Geothermal Energy Gaining Momentum
One of the lesser known renewable energy sources, but growing is geothermal energy. Congress and the Obama administration are taking efforts to make sure that America expands its use of this “undervalued” renewable resource.
What is Geothermal Energy?
Many have probably heard the term geothermal being used, but may not know exactly what it is and how it is considered a renewable energy source. The word geothermal itself literally means “earth heat” and is the energy extracted from heat stored within the earth. The earth’s crust holds in the heat within the earth and the only way to access this heat is to drill into the earth. In order to actually get electricity from geothermal energy, it require high temperature water or steam. There are actually three main uses of geothermal energy:
- Direct Use: Using host water from springs or reservoirs near the surface.
- Electricity Generation: Power plants require water or steam at very high temperatures. Geothermal power plants are generally built where geothermal reservoirs are located within a mile or two fo the surface.
- Geothermal Heat Pumps: Use stable ground or water temperatures near the earth’s surface to control building temperatures above ground.
Geothermal is nothing new as it has been used for centuries because of how much heat is harnessed within our earth. Hot springs are a great example of how geothermal energy is harnessed naturally with no drilling. At the moment, geothermal meets about .3% of the total energy needs globally and is increasing every year.
Advantages
What makes geothermal power a renewable energy source is that it requires no fuel, but uses a constant flow of heat from the earth. It is a long-lasting energy source in which we already have technologies available to access the heat within our earth. The power plants associated with generating electricity are far less expensive than coal or nuclear plants, create no pollution besides the above concern over CO2 leakage and are relatively small. The cost will also stay down during the long run because there are very few expenses involved in running these plants. Though there are some disadvantages to uses geothermal energy, the advantages far outweigh any negatives it may have.
Disadvantages
The biggest problem with this type of energy is the drilling and extraction process, both of which can have economical and environmental issues. Years of research are put into surveying the particular piece of land to possibly drill and can often lead to negative results. It also requires a large upfront cost (as much as $5 million) to drill deeply into the earth and even after a successful drill, it can be a hit-or-miss situation. After extracting for years, a source can sometimes stop producing steam for many year, sometimes for as many as 10. If there is a successful drill though, no additional fuel costs are required and can power an entire city off of a single plant. There are also concerns about greenhouses gases that are emitted through the holes drilled within the earth that include CO2 and hydrogen sulfide. These emissions are often controlled by the plant and are only a small percentage as compared to what traditional fossil fuel plants emit.
Expanding Geothermal
There are over 200 million acres of land in the West that are great candidates for geothermal drilling. The government is doing its part by providing a $400 million bill to help generate more interest in the geothermal energy market. The government has made a more streamlined process to allow for getting geothermal permits on federal lands much easier. All that is required now is for the drilling to begin and it has. There is no reason that geothermal should not be one of the top energy sources used throughout the world in the future. It’s clean, extremely inexpensive to maintain and very little impact on the environment. A truly renewable energy source.
May’s Contest Ends in One Week
This is just a reminder that my May’s Contest ends in just one week. The responses so far have been great so far. Be sure to submit as many entries as you can ( if you haven’t already ) by commenting about how you will use the money to go a little more green, subscribe to my RSS feed or email subscription or one of the other ways to submit an entry. Good luck to everybody.
GOP Senator Believes Renewable Energy Not Enough
GOP Senator John Barrasso from Wyoming says that Alternative Energy won’t meet US needs and only increase the price of energy along with possibly increasing our dependency on foreign oil. In the GOP’s weekly Internet address, Senator John Barrassso said that renewable energy alone cannot solve America’s long term energy needs. The GOP believes that America needs to expand it’s funding for all types of energy sources including U.S. oil and clean coal. Below is the entire address made this past weekend:
Throughout the speech, he does continually say that he does support alternative energy and expanding upon it. That is great that he supports alternative energy, but why still support all these other horrible energy sources just so we can say that we support America. Isn’t using renewable energy also supporting America by providing tons of jobs to Americans and producing energy within America? It just seems like politicians feel that the only way keep our energy prices low is to continue to support researching “clean coal”, getting our energy from oil in Alaska or extracting oil shale. I don’t care how much research is done to make them cleaner, oil and coal are dirty energy sources.
One way that we can stop “discriminating” against other energy sources is to start research all types of renewable energy. What about geothermal, biomass and water just to name a few? At the moment we are in a difficult situation because much of our energy comes from coal and oil. Currently, renewable energy only accounts for 1% of our total energy usage. Let’s hope that we can continue expand our energy portfolio with renewable sources and make that percentage much larger.
Which Operating System is the Greenest?
Both Microsoft and Apple make sure it’s know to the general public about their efforts to make their operating system as green as possible. Linux on the other hand is far less known to many because many of its distributions are available free with little marketing geared towards them. Some believe that Linux is a green operating system and far more energy efficient than it’s counterparts, while others feel that Mac and Windows are either just as efficient if not more. I never realized how much of a debate this has become, leaving many people still unsure of which OS to choose for their computer.
