U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander introduced his Project for Clean Energy Independence at the ORNL Conference Center in Oak Ridge this morning. The conference was co-hosted by ORNL Director Thom Mason and Representative Zach Wamp - and also featured Representative Bart Gordon
Alexander is proposing that the U.S. launch a five-year project to "put America firmly on the path to clean energy independence." He compared it to the Manhattan Project in terms of the urgency and commitment required - with an objective to make the United States self sufficient in energy.
To begin the process, Alexander outlined seven "Grand Challenges" - and invited the help of ORNL and other researchers in evaluating whether these represent the correct focus:
- Plug-in Electric Vehicles
- Carbon Capture
- Solar Power
- Nuclear Waste
- Advanced Bio-fuels
- Green Buildings
- Fusion
Senator Alexander went on to summarize his views on each of these seven topics:
"1. Make plug-in hybrid vehicles commonplace.
In the 1960s, H. Ross Perot noticed that when banks in Texas locked their doors at 5 p.m., they also turned off their new computers. Perot bought the idle nighttime .bank computer capacity and made a deal with states to manage Medicare and Medicaid data. Banks made money, states saved money, and Perot made a billion dollars.
Idle nighttime bank computer capacity in the 1960s reminds me of idle nighttime power plant capacity in 2008. This is why:
- The Tennessee Valley Authority has 7,000-8,000 megawatts - the equivalent of seven or eight nuclear power plants or 15 coal plants - of unused electric capacity most nights.
- Beginning in 2010 Nissan, Toyota, General Motors and Ford will sell electric cars that can be plugged into wall sockets. FedEx is already using hybrid delivery trucks.
- TVA could offer "smart meters" that would allow its 8.7 million customers to plug in theft vehicles to "fill up" at night for only a few dollars, in exchange for the customer paying more for electricity between 4p.m. and 10 pm. when the grid is busy.
- Sixty percent of Americans drive less than 30 miles each day. Those Americans could drive a plug-in electric car or truck without using a drop of gasoline. By some estimates, there is so much idle electric capacity in power plants at night that over time we could replace three-fourths of our light vehicles with plug-ins. That could reduce our overseas oil bill from $500 billion to $250 billion - and do it all without building one new power plant.
In other words, we have the plug. The cars are coming. All we need is the cord.
Too good to be true? Haven't U.S. presidents back to Nixon promised. revolutionary vehicles? Yes, but times have changed. Batteries are better. Gas is $4. We are angry about sending so many dollars overseas, worried about climate change and clean air. And, consumers have already bought one million hybrid vehicles and are waiting in line to buy more - even without the plug-in. Down the road is the prospect of a hydrogen fuel-cell hybrid vehicle, with two engines - neither of which uses a drop of gasoline. Oak Ridge is evaluating these opportunities.
Still, there are obstacles. Expensive batteries make the additional cost per electric car $8,000-$ 11,000. Smart metering is not widespread. There will be increased pollution from the operation of coal plants at night. We know how to get rid of those sulfur, nitrogen, and mercury pollutants (and should do it), but haven't yet found a way to get rid of the carbon produced by widespread use in coal burning power plants. Which brings us to the second grand challenge:
2. Make carbon capture and storage a reality for coal-burning power plants.
This was one of the National Institute of Engineering's grand challenges. And there may be solutions other than underground storage, such as using algae to capture carbon. Interestingly, the Natural Resources Defense Council argues that, after conservation, coal with carbon capture is the best option for clean energy independence because it provides for the growing power needs of the U.S. and will be easily adopted by other countries.
3. Make solar power cost competitive with power from fossil fuels.
This is a second of the National Institute's grand challenges. Solar power, despite 50 years of trying, produces one one-hundredth of one percent of America's electricity. The cost of putting solar panels on homes averages $25,000-$30,000 and the electricity produced, for the most part, can't be stored. Now, there is new photovoltaic research as well as promising solar thermal power plants, which capture the sunlight using mirrors, turn heat into steam, and store it underground until the customer needs it.
4. Safely reprocess and store nuclear waste.
Nuclear plants produce 20 percent of America's electricity, but 70 percent of America's clean electricity - that is, electricity that does not pollute the air with mercury, nitrogen, sulfur, or carbon. The most important breakthrough needed during the next five years to build more nuclear power plants is solving the problem of what to do with nuclear waste. A political stalemate has stopped nuclear waste from going to Yucca Mountain in Nevada, and $15 billion collected from ratepayers for that purpose is sifting in a bank. Recycling waste could reduce its mass by 90 percent, creating less stuff to store temporarily while long-term storage is resolved.
5. Make advanced biofuels cost-competitive with gasoline.
The backlash toward ethanol made from corn because of its effect on food prices is a reminder to beware of the great law of unintended consequences when issuing grand challenges. Ethanol from cellulosic materials shows great promise, but there are a limited number of cars capable of using alternative fuels and of places for drivers to buy it. Turning coal into liquid fuel is an established technology, but expensive and a producer of much carbon.
6. Make new buildings green buildings.
Japan believes it may miss its 2012 Kyoto goals for greenhouse gas reductions primarily because of energy wasted by inefficient buildings. Many of the technologies needed to do this are known. Figuring out how to accelerate their use in a decentralized society is most of this grand challenge.
7. Provide energy from fusion.
The idea of recreating on Earth the way the sun creates energy and using it for commercial power is the third grand challenge suggested by the National Institute of Engineering. The promise of sustaining a controlled fusion reaction for commercial power generation is so fantastic that the five-year goal should be to do everything possible to reach the long-term goal. The failure of Congress to approve the President's budget request for U.S. participation in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor - the ITER Project
- is embarrassing."
After comments by Representatives Wamp and Gordon, ORNL Director Thom Mason and several ORNL researchers and managers provided their feedback to Alexander regarding what they thought were challenging but viable objectives for each of these challenges.
