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  The Innovation Economy - sooner or later?

  I am an electrical engineer practicing in the power systems field, and I have to disagree with Joel when he says, referring to the innovation economy, "that is even farther down the line than renewed nuclear power."  As Dave the original poster said, nuclear power plants take a long time to come on line.  Ten years sounds about right, but it could take longer than that to address all permitting and environmental review requirements.  The truth is that we haven't built a new nuclear power plant in this country in decades, so we can't really say how long it will take.

  In my work I help engineer renewable energy projects and, in some cases, fossil-fuel based distributed generation (DG).  These technologies are ready, and there is increased interest on the part of the once-reticent utility industry.  Detroit Edison is a good example.  They use DG as a way to avoid constructing new power lines, increase system flexibility and reliability, and provide critical back-up power to some of their customers.  They do this because it makes good business sense, not because some regulator is making them do it.

  Wind power is cost-effective today, even here in the Northwest where we have cheap hydropower.  With the extension of the production tax credit (PTC), we should see another boom year for wind energy installations.  All we need to do is extend the PTC for a longer time, say 10 years, instead of the typical 2 or 3 years, with the seemingly inevitable lapses between renewals.  A 10 year PTC would encourage wind turbine manufacturers to set up factories here in the US, creating good jobs, and further lowering the cost of wind energy.  (It's expensive to ship a 1.8 MW wind turbine from Denmark to Oregon!)  A typical wind farm, which today ranges in size from 150 MW to 300 MW, can be on-line in about two years, including permitting, engineering and construction.  Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana currently have over 2000 MW of wind energy in the devlopment process, with over 600 MW likely to come on line within a year.  With a stable economic environment (10 year PTC), Washington state alone could develop 6000 MW or more of wind energy in the next 5 to 10 years.

  Distributed generation, that is, smaller generation projects spread throughout the grid, is also getting cheaper and more wide-spread, partly due to the lower cost of information technology.  A thorough analysis of this industry was done by Climate Solutions of Olympia, WA.  Their report, Poised for Profit II, outlines the emergence of this Smart Energy industry.  (For more info, go to www.climatesolutions.org .)We don't have to wait 10 or 20 years to make this real.  It's happening all around us, and only needs a little nudge and some leadership to really take off.

  I am working hard to steer my current company, a small firm that once served primarily the wood products and aluminum industry, toward this new industry.  I hope that we can get the word out that the innovation economy is a better choice for all Americans in the short term and in the long term, compared to nuclear.

  Respectfully,

  DianeOn A no-nukes argument with no waste posted 4 years, 9 months ago 5 Responses