Why Choose Linux
There are many that feel that Linux is all-around the best operating system on the market, especially in terms of how green it is. One writer feels that Linux is a much more eco-friendly option for computers.
Less Packaging
A good reason to choose Linux is the overall less packaging involved with it’s distribution. Most distributions of Linux are open source, meaning that they are free to use. This translates into no large boxes for a single OS disc as well as being able to be run on more outdated computers. Linux distributions usually have much less hardware requirements than bulky Windows or Macs.
PowerTop
The PowerTop applications is a really powerful application for Linux machines that can drastically reduce the amount of energy your computer is using. It will tell you particular services to stop running to reduce the load on your hardware. This application even goes to the level how many watts you can save by performing one of their recommendations. To get this application, you have to be running Linux. Even though Mac’s OSX uses Unix as the base for its operating system, it will not run on Macs.
Longer Lasting Hardware
The “refresh” period for buying a new computer with Window can sometimes be almost twice as soon as with Linux. This means that computers with Windows will end up as trash twice as quickly. Electronics have a huge impact on the environment because of how dangerous they can be if not properly disposed of. Many countries have a huge e-waste problems that have major impacts on third world countries in which we often dump electronics.
Cheaper
This point doesn’t really have anything to do with being more eco-friendly, but more about saving you money. As I already state, since the Linux OS is open source, many distributions including Ubuntu and Gentoo are absolutely free of charge. On top of just being free, many applications that run on Linux machines are also open source and require no purchasing. Even though some of these open source applications are available on Windows and Macs, many are not. Imagine the money you could save not having to many of those expensive applications.
Hardware More Important
Don’t get me wrong, all distributions of Linux may not be as energy efficient as some Windows or Mac machines. In reality, the amount of energy that your computer uses is based more off of the type of hardware you are using rather than the type of OS you are running. Just because you have Linux running on a high-powered gaming computer, doesn’t mean that it will use less energy that a standard Windows machine and it usually won’t. Apple even touts it’s “green” mac airs, but most of that is based off of the hardware they are using for their laptops. The biggest point to take from this is to buy a computer that meets your needs. Don’t buy a heavy duty gaming computer with high-powered fans and a massive CPU if all you do is browse the web and use a writing application. If you want a minimal machine with a light-weight operating system, Linux may be the way to go. There are also other methods you can take to reduce computer energy beyond that actual OS you are using.
CoolerPlanet Solar Tools and Resources
I stumbled upon a cool website called CoolerPlanet that contains a wide array of resources to help save you time and money, while still lowering your environmental impact. They have developed a large network on green professionals throughout America to help lower your energy bills. By putting in your location and current needs, CoolerPlanet can help match you up with the appropriate business to meet your needs. They also have several tools to help determine if solar energy is appropriate for your situation. The best thing about this site is that it is all provided free of charge and no signing up.
Solar Energy Cost Tool
This is the main feature of this site and allows you to determine the total cost of a solar energy system. They also provide the various incentives that are available to lower the cost, the “break even” point and even allow you to request a quote from a solar energy expert in your area. I really like this tool because it gives you the “break even” number of years for buying a solar energy system. It’s sometimes tough to determine if a solar energy system is appropriate for your house or business location, especially in areas where it may not seem sunny. This tool will show you can fund your solar energy system off of energy bill savings with a reasonable amount of time.
Power Rating Tool
CoolerPlanet’s power rating tool is another cool feature of this site. It shows their own rating system of how cost effective it is to obtain a solar system in each state. All available tax incentives and the average cost of a system in a particular state are used to make the calculation. What’s cool is that it allows you to browse a map highlighted with various colors showing each states solar energy cost rating. It gives you a good idea of how cost effective solar energy is for your state as well as those surrounding.
Other Resources
There are more resources and tools available on this site including: a blog, Solar Energy Q&A, Solar Energy news and even a Solar Install Map. CoolerPlanet did a great job in making it a one stop place to researching and purchasing a solar energy system.
Reynolds 100% Recycled Aluminum Foil
To make our kitchens a little more “green” this Earth day, Reynolds Consumer Products introduced their 100% Recycled Aluminum Wrap. It is essential that we recycling aluminum should be our top priority because of just how wasteful it is to produce virgin aluminum. That’s why Reynolds deciding to unveil a new line of aluminum wraps made exclusively out of recycled materials is a great step for our environment.
Just because this aluminum foil is made from recycled materials, doesn’t mean that the quality has degraded any. Reynolds has made this product just as strong and durable as their traditional foil. I was fortune enough to try some of this foil and can attest to the fact that is has the same quality as its non-recycled counterpart. To make this product even more environmentally friendly is that packaging is made from 100% recovered paper.
