In exciting news for the alternative energy industry, Brightsource Energy, a solar thermal power plant maker, signed a deal with California last week to construct a series of seven installations in the California Mojave Desert. Upon completion, the project will generate more than 1,300 megawatts of power, which would be enough energy to power a city the size of San Francisco. You can read about the deal here. The deal will be the largest solar installation in history, and is a great sign that states are actively pursuing clean energy alternatives. This follows a plan enacted in November of last year by Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, which pledged development of 1.3 gigawatts of solar power to be in use by 2020 (which will power 10% of L.A.), so there has been good news all around with solar energy and California lately.

To give a brief overview of solar thermal energy, it is different from solar photovoltaics cells in that mirrors are used to reflect the suns rays to a central tower that then uses that heat generated to create steam in a boiler which in turn spins a turbine, which generates electricity. Solar thermal energy has been used in various forms since 600 b.c. and there is an interesting history of its use here.

The only downside to solar thermal plants is that they take up massive amounts of land (the Brightsource project will span over 10,000 acres in the Mojave) and therefore are only viable in areas where there is enough sun and space to make them work (which for the U.S. is mostly in the Southwest). Additionally, since there these plants require such a large amount of land they will be invariably located some distance from major cities. This will require the U.S. to upgrade its energy infrastructure to transport the newly generated electricity long distances to the cities without losing some of the power in the process. However, thanks to the The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which will be signed into law on Tuesday, there is $4.5 billion appropriated to modernize the nations electricity grid in order to "enhance reliability of the energy infrastructure" (its on pg. 60 of the report if you are interested enough to read through it), so hopefully that should put a major dent in that problem. Unfortunately there also is a provision in there for $3.4 billion for "fossil fuel research and development" as well (see pg 62 of the bill). So its a bit of a mixed bag for environmentalists. Basically, it has a lot of funding for electric infrastructure development, some for environmental cleanup (around $800 million), grants for development of hybrid electric car batteries ($2 billion) and is too heavy on the fossil fuel research and development. Although our country will have to ease itself off of fossil fuel, climatologists feel that it is urgent that we get there sooner than later, and although this bill will help, we shall see if it fast enough. Curbing global warming will require us to decrease emissions more quickly than anything in this bill could provide for. Next post will be discussing where we currently stand with global warming and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as possible solutions for restructuring our country to try and meet this challenge.

Sphere: Related Content Labels: ARRA Act, solar energy, solar thermal

Editors Note: Having jumped right into blogging without really doing an introductory statement, I wanted to take a step back and write about the big picture. Why I am interested in the environment, and how I view our place as humans in it. It is from this starting point, that all my future environmental discussions go forward from, so this post essentially acts as a broad mission statement for the blog.

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Sustainability. Perhaps no one word is more relevant, more important, and more vital to the future of the human race. It is a word that is easily defined, yet achieving it in practice will require a vast rearranging of how we as humans interact with our planet and our fellow inhabitants. This blog was created to explore this simple, yet the same time almost incomprehensibly complex idea and the immense implications that it has for our way of life and our future.

As the dominant organism on this planet, we have been able to use our intelligence to conquer the highest mountain peaks and deepest oceans, yet we still have been unable to recognize our true place in the context of the planet on which we live. As the human population continues to increase and resources are exploited at the cost of the environment, this understanding will be a requirement to our survival. While our intelligence has previously given us free reign of this planet and all its resources, we have yet to decide that with this knowledge we must be stewards rather than pillagers. As humans, we are simply another tenant on this planets surface, and our continued evolution as a species is as much dependent on the survival of the other organisms on this planet as they are on us being responsible caretakers. There is no longer any time to wait to exercise this responsibility, as human caused environmental change nears the tipping point of catastrophic effects for all organisms, ourselves included, it has become absolutely critical to alter the course of how we interact with the resources of our planet.

The 21st century will undoubtedly be one of great change, as the fossil fuels that lead us through an industrial revolution dwindle and continue to create a greenhouse heating effect on our planet; as our fresh water sources become more scare and polluted, and industrial agriculture, deforestation and overfishing simultaneously contribute to global warming and create food shortages. These are not doomsday scenarios, they are simple facts. The only question is, will the human species rise to meet these challenges, and create a world that humans can live in balance with nature, or will the short term goals of the masses drive us all over the cliff to disaster? Solutions to all of these problems are either already available or developing, but the time frame to put these solutions into practice is short, and there will be many tough choices along the way. Hopefully, through this countries leadership, the world will be able to put aside political, ideological, religious and racial differences and unite behind this common goal.

This blog is dedicated to my journey through this mass of interconnected issues regarding our relationship with our environment, our place on the plant, and how to reach a sustainable future, while analyzing the current problems and solutions that are available, and trying to fit them into the context of what is a very complex and often short sighted world.

Sphere: Related Content Labels: climate change, deforestation, fossil fuels, intro, mission statement, sustainability