Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
overly large or agglomerated. Indeed, their most promising applications are as
highly distributed micropower generators located very close to sources of consump-
tion, such that they
reduce
rather amplify burdens on transmission and distribution
systems. PV is reliable, long-lived and technically feasible even in locations of
moderate sunshine, but comparatively expensive. Thus, PV growth forecasts are
meager (Energy Information Administration, 2005), despite increased state and
federal policy support that only marginally offset historical subsidies for conven-
tional energy sources. New thin fi lm and other technologies for integrating PV into
roofi ng shingles, exterior siding and other building components will likely open up
other applications. Furthermore, PV production is based on techniques and princi-
ples of the semi-conductor industry, suggesting far greater potential for continuous,
shorter cycles of innovation and deployment than conventional power technologies
like coal and nuclear. Other solar energy applications, such as daylighting and
passive space and water heating, often pay back quickly, but remain underutilised
due to design ignorance. Geographers have taken surprisingly little interest in solar
energy issues, such as contextual analysis of solar power in the Third World, where
the developmental vision of green, independently generated power can confl ict with
local perceptions of solar as an inferior and theft-prone 'poor people's' substitute
for 'modern' grid power. Cultural perceptions in the West can likewise inhibit solar
development. California is proposing renewable energy requirements in new con-
struction that will make sound energy investments as routine and 'sensible' as
buying ever-larger homes packed with hot tubs, home cinemas and other energy-
hungry amenities.
The contradictory politics and analytics of energy are also exemplifi ed in the case
of biomass fuels, which include everything from woodland forage to 'energy crops'
to sewerage. While residues from agricultural, forestry and mill operations comprise
70 percent of the biomass energy potential in the USA (Milbrandt, 2005), it is
ethanol for transportation, currently just 3 percent of the US renewable energy total,
that has received the lion's share of attention, driven largely by a discourse of reduc-
ing dependence on imported oil. In current practice, ethanol does little to achieve
this goal because it is mostly based on fossil fuel-intensive corn monocultures and
federal and state incentives that refl ect the interests of agribusiness more than sus-
tainability. The estimated EROI of corn ethanol is less than 2 : 1, versus 15 : 1 for
oil, meaning that most ethanol investment (in crops, money, labour and fossil fuels
used as fertilizers) goes simply to reproduce the ethanol industry, rather than for
other purposes (Cleveland et al., 2006). Potentially much more promising are cel-
lulosic ethanol systems using switchgrass or other plants grown on marginal crop-
land with few inputs, and venture capital is pouring into such schemes. A geopolitics
of ethanol is beginning to emerge as the USA and Brazil, the world leader in ethanol
production based on comparatively high EROI sugar cane, seek a strategic ethanol
alliance that will open up new opportunities for capital investment in Brazil and
Latin American following defeat of the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas and
counter-leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's petro-fi nanced regional ambi-
tions (Zibechi, 2007). A prominent promoter of the alliance is the Inter-American
Ethanol Commission under the direction of Jeb Bush, brother of oilman and US
President George W. Bush, underscoring in a small way the kind of shifting and
contradictory allegiances that maintain, and may yet undermine, a century of oil
hegemony.
