President Bush signed the energy bill at Sandia Nat'l Labs.
Seeking Solutions at Sandia
October / November 05
Volume 3 Number 5
In his remarks before he signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005 at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, President Bush said the law would help "every American who drives to work, every family that pays a power bill and every small business owner hoping to expand." He continued:
"We need to conserve more energy; we need to produce more energy. We need to diversify our energy supply and we need to modernize our energy delivery—€¦.The bill makes an unprecedented commitment to energy conservation and efficiency. It authorizes new funding for research into cutting-edge technologies that will help us do more with less energy.
"The bill recognizes that America is the world's leader in technology and that we've got to use technology to be the world's leader in energy conservation—€¦.This bill will allow America to make cleaner and more productive use of our domestic energy resources, including coal, and nuclear power, and oil and natural gas. By using these reliable sources to supply more of our energy, we'll reduce our reliance on energy from foreign countries and that will help this economy grow so people can work."
Before the president spoke, members of Sandia's technical staff spoke about the bill's impact on specific R&D programs in energy development and conservation. Les Shepherd, vice president of energy, information and infrastructure surety, identified crucial considerations for the energy future.
—€ By 2025, world energy consumption will grow by 40 percent
—€ By 2025, the U.S. will import 70 percent of its oil
—€ Electric power generation requires more than 40 percent of all the freshwater used in the U.S.
—€ Nuclear power produces 20 percent of the electricity generated in the U.S.—€”with no greenhouse gases
—€ Hydrogen offers the potential for independence from imported oil—€”without carbon emissions
—€ Lighting consumes 20 percent of all electricity
Jerry Simmons, manager of the energy science department, reported on the status of the Next Generation Lighting Initiative, which has as its goal the eventual replacement of every antiquated vacuum tube-based light source with semiconductor-based solid state lighting. Simmons said "This is already happening, for instance in traffic signals. The 135 watt bulb in a red traffic light can be replaced with solid state light sources that use only 12 watts of power. That's less than one-tenth as much. They cost more, but the energy savings are so dramatic that they pay for themselves in a year, and thereafter save energy worth $1,000 per intersection per year. That's why more than one-third of the traffic lights in this country are now solid state. It just makes economic sense."
Sandra Begay-Campbell, a member of both the Sandia Solar Technologies department and the Navajo Nation, spoke about visiting her grandmother a few hours west of Albuquerque on the day the older woman received electricity for the first time. Begay-Campbell has been instrumental in bringing technical assistance in renewable energy and rural electrification to her own tribe. Of the Energy Policy Act, she says, "I have hope that the Energy Bill will assist Americans, but I personally have greater expectations for the Indian Energy Title V provisions. The promise within these provisions emphasizes tribal energy development and electrification of Indian country. Although tribal lands account for 5 percent of the United States, these lands contain 10 percent of our nation's energy resources, including significant wind, solar and fossil energy resources. Many tribes are currently involved in wind power feasibility studies and the energy act will support these types of developments."
Peter Davies, director of Sandia's Geosciences and Environment Center, made clear the relationship between water and electricity. He said that on a typical day, the U.S. imports about 12 million barrels of oil and withdraws about 3 billion barrels of fresh water from rivers, lakes and aquifers to generate electricity. The water need for power generation competes with other major water needs, including agriculture, industry, people and the environment. In a growing number of regions in the country, fresh water supplies are already fully allocated and there is not enough water to meet all these competing needs. Davies points out that this critical energy-water dependency will grow in the future.
"With electric generating capacity expected to grow by as much as 40 percent by 2025," he says, "future power production could require an additional billion barrels of freshwater per day. A technical team drawn from a group of Department of Energy national laboratories has been working to understand these challenges, as well as to identify potential solutions. The act authorizes DOE to carry out a program of research, development, demonstration and commercial application to address energy-water interdependency."
Terry Michalske, the lab's director of Biological and Energy Sciences Center, discussed using hydrogen as an energy source. The president later said that the energy bill "includes strong support for hydrogen fuel technology. When hydrogen is used in a fuel cell, it can power consumer products from computers to cell phones to cars that emit pure water instead of exhaust fumes. —€¦The goal of the research and development for hydrogen-powered automobiles is to make it possible for today's children to take their driver's test in a pollution-free car."
Michalske said that, "Unlike oil, there are no natural reserves of hydrogen—€”we have to make it. But I'm excited by the possibility of using nuclear and solar technologies to produce hydrogen without adding carbon to the atmosphere. We may even use nanotechnology to mimic the fundamental processes of biology and convert light directly into hydrogen fuel. Once produced, hydrogen is a marvelous fuel; just two pounds of hydrogen contain the same amount of energy as six pounds or one full gallon of gasoline. Since hydrogen is a gas, it is much more difficult to store and transport. Using our 40 years of experience studying effects of hydrogen on materials, we are working with industry and university partners to develop new solid materials that can soak up hydrogen like a sponge and that can be rung out when the fuel is needed. And when the fuel is needed, hydrogen can be used very efficiently. An automobile powered by hydrogen fuel cells is expected to achieve energy efficiencies that are twice that of even our current hybrid designs."
Margaret Lovell is a freelance writer.
Copyright © 2012 | Innovation America