disturbed. He also compares the destruction of nature by renewables with the demand for space of nuclear power. "Nuclear energy is green," he claims, "Considered in Watts per square meter, nuclear has astronomical advantages over its competitors."

On this basis, he argues that technologies succeed when economies of scale form part of their evolution. No economies of scale benefit renewables. More renewable kilowatts require more land in a constant or even worsening ratio, because land good for wind, hydropower, biomass, or solar power may get used first.

A consideration of each so-called renewable in turn, paints a grim picture of the environmental impact of renewables. Hypothetically flooding the entire province of Ontario, Canada, about 900,000 square km, with its entire 680,000 billion liters of rainfall, and storing it behind a 60 meter dam would only generate 80% of the total power output of Canada's 25 nuclear power stations, he explains. Put another way, each square kilometer of dammed land would provide the electricity for just 12 Canadians.

Biomass energy is also horribly inefficient and destructive of nature. To power a large proportion of the USA, vast areas would need to be shaved or harvested annually. To obtain the same electricity from biomass as from a single nuclear power plant would require 2500 square kilometers of prime Iowa land. "Increased use of biomass fuel in any form is criminal," remarks Ausubel. "Humans must spare land for nature. Every automobile would require a pasture of 1-2 hectares."

Turning to wind Ausubel points out that while wind farms are between three to ten times more compact than a biomass farm, a 770 square kilometer area is needed to produce as much energy as one 1000 Megawatt electric (MWe) nuclear plant. To meet 2005 US electricity demand and assuming round-the-clock wind at the right speed, an area the size of Texas, approximately 780,000 square kilometers, would need to be covered with structures to extract, store, and transport the energy.

One hundred windy square meters, a good size for a Manhattan apartment, could power an electric lamp or two, but not the laundry equipment, microwave oven, plasma TV, and computer. New York City would require every square meter of Connecticut to become a wind farm to fully power all its electrical equipment and gadgets.

Solar power also comes in for criticism. A photovoltaic solar cell plant would require painting black about than 150 square kilometers plus land for storage and retrieval to equal a 1000 MWe nuclear plant. Moreover, every form of renewable energy involves vast infrastructure, such as concrete, steel, and access roads. "As a Green, one of my credos is 'no new structures' but renewables all involve ten times or more stuff per kilowatt as natural gas or nuclear," Ausubel says.

While the full footprint of uranium mining might add a few hundred square kilometers and there are considerations of waste storage, safety and security, the dense heart of the atom offers far the smallest footprint in nature of any energy source. Benefiting from economies of scale, nuclear energy could multiply its power output and even shrink the energy system, in the same way that computers have become both more powerful and smaller.

"Renewables may be renewable but they are not green," asserts Ausubel", If we want to minimize new structures and the rape of nature, nuclear energy is the best option."

Inderscience Publishers



Related Renewable Energy Current Events and Renewable Energy News Articles Renewable Energy Current Events and Renewable Energy News RSS Renewable Energy Current Events and Renewable Energy News RSS
New Graphene-Based Material Clarifies Graphite Oxide Chemistry
A new "graphene-based" material that helps solve the structure of graphite oxide and could lead to other potential discoveries of the one-atom thick substance called graphene, which has applications in nanoelectronics, energy storage and production, and transportation such as airplanes and cars, has been created by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin.

Iowa State engineer works to clean and improve engine performance
The five engines in Song-Charng Kong's Iowa State University laboratory have come a long way since Karl Benz patented a two-stroke internal combustion engine in 1879.

Compost heap bacteria could provide 10 percent of UK transport fuel needs
Bacteria found in compost heaps able to convert waste plant fibre into ethanol could eventually provide up 10% of the UK's transport fuel needs, scientists heard today (Tuesday 9 September 2008) at the Society for General Microbiology's Autumn meeting being held this week at Trinity College, Dublin.

Can biofuels be sustainable?
With oil prices skyrocketing, the search is on for efficient and sustainable biofuels. Research published this month in Agronomy Journal examines one biofuel crop contender: corn stover.

Polymer electric storage, flexible and adaptable
The proliferation of solar, wind and even tidal electric generation and the rapid emergence of hybrid electric automobiles demands flexible and reliable methods of high-capacity electrical storage. Now a team of Penn State materials scientists is developing ferroelectric polymer-based capacitors that can deliver power more rapidly and are much lighter than conventional batteries.

Monash team learns from nature to split water
An international team of researchers led by Monash University has used chemicals found in plants to replicate a key process in photosynthesis paving the way to a new approach that uses sunlight to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.

Turning Waste Material into Ethanol
Say the word "biofuels" and most people think of grain ethanol and biodiesel. But there's another, older technology called gasification that's getting a new look from researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory and Iowa State University. By combining gasification with high-tech nanoscale porous catalysts, they hope to create ethanol from a wide range of biomass, including distiller's grain left over from ethanol production, corn stover from the field, grass, wood pulp, animal waste, and garbage.

