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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Solar and Wind are not renewable.
  • Date: Sat, 07 Feb 2009 14:21:24 -0700


Energy in the real world
by John Weber
http://www.energybulletin.net/node/47606
Published Jan 1 2009 by Energy Bulletin

Solar and Wind are not renewable. The energy from solar and from wind is
available but not renewable. An oak tree is renewable. A horse is
renewable. They reproduce themselves.

But, and a very important but, the human made equipment used to capture
solar energy or wind energy is not renewable. In fact, there is
considerable fossil fuel energy embedded in this equipment. The glazing on
a solar collector of any kind – solar thermal water, solar thermal air,
and solar electric – requires energy to manufacture. Aluminum comes from
bauxite. It takes considerable energy to refine the bauxite. When I was
fourteen, I worked loading trucks in an aluminum extrusion plant. The
ingots of aluminum would be heated, pushed through a die to shape, then cut
and put on carts. We would take these carts and move them into a small room
heated to around 400 degrees F where they were baked. Because this was
Florida, we would be fairly dripping with sweat when we would go into the
room to remove the cart. By the end of the day, our shirts were caked with
our own salt.

Copper also requires considerable energy to process. I saw a documentary on
the History Channel show “Modern Miracles” that followed the mining of
copper and the production of products. Mining, refining with both energy
and chemicals, drawing the wire, and winding the wire goes into making both
alternators for wind machines and motors for solar. There are unintended
consequences to the manufacture of solar and wind equipment; including
serious air and water pollution, release of deadly chemicals into the
environment as well as misuse of humans in mining and processing
applications. Besides these unintended consequences, which are critical to
a future humane and livable world, there is an accounting method that is
important to making energy choices.

There is an important accounting system connected to energy decisions. Any
system must give more energy than it takes to create/generate. This
accounting system is Energy Invested on Energy Returned (EroEI). When it
costs more to pull oil from the ground than we get back, then it is over
for that well. On any technology, this has to be a main consideration. Many
have heard that it takes as much energy to make ethanol as it provides.
This makes it a dead end street.

How many units of energy does it take to make a hot air solar collector or
a hot water solar collector or a wind generator or a solar electric panel?
Each of the components (aluminum, glass, insulation, wires, pumps, blowers,
solar cells, etc.) needs to be computed for the accumulated energy cost of
the particular technology. This must be compared to life span energy output
of the technology. It is important to realize we are talking about the
ENERGY output. The financial payback cost is actually secondary in this
perspective. Perhaps these energy devices need an energy content label like
food has a calorie label. If a system requires a 1000 units of energy to
manufacture and it returns 50 units per year than it takes 20 years for the
ENERGY payback. It could take considerably more years for the energy
payback. Most “renewable” systems are heavily underwritten by fossil
fuels. And many of the auxiliary parts of various “renewable”
technologies (the batteries, the high tech control systems) are the weak
link for long-term use.

Energy conservation by insulating, weather stripping, and cutting back are
the first line of defense toward energy independence and self-reliance. It
is important for the future of energy use to be clear on these matters.

These technologies (solar air panels, solar electric panels, wind, etc.)
can be looked at as transitional. This means they can help this generation
and maybe the next generation ease down the slope to minimal fossil fuels.
I am not saying don’t use these devices. I am suggesting we use them
wisely. One approach to the use of solar and wind capturing equipment is to
realize they can be constructed now while fossil fuel energy is available
and relatively cheap. This is a way of creating a bank account of energy by
using the existent energy to build equipment that can provide energy in the
future. John Michael Greer explores this idea well in The Long Descent. As
I indicate above, these technologies can help us ease down the slope
towards a world of minimal or no fossil fuels.

As fossil fuels become less available, judicious use of the remaining
reserves becomes even more important. We must come to realize that fossil
fuels (as well as concentrated sources of minerals) are a gift from the
earth and previous to life. To mistakenly call solar or wind energy
renewable and include the capturing mechanisms leads to both false hopes
and perhaps poor allocation of limited fossil fuels and funds.






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