In the June 25 edition of the London Times online, Jeroen van der Veer, CEO of Royal Dutch Shell, questioned whether green energy can replace fossil fuels. He suggested that we will need to use more coal as oil becomes scarce.

Carl S. Milsted, Jr.

Meanwhile, the Peak Oil folks say that modern civilization is due to collapse, as oil becomes more scarce and expensive.

I think people underestimate the potential of solar energy.

†How many single-story businesses run fluorescent lights when the sun is out? There is an alternative technology called a ìskylightî that can provide better lighting.

How many office buildings run the air conditioners when the weather is nice outside? We have an old alternative technology called a ìwindowî that can do the job.

Modern washing machines have become either outrageously expensive or ineffective in order to meet energy requirements. They are either expensive, because of horizontal drums to save water and super fast spin cycles to wring up more water in order to reduce energy use by the dryer, or ineffective, because they set the warm-water temperature too low. Well, we have technology called a ìrain barrelî for acquiring water clean enough to do laundry, and a ìclothes lineî for efficient drying. As for hot water, a long hose lying in the yard works in the summer. A somewhat more complex system would do a better job.

As for transportation, a large fraction of the population still lives in the city. In the city, you rarely go faster than 35mph. You donít need a car; you need a horseless carriage. Such a vehicle needs only a few ìhorsepower.î It could be economically fueled with biofuels.

And no, we donít need to use expensive corn, or ecologically disastrous Brazilian sugar cane, to make biofuels. The Germans developed the technology to turn coal into motor fuels back in WWII. We can use a renewable equivalent called ìcharcoal.î And we could get more charcoal per acre if we were to legalize hemp. As any dope smoker will tell you, it grows like a ìweed.î

But actually, plants are rather inefficient at converting solar energy into something we can use. Solar radiation is over 5000 degrees K. The ambient is on the order of 300K. Thermodynamics dictates that a conventional heat engine can achieve a very high efficiency given this gradient ó using an advanced technology called a ìmirror.î

This energy could be used directly as electricity, or used to make hydrogen. I donít recommend using the hydrogen directly for automobiles; itís too hard to handle. Instead, we could react the hydrogen with some hot charcoal to make ìhydrocarbons.î

Oh yes, somebody may eventually make economical solar cells one day as well.
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Carl S. Milsted Jr., former chairman of the Libertarian Party of Buncombe County, may be contacted at cmilsted/at/holisticpolitics.org.