The landscape on a drive from Chicago to Indianapolis can be drab. All you see on either side of the interstate is field after field of what appears to be corn. Imagine my surprise when I was recently in the area and saw what seemed to be a sea of wind machines all around me, none of which were there only a few months ago.
A revolution is underway in America. Thomas Friedman, a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times columnist, says in his book “Hot, Flat and Crowded” that “energy technology is going to be the next industrial revolution.” Well known as one of the nation’s leading champions of globalization and free market economies, Friedman is now offering green energy as the best solution to the worldwide economic downturn.
Friedman’s message appears to be about a new green economy, but it’s really more about a new America. “It’s about recognizing that abandoning the old ways of doing business for the new energy economy is actually good business sense, political sense and humanitarian sense,” he said.
Researchers planning for future energy supplies are working on several technologies simultaneously, including novel methods to produce electricity, next-generation solar and wind power, and smart grid electric systems that connect everything efficiently. “We need 100,000 people in 100,000 garages trying 100,000 different things — in the hope that five of them break through,” Friedman said.
Recently, President Barack Obama proposed building several nuclear power plants in order to stimulate the economy and create jobs. It’s a good example of how using government policy and leadership can help unlock the hidden potential to accelerate the growth of technology and industry in this country.
Friedman explains that markets need to remain the mechanism by which renewable energy takes over. If consumers don’t drive the market, then there will be no revolution.
“Incentives for consumers to switch to renewable energy are essential,” he said. “This is the role that government leadership needs to play.”
Government mandates designating new methods of making energy cheaper to produce and purchase seems like the right thing to do in this economy. Such is the case of the smart grid system currently being developed. The United States Department of Energy Web site explains that the smart grid system is intended to deliver electricity from suppliers to consumers using two-way digital technology to control appliances at consumers’ homes, saving energy. On the home front, the smart grid provides universal time of use metering that can improve the economy of solar panels significantly for the homeowner.
Arjun Makhijani is an electrical and nuclear engineer who is president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research. He thinks that the fastest way to get lots of renewable energy platforms up and running is by covering large tracts of city highways, parking lots and commercial buildings with solar cells.
Another resource we need to tap into is offshore wind machines, akin to the ones I saw in northern Indiana. “Even if you do not like windmills,” said Makhijani. “It is the price that must be paid in order to make renewables come to market faster.”
Wind machines along our coasts, solar panels scattered across the country, smart grids serving as the connective fiber between everyone and everything; they serve as spokes within a mighty wheel that constantly injects large doses of renewable energy into the community. The problem with this equation is that our current efforts are not only inadequate — they’re hopelessly haphazard and piecemeal. Friedman argues it’ll take a coordinated, top-to-bottom approach, from the White House to corporations to consumers.
