Brittle Power- PARTS 1-3 (+Notes) - Natural Capitalism Solutions

Chapter Fourteen: Rethinking the Energy System 227the United States amounted to more megawatts than the total coal andnuclear capacity ordered during the same period—but the small hydroplants can be completed nearly a decade earlier than their steamplant competitors.• Ethanol is often blended into premium unleaded gasoline. Most states havebiomass fuel programs. Fuel alcohol production in 1982 will probably exceedthree or four hundred million gallons—approaching only half a percent of thenation’s motor fuel use, but an important source in some agricultural areas.• Direct solar and photovoltaic (solar cell) systems were the fastest-growingenergy supply technologies between 1975 and 1980, with revenues rising byan average of one hundred fifty-five percent per year. During this period, totalU.S. sales of all renewable energy equipment rose by thirty-eight percent peryear to the substantial total of more than six billion dollars in 1980, 34 with continuedrapid growth in 1981. In some parts of the country, the saturation isastonishingly rapid: in southern Humboldt County, California, for example,the utility reportedly estimates that some eighty percent of all householdshave disconnected from the grid and installed solar cells instead. 35In short, it is hard to find a part of the U.S. that does not have its uniqueblend of renewable energy ferment. In some, such as oil-dependent Hawaii, acoherent program is emerging: the state plans to get half its energy fromrenewables by 2000 and eventually to become a net exporter. 36 The CaliforniaEnergy Commission projects that despite rapid population and economicgrowth, total California energy use will decline by about three-tenths of a percentper year during the remainder of this century; demand for oil and for naturalgas will drop by twenty-two and nineteen percent respectively; andrenewable sources will by 2000 provide twenty-two percent of total energysupply (compared to five percent in 1980) and seventy-two percent of totalelectrical generation (compared to twenty-three percent in 1980). 37The bulk of today’s renewable energy installations, however, are on thescale of single houses, farms, offices and factories, and have been built not aspart of a state program but entirely on individual initiative. Many observerswho travel the country remark that although these activities are concealedfrom governments’ view by their dispersion, small individual scale, and diversity,they add up to a quiet energy revolution that is reshaping the Americanenergy system with unprecedented speed.A regional case studyNew England offers a particularly informative snapshot of recent nationaltrends in efficiency and renewables. 38 The region is highly reliant on oil. In