Lester Brown: Sustainable energy is here
Fracking for oil and gas is booming across the United States. Low gasoline prices are making it affordable to wheel around in an SUV that gets 15 miles per gallon, at least for now.
But out of sight of most consumers there鈥檚 an energy revolution brewing, says Lester Brown. Consider:
鈥� Denmark now gets more than 60 percent of its electricity from wind.
鈥� China receives more electricity from its wind farms than from its nuclear power plants.
鈥� Texas, the No. 1 oil-producing state, is now the No. 1 wind-power state, with plans to export the electricity generated to other states. Kansas and many other 鈥渨ind rich鈥� states are following suit.
The rise of sustainable energy 鈥� mainly wind and solar 鈥� is going to take many people by surprise, says Mr. Brown, founder of the Earth Policy Institute, whose latest book, 鈥淭he Great Transition: Shifting from Fossil Fuels to Solar and Wind Energy,鈥� with coauthors Janet Larsen, J. Matthew Roney, and Emily E. Adams, tracks the seismic changes now under way.
Among those who see what鈥檚 happening are billionaire investors such as Warren Buffett and Philip Anschutz, Brown says.
鈥淭he billionaires are investing in renewable energy: Warren Buffett invested $15 billion,鈥� he says. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a whole list of billionaires just piling money into this. What that does for investment is it says, This is where the smart money is going. You don鈥檛 get to be a billionaire by being stupid.鈥�
We鈥檙e going to be surprised even just a decade from now by how much the energy picture has changed, says Brown, who鈥檚 been awarded a 鈥済enius grant鈥� from the MacArthur Foundation and has been called 鈥渙ne of the world鈥檚 most influential thinkers鈥� and 鈥渢he guru of the environmental movement.鈥�
Solar panels are becoming affordable alternatives to conventional electricity from the grid as their price drops, their efficiency in generating electricity rises, and new ways of financing them emerge.
鈥淎lmost all the big homebuilders in this country either offer or automatically put solar panels on new rooftops,鈥� Brown says. 鈥淏ecause buying a house with no electric bill is kind of neat.鈥�
Home solar panels can be financed a number of ways, including blending the cost into the mortgage or allowing a vendor to install and own the panels.
Obviously solar and wind don鈥檛 pollute the air or 鈥渄isrupt the climate,鈥� he says, factors that influence some people. But it鈥檚 the new economics of sustainable energy that will really drive the change, he adds. 聽
Farmers and ranchers 鈥渞eally like wind farms,鈥� he says. Some ranchers are earning more from the wind turbines on their land than from their cattle sales.
A field of corn converts about 1 percent of the sunlight that falls on it into energy, he says. But solar panels now convert up to 20 percent of the sunlight that falls on them into electricity.
鈥淎 farmer in Iowa can plant an acre of corn that will produce about $1,000 worth of ethanol,鈥� Brown says. 鈥淏ut if he puts a wind turbine on that acre he can generate $300,000 of electricity per year.鈥�
People will be able to charge their electric cars from energy off their rooftops. 鈥淵ou control it,鈥� he says.
Storing the energy produced by solar panels for later use has been an issue. But the 鈥済igafactories鈥� being built by entrepreneur Elon Musk to produce home and commercial storage batteries show that big players are becoming interested.
鈥淔or a lot of our lifetimes, we鈥檝e been getting energy [oil] from halfway around the world,鈥� Brown says. 鈥淣ow suddenly we have rooftop panels and we鈥檙e getting energy from 10 feet over our heads.鈥�
