URL: http://www.abqjournal.com/opinion/guest_columns/061023265002opinionguestcolumns09-06-08.htm

Saturday, September 06, 2008
N.M. Sun, Wind Key To Our Energy Future
By Monte Ogdahl And Janet Bridgers
N.M. Solar Energy Association
   
   As a large nuclear energy plant a safe distance away, the sun produces more energy each second than the human race has used for the last 10,000 years. The solar energy that Earth receives, at the perfect distance of 93 million miles from the sun, is transmitted as full spectrum light that creates, nurtures, and purifies our beautiful planet's diverse abundance of life.
   
   We've now learned to direct this free source of energy to modern energy needs. Solar energy provides heat at a rate of 450 BTUs per square foot and electricity at about 1,000 watts per square meter year-round, with figures only slightly lower on cloudy days. Solar heat energy can be implemented “as-is” in passive solar homes and businesses. With standard liquid or air collection panels, solar heat can cost-effectively provide household heat and hot water to conventional structures.
   
   Over the past 35 years, small-scale passive and active solar applications have become more commonplace in New Mexico. Now, the proven technology of large-scale thermal electric plants is being expanded in the Southwest, where solar heat energy can be concentrated to produce large amounts of electricity.
   
   A concentrated solar plant (CSP) utilizing about 15 square miles of otherwise unusable land would produce enough electricity to offset New Mexico's total electrical energy requirements. A CSP of around 100 square miles could meet the country's entire need, producing more energy than the U.S. consumption of oil, natural gas, coal, hydropower and nuclear energy.
   
   The sun's photon energy can be converted to electricity with photovoltaic (PV) panels. While PV electricity is more expensive initially, the panels produce power over decades with almost no maintenance. And since panels are modular, system sizes can be tailored.
   
   Electrolyzers are a simple way to use solar or wind energy to separate from water hydrogen that can be used directly for gas-fired appliances or engines, or to feed fuel cells for the production of electricity during times without sun or wind.
   
   While recent work at MIT seems to indicate a breakthrough in this technology, hydrogen, capacitors and other means of storage and transfer require research.
   
   Wind, a by-product of the sun's uneven heating of our planet as it spins in space, is able to produce electricity ranging from small residential wind turbines to the 5-megawatt machines used on wind farms. Solar and wind facilities located in areas where they are particularly suited would improve local economies.
   
   Wind energy programs are working well in New Mexico and have proven to be a cost-effective energy source. Eastern New Mexico could easily produce 20 times the amount of electricity needed in the state. New Mexico's wind could supply a major percentage of U.S. energy.
   
   If our country became committed to a “cleaner” energy path — “solar roofs,” CSPs and other renewables such as biofuels, hydro, geothermal and hydrogen — we could meet Al Gore's goal of no fossil fuels in 10 years and avert the worst of predicted global warming impacts.
   
   If we kept our eye on the enlightened path, we could even forgo fossil fuels and nuclear energy by 2050 (see A. Maskhijani's plan at www.ieer.org/carbonfree).
   
   The vision of creating carbon-free energy, improving our balance of trade, establishing a new U.S. economic base and minimizing future nuclear waste is not merely a dream. It is possible.
   
   Congressional renewal of solar- and wind-energy tax credits before they expire in December is a crucial first step. Not doing so undermines numerous businesses across the state that can't expand without credits.
   
   And unless Congress is willing to eliminate all energy subsidies to carbon-based and nuclear energy industries, the playing field is unconscionably uneven.
   
   Monte Ogdahl and Janet Bridgers are members of the board of the New Mexico Solar Energy Association.
   
   

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