Normally when a company makes a more environmentally friendly version of their product by using recycled materials, there is usually a higher price tag to come along with it. Reynolds made sure to keep the cost down and charge approximately the same price you would pay for a normal aluminum foil: $2.99 for 50 sq. ft. box. Let’s hope that recycled aluminum becomes popular and will take over store shelves. Also be sure to check out a $.50 coupon they are offering.
“Go Silver, Live Green”
Reynolds is also hosting a contest called Go Silver, Live Green to help make our lives more “green” by giving away a variety of prizes including eco-friendly kitchen appliances, Grocery Cash certificates, Reynolds Foil from 100% Recycled Aluminum and more. You can enter once every week for a chance to win a variety of green gifts, including a $250 grocery gift certificate on a weekly basis. The contest ends at midnight on May 29, 2009. At that time, a grand prize winner will be selected that includes an energy efficient dishwasher and refrigerator as well as 6 months of free groceries. Be sure to sign up for the contest as it is ending soon.
MapAWatt Blog: Residential efficiency returns
As seen on MapAWatt Blog by Chris Kaiser:
The bad news keeps rolling in: job loss, falling housing prices, falling stock market, growing national debt, etc., etc., etc. Not only do we have to worry about our wonderful declining economy, but we also get to look forward to rising temperatures and energy prices. Mapawatt Blog is loving the great news these days! Why is Mapawatt blog revelling in our frustration? Because when in the history of the world has there been a better time to be a blog about energy conservation!
If you haven’t caught on to the fact that investments in energy conservation are probably better than current investments in the stock market, then you need to put down your Investing for Dummies book and start reading Mapawatt blog or the book The Home Energy Diet. I actually planned on writing about energy efficient windows today (don’t worry, I will do that later this week) but when researching tax incentives I started down this other train of thought. I decided I needed to write this while looking at the current tax credit from the IRS for energy efficient improvements.
The credit is for improvements installed in 2009 and 2010 and equates to 30% of the purchase of energy-star door/windows/skylights, insulation and sealing, and certain home heating and cooling equipment. The Alliance to Save Energy has a good summary table on their page. This credit goes up to $1,500. So you can spend $5,000 on improvement and assuming you pay taxes, the government will give you back $1,500 dollars next year! Which got me thinking: There is so much focus on falling stock prices and home prices, why isn’t there more focus on investments that are actually improving?
So I had to do an analysis!
I totaled the cost of the energy I consumed from April 2008 to March of 2009 which included electricity (kWh) and natural gas (therms). I didn’t include any service charges charged by the natural gas marketer because these are flat rate charges and do not vary on the amount you used. I did include sales tax on the electricity, because this is only charged on what you use. If you don’t use kW, you don’t get charged tax on them. The total amount I spent in 12 months was $1,318.79! I know Georgia has relatively low energy prices, but I’d be interested to see your comments to see how this compares to other parts of the country!
I then made some assumptions to compare energy efficiency improvement to investments in the stock market. Let’s assume that I had $1,000 dollars to spend at the end of this year and I can use this money to buy more efficient windows/air conditioner/insulation/heat pump/etc. or I can spend this money buying $1,000 worth of stock. I’m going to use the $1,318.79 for my baseline annual energy cost and make the following assumptions:
- Energy (both electricity and natural gas) prices will rise 5% annually (this is seen by many to be a VERY conservative estimate)
- The $1,000 dollars I spend on energy efficiency improvements will save me 10% on my bill annually. (Probably conservative as well)
- The hypothetical stock will appreciate 5% annually (historically this is low, but it’s excellent considering what we’ve seen the last few years)
- The stock does not pay dividends
- The capital gains tax incurred when the stock is finally sold will be 15%.
Based on these assumptions I calculated out to the year 2020 at which point I added up all the money I saved from my conservation improvements (10% of my energy bill each year) and added that to the tax credit received in 2010 of $300. I then compared it to the money I made from selling the stock, minus the capital gains tax. It is important to note that money saved by efficiency measures IS NOT TAXED.
So the results? $1,000 invested in efficiency improvements returned a net profit (money earned minus initial expenditure) of $1,267.26; while the $1,000 invested in the stock market returned a net profit of only $603.79! I must point out that one also has to consider risk when making these decisions. Not only do the energy efficient improvements seem to make more sense on a straight monetary basis, but they are inherently less risky! I can almost guarantee you that energy prices will not be lower than what they are today in 10 years, but as we have seen, the same can not be said about the stock market. Now, with increased risk comes increased reward. So if you need to make a lot of money, the stock market is your best bet, but I like to make smart, safe decisions and not leave my fate up to Wall Street. Looks like efficiency improvements need to start getting some more attention from the investment crowd…
*I’m hiding some cells in an image of my excel analysis below just so it fits on the screen.
