Pursuit of alternative energy sources has at last been broadly renewed. The new interest is primarily driven by the run-up in oil prices, now at their highest point in history in inflation-adjusted dollars (at the peak during the 1979 energy crisis, the adjusted cost per barrel was about $80, the same as back in 2006; the highest peak overall in 1864 topped out at $100). Previously the two major retardants of alternative energy research, mutually reinforcing, were the high relative cost of non-fossil-fuel sources and lobbying efforts by oil/gas producers to divert funds towards subsidizing their industry to maintain low costs. Naturally, the relative cost would not drop without further research improvements, and potential research funds were siphoned off or diminished by powerful lobbying efforts, maintaining the status quo.

The combined pressures of the latest oil crisis, foreign wars fought in oil-rich nations, and the looming spectre of global warming have revitalized a new coalition of green interests built on a shared platform of energy independence, sustainable practice, and environmental sensitivity. With the playing field levelled somewhat by the 400%+ increase in oil costs in the last 20 years, alternative sources start to look more competitive. We’ve seen resurgences of efforts to tap into wind, wave, geothermal, and solar power although all are still in fledgling stages of deployment and remain largely limited geographically. One new approach, however, is to capture solar energy not via photovoltaics to convert it to electricity, but via photosynthesis to produce fuel oils.

Algae: The ultimate in renewable energy

The lipid oil produced by about half of the algae’s weight appears on the face to be much more efficient (100,000 gallons per acre per year via Valcent’s vertical method) to produce than current biodiesel efforts via corn ethanol (30 gallons) or soybean oil (50 gallons). Moreover, the recent surge in food prices due to diversion of arable land to corn ethanol at the cost of corn-based foodstocks and other food crops further disadvantage it as a viable long-term fuel source. Traditional agriculture also remains tied into the petroleum industry due to the use of petro-based pesticides, which along with plastics are other large segments of petroleum usage that must be replaced to cut completely the ties to imported oil.

I wonder just how much closer we could come to overcoming our ‘addiction to oil’ described by President Bush if we were to recreate something like Kissinger’s Project Independence which came out of the first OPEC crisis, and was modeled after the Manhattan Project and perhaps Kennedy’s space program. Already with the recent collapse of the experimental installation for ‘zero-emission coal-fired plants’ pushed as part of the now two-year-old Advanced Energy Initiative, only ‘clean, safe’ nuclear energy and solar/wind technologies remain as focii for the modest increase in DOE research. Even less has been said about results in proposed research on hybrid batteries and cellulosic ethanol production.

Other Resources

NPR’s Talk of the Nation has had recent shows on the potential of solar power, which suggested that a single hypothetical installation of 100 square miles in the American Southwest could provide the entire country’s energy needs; the infusion of charcoil into soil to improve crop yields while acting as a carbon sink; and exploring alternatives to producing biofuels (although algae did not appear to be included).

WBUR’s On Point has also covered the role of technology in energy policy; the prospects for ‘clean coal’ in the wake of wavering support by the Bush administration; and coverage of National Geographic’s recent documentary on the American climate ‘footprint.’