Basic Training for Renewable Taos

1. Basic Training forRenewable Taos John Gusdorf & Bob Bresnahan 27 August 2012

2. Background • The Facts of Life • All living things need continuous supplies of Energy & Materials

3. Energy • The amount of energy captured and used by the biosphere each year is: • The equivalent of 550 Billion Barrels of Oil • 18 times the highest annual production of oil • Enough to use up all the oil the world ever had in about 5 years

4. Materials • Each year, life assimilates about 170 billion tonnes of materials. • That’s more than 70 times world production of iron, aluminum and copper combined.

5. So, • After more than 300 million years of well developed life on earth, • Why hasn’t the world run out of energy and material?

6. Because • Life is a Solar-Powered Recycler of materials.

8. “There is no other way to be sustainable in any meaningful sense.”

9. Two points to keep in mind • Energy from outside the system is always required. • Material recycling is not 100% perfect, • Except perhaps in geological time.

10. Turning from the biosphere to human activity:

11. Where we are now:

12. Where we need to be:

13. BTW • Life is completely bound by the same laws of physics, • including entropy, • as the rest of the physical universe. • Any physical process that can be done by living things, can (at least theoretically) be done by technology also.

14. There are no reasons to believe that we can’t make our agricultural and industrial systems work like ecosystems.

15. Let’s start with the easy part: • Becoming Solar-Powered.

16. For human activity • Solar means all Renewable Energy: • Direct solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, tidal ocean thermal, etc. • So from here on we’ll refer to Renewable Energy. • Although in Taos County, it’s probably mostly solar • With some biomass & wind.

17. Taos Energy Use, 2009: Electricity is about 1/6 Gasoline & Natural Gas are > 70%

18. Ultimately • We want to produce more energy than Taos County uses for all purposes, • mostly in the form of electricity. • So that will mean sending a lot of electricity to the rest of the country.

19. Our Goals • All Town Electricity by 2020. • All County Electricity by 2030. • Net-Zero Town by 2035. • Net-zero means renewable energy equals all energy used, with exports of electricity. • 300% of Town Energy by 2050. • Net-Zero County by 2055. • 300% of County Energy by 2075.

20. Why make Taos “The Solar Capital of the World”? • Boost to Local Economy – new clean businesses and strengthening of old ones • Early Adopters Benefits – people around the country will look to us for expertise and know-how • A highly effective focus for marketing our community

21. To be an example for the rest of the country & the world. • We can’t solve Climate Change in Taos, but we can show the way. • Protection of our environment • Jobs, jobs and jobs

22. Jobs • Not temporary jobs • Increasing numbers of permanent jobs as construction accelerates over decades • 2020 All Town of Taos electricity • 200 jobs earning over $7 million • 2030 All County electricity • 300 jobs earning over $11 million

23. Average pay > $37,000 • Taos County median household income is $35,441

24. Global Warming & Peak Oil? • Approach may depend on your audience. • Several people have told us not to talk about peak oil, environmental issues, and climate change. • But with record heat waves and drought, and • Koch brothers funded studies confirming the reality of global warming, • it may now be easier to approach people on this basis.

25. Climate Change is real and is directly affecting New Mexico: • Drought and Agriculture • Forests lost to wildfires may never grow back.

26. If we achieved the IPCC goal of limiting warming to 2 degrees Celsius, the Taos climate will be like Espanola's. • If we fail to achieve that goal and warming rises 6 degrees Celsius as currently predicted, Taos climate will be like Las Cruces. • Rainfall will probably be less in either case. The forests and the wildlife it supports will be endangered. Our water sources will be seriously threatened. • Then ask yourself this question -- in each case what will the climate of Las Cruces be like?

27. The era of cheap fossil fuels is ending • Maintaining fossil fuel production now requires: • Coal: • Mountain top removal • Oil: • Deep water & Artic drilling, • • Destruction of rain forests for biofuels, • • Tar Sands, & • • Fracking • Natural Gas: • Fracking

28. TYPES OF RENEWABLE ENERGY • Solar-Electric: • PV, CSP, Power Towers • Solar-Thermal • Wind • Hydro-Electric • Biomass • Geothermal-Electric

29. Photovoltaic (PV) • PV, what we’re all familiar with, and what we should continue to promote for the time being.

31. Concentrated Solar Power • CSP uses parabolic troughs to concentrate sunlight on a pipe, • heating a liquid to above the boiling point to produce steam to • generate electricity.

32. CSP can include STORAGE (discussed below).

33. Solar Power Towers • Use a large number of heliostats to focus sunlight on a central tower. • Generally include storage.

34. Spanish Solar Tower Sandia National Lab’s 10 MW tower.

35. TYPES OF RENEWABLE ENERGY: Wind • The most economic source of renewable electricity where conditions are right. • Appears to have limited potential in Taos County. • We may form partnerships with other groups nearby. • They will face the same obstacles we do, and • are natural allies.

36. Hydro-electric • Most good sites taken, issues of flooding canyons or large area. • Good for baseload (24/7) electricity or backup for solar and wind. • Some hydro in Richard Mason’s Pueblo study. • (We need to meet with him.)

37. Biomass • May include garbage (municipal solid waste, MSW) • Woodchips from thinning forests to control wildfires. • Has large potential in Taos.

38. Biomass is often used in combined heat and power (CHP) systems that capture the “waste” heat for hot water, space heat or processes. • Potential in gov’t buildings, schools, etc. • Possibly in houses. • Biomass can act as backup for solar or wind because its output can be controlled.

39. Geothermal-Electric • Potential for Taos unknown. • Can supply baseload electricity or backup for solar & wind. • Distinguish from ground-source heat pumps, which supply heat or cooling from ground of normal temperature.

40. Ground-Source Heat Pump Geothermal-Electric

41. RENEWABLE ENERGY ISSUES • Cost • Intermittency • Grid • Backup • Storage • Grid Capacity & Access to the Grid

42. Cost • “We can’t afford it.” • When we decide that, we’ve decided on the decline of our civiliaztion.

43. PV (and wind in some places) are economic now, • and should continue to decline in price, • as fossil fuel get more expensive. • Renewable Energy offers security against future prices increases. • Where else would you put your money today?

44. We aren’t paying the full cost of fossil fuel energy. • Increasing destruction of the environment • Subsidies

45. ISSUES: Intermittency • PV only produces electricity when the sun is shining. • It varies seasonally, daily, and even in seconds with cloudiness. • We expect electricity 24/7. • A renewable system that is not reliable will be unacceptable.

46. Electric grids can deal with some intermittency • Demand also has seasonal, daily and random variations. • Generating plants fail. • Grid operators deal with these fluctuations with “spinning reserve,” and by varying plant outputs.

47. A drop in output from a solar array or wind farm “looks” just like an increase in demand. • That’s why grids can deal with the amount of renewable energy we have now. • But at some point, PV and wind will destabilize the grid

48. Solutions to intermittency • A continental grid • Backup generation • Storage

49. The Grid

50. Connect solar and wind generators spread over a continent to smooth out variations. • This helps, but doesn’t solve the problem.