Energy - Wind Energy: Renewable Energy and the Environment - page 13

2 Energy
2.1 PHILOSOPHY
Scientists have been very successful in understanding and finding unifying principles. Many people
take the resulting technology for granted and do not understand the limitations of humans as being
part of the physical world. There are moral laws (or principles), civil laws, and physical laws. Moral
laws have been broken, such as murder and adultery, and everybody has broken some civil law, such
as driving over the speed limit. However, nobody breaks a physical law. Therefore, we can only
work with nature, and we cannot do anything that violates the physical world. Another way of stat-
ing this: you cannot fool mother nature.
2.1.1 A DVANTAGES /D ISADVANTAGES OF R ENEWABLE E NERGY
The advantages of renewable energy are that it is sustainable (nondepletable), ubiquitous (found every-
where across the world in contrast to fossil fuels and minerals), and essentially nonpolluting. Wind
turbines and photovoltaics (PV) do not use water in the production of electricity, which is another major
advantage in dry areas of the world, such as the southwest and most of the west of the United States. This
is in contrast to thermal electric plants, including nuclear power, which use large quantities of water.
The disadvantages of renewable energy are low density and variability, which results in higher
initial cost because of the need for large capture area and storage or backup power. For different
forms of renewable energy, other disadvantages or perceived problems are visual pollution, odor
from biomass, avian and bats with wind farms, and brine from geothermal. In addition, wherever
a large facility is to be located, there will be perceived and real problems to the local people.
For conventional power plants using fossil fuels, for power plants using nuclear energy, and even
for renewable energy, there is the problem of not in my backyard. In the United States there is
considerable opposition to a wind farm offshore of Cape Cod, and there are areas off limits for
drilling for oil and natural gas, such as the coasts of Florida. Also notice the infrastructure problems
associated with transmission lines for electricity and pipelines for oil and gas.
2.1.2 E CONOMICS
Business entities always couch their concerns in terms of economics. The following statements
are common:
We cannot have a cleaner environment because it is uneconomical.
Renewable energy is not economical.
We must be allowed to continue our operations as in the past because if we have to install new
equipment for emission reduction, we cannot compete with other energy sources.
We will have to reduce employment, jobs will go overseas, etc.
The different types of economics to consider are pecuniary, social, and physical. Pecuniary is
what everybody thinks of as economics, dollars. Social economics (sometimes called externalities)
are those borne by everybody, and the externalities may be negative or positive. Many businesses
want the general public to pay for their environmental costs. A good example is the use of coal
in China, as any city of any size has major problems with air pollution. They have laws (social)
for clean air, but they are not enforced. The cost will be paid in the future in terms of health
13