President Bush’s proposed energy plan focuses on ensuring the United States’ freedom from energy dependence on other countries.
Alternatives to traditional energy sources need to be put into action to provide supplements for decreasing amounts of fossil fuels, Bush said earlier this year in a radio address to the nation.
“America is already using more energy than our resources can provide, and unless we act to increase our energy independence, our reliance of foreign sources of energy will only increase,” Bush said.
Taking advantage of renewable resources of energy is also one way to fight the looming energy scarcity the United States faces, Bush said.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the United States relies upon fossil fuels to produce the majority of the energy used in the nation today.
“We need to alert the world that the oil production peak is close at hand,” said Seppo Korpela, professor of mechanical engineering at Ohio State. “We need to figure out how to replace traditional fuel sources with alternative or renewable options,” he said.
Hydropower is the leading alternative source of energy in the United States at this time, and accounts for 10 percent of the nation’s electricity, according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
These hydropower plants typically use a dam on a river to hold a large amount of water, which generates power by running through turbines. Another type of hydropower plant simply diverts water from a river, and takes it through a pipeline to reach the turbine.
Downfalls of hydropower plants include decreased water quality and negative effects upon natural wildlife habitats, according to the NREL. Now, power plants producing energy through the movement of water are being designed to minimize impacts on nature.
“Wind power is the fastest-growing renewable energy source,” Korpela said. According to the NREL, wind energy has increased at an average rate of 25 percent per year, since 1990.
“Many improvements have been made to this technology in recent years,” Korpela said. “Now, blades on the windmills are much larger and have a slower rotation.”
These blades, or air foils, have led to less noise production and increased safety for birds, which were often struck by the smaller, faster blades, he said.
In the United States, wind turbines are being installed across the Great Plains. Potential energy from good wind areas, which make up 6 percent of the land of the contiguous 48 states, could supply more than one and a half times of the nation’s 1993 electricity consumption, according to the NREL.
Bioenergy, energy derived from biomass or organic matter, is the second-leading source of renewable energy in the United States, according to the NREL. Today, biomass resources provide about 3 to 4 percent of the United States’ energy.
“Biomass is the most prolific product that we have in the U.S.,” said David Ramey, physicist and president of Environmental Energy, Inc. The company is working to construct a biorefinery near Van Wert, Ohio, by 2006 in order to produce butanol, an energy made from plant waste.
Biorefineries are modeled after petroleum refineries and typically depend on a local biomass resource, Ramey said.
“Depending on the agriculture in the area, this biorefinery will give the farmers a value-added, high-demand product,” he said.
Butanol solves any of the shortfalls associated with other non-traditional energy sources, including fuel cells, Ramey said. This type of biofuel can be shipped through existing pipelines, and it is more efficient than traditional sources of energy, he said.
“Butanol can help the U.S. become independent of foreign oil, and comply with pollution regulations,” Ramey said.
“Fuel cells are devices that convert chemical energy into electrical energy, without combustion,” said Umit Ozkan, associate dean for research in the college of engineering. These devices have applications including transportation, mobile energy sources, and large-scale permanent energy sources, she said.
“It’s certainly an area with a lot of potential for energy and reducing dependency on foreign fuels,” Ozkan said.
Interdisciplinary research concerning fuel cells has taken place at OSU, involving such departments as materials science, mechanical, electrical and systems engineering, she said.
The main barrier to widespread usage of fuel cell energy is the lack of funding because of the nation’s bad economy, she said.
Ozkan said fuel cell technology cannot be introduced to the general public at this time because improvements can still be made to fuel cell technology, and because of the lack of an existing infrastructure for hydrogen fuel stations.
“It’s exciting to see the federal government willing to invest in science and technology,” she said. “We should keep an open mind, and push the boundaries of technology.”
Bush’s new budget proposal includes investment in new technologies, particularly fuel cell research, along with improvement of energy retrieval methods and innovation of energy delivery systems.
“Conservation technology and renewables are important, yet they alone cannot solve our energy problems,” Bush said.
Bush’s comprehensive energy plan encourages drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in order to decrease the nation’s dependency on foreign fuels.
“ANWR is home to the best producing fuel in the U.S.,” Korpela said. By drilling in ANWR with more advanced technology, the United States will have learned to use fossil fuels more effectively, and the vehicles using these traditional fuels will be developed to be more efficient, he said.
The U.S. Senate Energy Committee said drilling in ANWR would not be included in its version of the energy bill, and the Senate voted earlier this year against including ANWR drilling in the federal budget. The version of the energy bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in April allows ANWR drilling.