Flexible nanoantenna arrays capture abundant solar energy
Researchers have devised an inexpensive way to produce plastic sheets containing billions of nanoantennas that collect heat energy generated by the sun and other sources. The technology, developed at the U.S. Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory, is the first step toward a solar energy collector that could be mass-produced on flexible materials.

Improved reaction data heat up the biofuels harvest
High food prices, concern over dwindling supplies of fossil fuels and the desire for clean, renewable energy have led many to seek ways to make ethanol out of cellulosic sources such as wood, hay and switchgrass.

Carnegie Mellon researcher says China's export trade impacts climate
Carnegie Mellon University's Christopher L. Weber argues that China's new title as the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter is at least partly due to consumption of Chinese goods in the West.
More Renewable Energy Current Events and Renewable Energy News Articles


Renewable Energy

Stimulated by recent technological developments and increasing concern over the sustainability and environmental impact of conventional fuel usage, the prospect of producing clean, sustainable power in substantial quantities from renewable energy sources arouses interest world-wide. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the principal types of renewable energy-including solar, thermal...



The Homeowner's Guide to Renewable Energy: Achieving Energy Independence through Solar, Wind, Biomass and Hydropower (Mother Earth News Wiser Living)
by Dan Chiras

The coming energy crisis caused by a peak in global oil and natural gas production will profoundly affect the lives of all North Americans. As the price of these vital fuels rises, homeowners will scramble to cut their fuel bills. Two options for meeting the upcoming challenge are dramatic improvements in home energy efficiency and efforts to tap into clean, affordable, renewable energy resources...



The Renewable Energy Handbook: A Guide to Rural Energy Independence, Off-Grid and Sustainable Living
by William H. Kemp

As oil prices continue to rise, many people are starting to think about how to unhook from the electricity grid. The Renewable Energy Handbook focuses completely on off-grid, sustainable living and rural energy independence. Author/engineer William H. Kemp, who is a leading expert in small- and mid-scale renewable energy technologies, designed and built his own off-grid home. The result is a...



Careers in Renewable Energy: Get a Green Energy Job
by Gregory McNamee

Numerous job opportunities await in the fast-growing field of renewable energy. Grab this handy book and discover how green energy can be a part of your future. Job sectors include solar and wind energy, biofuels, hydrogen energy and fuel cells, geothermal energy, hydro energy, green building, climate study, energy management and efficiency, and much more. Various jobs within each sector...



Fundamentals of Renewable Energy Processes
by Aldo V. da Rosa

Fundamentals of Renewable Energy Processes contains the technical detail necessary to understand the engineering principles that govern renewable energy application at many different levels. Focused on the fundamental mechanisms and processes that underpin energy management, it provides students with the foundation for all energy process courses. This text is organized according to the main...



Renewable Energy Policy
by Paul Komor

Renewable energy is the key to the future of humankind. Wind power, solar (photovoltaic) energy, geothermal power, and other forms of renewables can help solve our most pressing environmental problems, including global climate change. But how do we move these promising technologies out of the laboratory and into widespread use? Renewable Energy Policy shows what public policy can—and...



Renewable Energy Resources
by John Twidell

Retaining the successful format of the first edition and building on its solid grounding in the principles of renewable energy resources, this second edition has been revised in line with the latest advances in the field to include new technologies and an assessment of their impact. Considering each technology in depth from both scientific and environmental perspectives, the book covers solar...



Renewable Energy: Sustainable Energy Concepts for the Future

This essential new title provides a contemporary overview on a major key topic of the 21st century. Written by well known scientists in the area who discuss the topic soberly and without ideology, they focus on how photovoltaic, solar power, wind power, hydropower, geothermal energy, fuel cells, and hydrogen enterprise work. Presented in full-colour with catchy information diagrams and...



Investing in Renewable Energy: Making Money on Green Chip Stocks (Angel Series)
by Jeff Siegel, Chris Nelder, Nick Hodge

An expert in the area of renewable energy shares his profitable investment ideas In the next ten to 15 years, the price of renewable energy will fall dramatically, allowing the industry to not only compete on a level playing field, but offer energy at a price that will be cheaper than oil, natural gas, and coal. Author Jeff Siegel is the Managing Editor at Green Chip Stocks, an investment...



Solar Hydrogen Generation: Toward a Renewable Energy Future

Given the backdrop of intense interest and widespread discussion on the prospects of a hydrogen energy economy, this book aims to provide an authoritative and up-to-date scientific account of hydrogen generation using solar energy and renewable sources such as water. While the technological and economic aspects of solar hydrogen generation are evolving, the scientific principles underlying...

© 2008 BrightSurf.com