Re: Are Biofuels the Answer?

There are good and bad ways to create biofuels, produce solar power and harness other new technologies.

Making ethanol from corn, for example, is an extremely inefficient use of resources. Not only do you have to use prime farmland and a lot of chemicals, water and fossil fuels to grow the corn, but it takes a large amount of energy to turn the corn into ethanol. There is a debate as to whether making ethanol from corn even produces more renewable energy than is consumed in the process of making it.

See: http://www.igreens.org.uk/ethanol_from_corn_.htm

In contrast, making biodiesel from algae farms in desert regions using shallow saltwater pools to grow the algae has great potential. This would theoretically not threaten food crops, use freshwater reserves or require the other intense energy inputs that making corn ethanol does. I read one article that claimed that enough biodiesel to replace all petroleum transportation fuels used in the U.S. could be grown in 15,000 square miles, or roughly 12.5 percent of the area of the Sonora desert. Instead of wasting money and time on producing corn ethanol, this is the direction in which we should be moving.

See: http://www.unh.edu/p2/biodiesel/article_alge.html

I am a big fan of solar energy, but even that can be produced in the wrong way. CdTe (Cadmium Telluride) based solar panels, for example, are not a good thing. Cadmium is an extremely toxic heavy metal that can cause all kinds of environmental problems if it gets into the water and soil. Fortunately, there are many other ways to make solar panels that are not harmful, and new advancements in the field are being made rapidly. There is definitely enough potential solar energy to meet all of our energy needs. It's expensive now, but the costs are coming down, particularly when solar thermal energy is used to generate electricity rather than pv panels.

See:

http://www.renewable-energy-world.com/display_article/272799/121/ARTCL/n...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_tower

In other words, while there's no good thing that we can't screw up if we try hard enough, there's also great promise for many new technologies including biofuels, large scale solar, etc. The biggest obstacles are ignorance, greed, dirty politics, etc. -- basically the same vices that got us into this mess in the first place. We need to address these core issues in addition to technological barriers.