Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
of the existing underutilized rooftop space in the United States was used for photovoltaic collec-
tors, it would be enough to generate all of the nonpeak-load electricity consumed in the country
in 2011. This calls into serious question the need to build new electric generating stations of any
kind, solar or otherwise, on undeveloped land such as public lands in the desert Southwest. Better
utilization of existing developed building sites would be better policy and provide a new revenue
stream for existing building owners. Utilizing existing roof space for location of solar facilities
would avoid potential impacts on existing land uses, archeological resources, wildlife habitat, and
ecosystems, perhaps reducing the need for changing land uses to zero for photovoltaic collectors
and nonconcentrating thermal collectors (USDOE 2004).
Solar technologies are ranked third in the list of technologies for greater utilization in the future
only because solar power plant technologies have high national security costs when the additional
costs of bulk electric power transmission are added in. If consideration of large-scale solar electric
power technologies is eliminated, solar technologies move to a four-way tie for the highest rank in
the list, along with conservation and efficiency, geothermal heat pumps, and beneficial biomass.
Construction of solar power towers and fields full of photovoltaic collectors not yet built should
be abandoned as unnecessarily destructive of land that might be productively used for something
else and as increasing the national security costs of solar power by making it reliant on bulk electric
power transmission networks. In addition, if solar power towers became numerous and provided
substantial contributions to energy supplies, they would constitute attractive targets for terrorists.
Use of high-voltage electric transmission networks is unnecessary if solar photovoltaics are con-
structed near their end use, as they would be if rooftops were more frequently utilized.
Our current national reliance on conventional energy sources will not change overnight, but it is
already changing. Continued emphasis on finding new opportunities for energy conservation and
improving energy efficiency should be our highest national priority, because they have the lowest
environmental, dollar, and national security costs and tend to provide the most employment and
value added of all the alternatives. A continuous process of reevaluating our existing stocks of
buildings and machinery should be instituted, to identify opportunities for improvements in energy
conservation and efficiency. Every new building constructed in the future should have ground-
source geothermal heat pumps for space heating and cooling, passive solar design to conserve
energy, and solar photovoltaics for electricity, thus ensuring affordable energy supplies that are not
dependent on vulnerable bulk electric power transmission in a politically unstable world. Large
new commercial buildings can also take advantage of the human heat sources within by utilizing
sophisticated ventilation with heat exchangers for space heating (Hinchey 2011).
Germany has had great success simulating rapid expansion of renewable energy fuel technolo-
gies to displace a heavy reliance on nuclear capacity since its Renewable Energy Act (Erneurbare-
Energien-Gesetz, or EEG) became effective in 2000. The portion of electricity produced from
renewable energy in Germany in 2010 was 101.7 billion kilowatt-hours, increased from 6.3
percent of the national total in 2000 to over 20 percent at the beginning of 2011. In 2011 about
17 percent of electricity, 8 percent of heat, and 6 percent of fuel used in Germany were generated
from renewable sources, reducing Germany's energy imports. CO
2
emissions were reduced 110
million metric tons due to use of renewable energy supplies during 2010. Employment in the re-
newable energy sector increased about 8 percent in 2009 over the previous year, mostly in small
and medium-sized companies. About two-thirds of these jobs were attributed to the Renewable
Energy Act (German Renewable Energies Agency 2011).
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