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On April 14, the National Science Board released a draft report called “Building a Sustainable Energy Future,” offering advice on how the United States can transition to renewable and clean sources of energy. Dan Arvizu, the cochairman of the board’s task force on sustainable energy and director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo., recently talked with staff writer Laura Sanders about U.S. energy policy.
Only about 7 percent of the nation’s energy comes from renewable sources. How urgent is it that we increase that?
We really need to be moving very quickly … we really need to take some dramatic steps so that by 2050 we’ve substantially eliminated most of the carbon from our energy sources.… The report suggests that unless we change the policies, unless we advance how much innovation is occurring, we’re not going to get there very quickly.
Clearly the low-hanging fruit, in my mind, is let’s do energy efficiency first. Let’s get a lot better about efficiency. That reduces the burden on what the supply needs to look like. And for my money, those cost-effective technologies that are clean and renewable today, it makes sense to use as much of that as we can. We’re not promoting one technology over another, but we are saying, “Let’s be focused on what our objectives are, and let’s be about the business of making that transformation.”
How coordinated is U.S. energy policy both nationally and internationally?
We really don’t have a nationally coordinated approach to the science collaboration. It’s done agency by agency. So the NSF [National Science Foundation] has one set of operating conditions and set of philosophies, DOD [Department of Defense] has another, Department of Commerce has another, Department of Energy has another, EPA has another. So all the different agencies come at it very, very differently. And quite frankly, the international community is confused, and they say, “Well, who speaks for the United States on this?”… And in fact that’s one of the conclusions we drew and one of the recommendations that we made is that we ought to have a coordinating council.
What can we learn from the experiences of other countries?
The rest of the world, in terms of their deployment and implementation, has really passed the U.S. I had the opportunity to testify in front of Congress a number of times last year and kept getting the same question — when is this stuff going to be real?
Well, the fact is that internationally, it’s a $150 billion renewable energy industry. Only 10 percent of that is in the U.S. It’s primarily driven by Europe and Asia, and they have public policies encouraging it.… So we’ve got a lot to learn.
The report notes that the government needs to lead by example. How energy-friendly are government buildings?
Not very.… It was just very clear that if the government is going to lead, the first thing we’ve got to do is practice in our own backyard. If there’s a commitment to do it, people will do it.… The good news is that we have control over the government stuff. It’s a ripe opportunity, and we really have to take advantage of it.
How important is engaging the public in this transition?
It’s probably the most important thing we need to do. Despite the fact that there are all these policies that need to be done, and the R&D needs to be done, the thing that will change those is when the public demands it. It’s not just our own behavior, but I think it’s our own understanding.… We want politicians who tell us we can have it all without paying for it, and it doesn’t cause us to change any behavior, and the politicians are happy to say it. They say, “Oh of course, yeah, you can have it all, and you want a tax cut too?” … In Denmark, not only can you pay $8 a gallon for gasoline, in addition to that, if you buy a car, they charge you 250 percent tax. So if you buy a car that costs $40,000, it costs you $140,000. That changes your behavior…. I’m not advocating that radical kind of thing, but it shows you how different the mind-set there is than it is here.
Is the transition to a sustainable energy economy going to be painful?
I don’t think a lot of people are ready to tell you how painful it’s going to be. But the short answer is that it’s not easy. It’s complex. It takes commitment. It takes national will.
Can we have a better future if we do it? Absolutely…. I know we’re not good at preplanning and preventive medicine, but that’s what this is. Until people understand that, then they’re not going to be able to make the decisions that are necessary.
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An invention by Mr Somender Singh ( [Link was removed] ), Mysore, India is claimed to reduce fuel
consumption in ICEs' used in automobiles, two wheelers and commercial vehicles by 20+%, is available and
Mr Somender Singh (email: garudarad1@rediffmail.com) has modified more than 150 cars of all makes
and several two wheelers during the last 8 years with great success.
The technology requires grooving of cylinder heads of engines, which allows the flame front to reach the
entrapped fuel air mixture in the squish area, thus ensuring complete combustion of the fuel in the engine. As a result the compression ratio can be increased without fear of engine knock.
Complete combustion and the increase in compression ratio contributes to the reduction in fuel consumption.
Some of the other benefits are:
- increase in torque at lower RPM, allowing the car to be started even in higher gear.
- car can be run on higher gear even at low speeds without engine knock thus reducing
gear changes even in city traffic
- engine oil stays clean for a longer mileage due to complete combustion of fuel, reducing
frequency of oil change
- engine runs cooler as indicated by the radiator temperature
Many car enthusiasts in US and other countries have modified their cars with this technology and have
improved the efficiency of their cars.
I request you to check this technology, refine it if required and thereafter consider use of this technology on a mass scale to reduce fuel consumption. I understand, at the manufacturing stage of the engine this modication can be introduced at very little cost.
K.s Viswanathan
Let's go with energy efficiency and conservation, we have that technology already. It isn't reasonable to think we will convert all US energy to renewables in the time frame proposed, nor should we.
If you want to drive energy efficiency quickly, then get rid of all subsidies on all forms of energy production and let the market drive the prices for energy. It's more efficient to pay for energy that way than to tax people and subsidize some forms of energy over others. All people really want is reliable energy. Once people see their options & experience the TRUE cost of each form of energy production [including the environmental costs] they will decide to put their money into the most reliable and cost effective energy form for them. They will have incentive to conserve that energy since they bear the cost of what they want and need. The mix of energy production will vary regionally and competition between companies will drive even more efficiency. The government should back off and just set an overall goal of "better air, water & soil quality" [defined] and let every area find their own way to it. What works in one region won't work in another anyway, let regional markets work.
The market isn't perfect but it reacts quickly when you need things fast. Who gets things to hurricane victims faster, local vendors or FEMA?
Seeing one's arguments taken so far out of context and missused to support another's argument are very helpful.
Thanks
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