Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
24.1
The Renewable Energy Vision of
William Heronemus
For many years UMass was an agricultural school and the
transformation to a university did not begin until 1947. The 1960s
witnessed a significant expansion, with construction of many new
buildings and the hiring of many more professors. For the future
of renewable energy, one of the most significant new hires (1967)
was Capt. William Heronemus, who had just retired from the US
Navy. His charge was to oversee the establishment of an Ocean
Engineering Program. He did in fact do that, but of most significance
was that he brought with him a vision of an energy future which
was radically diferent than that which was most people were
expecting. In 1971 he wrote the following:
“In the immediate future, we can expect the 'energy gap'
to result in a series of crises as peak loads are not met. The East
Coast will be dependent on foreign sources for most of its oil and
gas. The environment will continue to deteriorate in spite of ever-
increasing severity of controls. Air pollution, oil spills and thermal
pollution are likely to be worse, not better in 1985. In the face of
the continuing dilemma: power
. pollution, a third alternative
[to nuclear and fossil energy] must be sought. It may be found in
the many and varied non-polluting energy sources known to exist in
the United States or its ofshore aggregate. These energy sources,
tied together in a national network, could satisfy a significant
fraction of our total power needs in the year 2000. That favourable
outcome could result from a serious research and development
efort started now and a design and construction efort started in
1985.”
vs
1
William Heronemus's essential vision was no less than to
completely replace conventional forms of energy, fossil as well
as nuclear, with renewable energy sources. The sources he had in
mind were solar, wind, and ocean thermal diferences. Together
with other faculty members, Professor Heronemus established the
Energy Alternatives Program at UMass. This included participants
from mechanical, civil, industrial and electrical engineering. The
1
Research Applied to National Needs (RANN) Directorate
(1971)
A National
Network of Pollution-Free Energy Sources
, Proposal submitted to the National
Science Foundation, Washington DC.
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