creativforce

Stick with Gold and the Oil Stocks

Energy is the most crucial part of the infrastructure that has been ignored.

Here's a scenario that keeps running through my mind. Imagine the great Northeast Blackout of 2003 happening in January when the temperature is hovering below zero. Imagine it lasts two days instead of one. How many of the 55 million people affected have backup generators or adequate fireplaces? How much violence would result in major cities as backup generators "change hands"? What would the cost be for frozen plumbing? When frozen plumbing thaws it can literally destroy a house ... how many homes would be lost? How many accidental fires would start as people try to stay warm? What about the riots as refugees overwhelm warm-up centers? How many people would die of carbon monoxide poisoning? How many people would freeze to death?

It's a pretty easy scenario to imagine, since a catastrophic blackout has already happened in the summer. Our antiquated, inefficient power grid is run by local monopolies that have absolutely no financial incentive to change. Smart grid initiatives are a joke when our tax dollars are going to dumb monopolies.

The solution to this danger is simple and it solves a lot of problems at once--reduces dependence on foreign oil, reduces green house gas emissions, reduces air pollution, reduces overall energy consumption by 30 to 40 percent, creates a dynamic new green business.

Home fuel cells running on natural gas with battery backup systems.

Deregulate the monopolies. Use incentives to create a consumer market for power generation. In a consumer market, gas powered fuel cells that provide heat and electricity would be no more expensive than a furnace and water heater is today. Over a 20 year period most homes need to replace these appliances anyway. Fuel cells like to run at a constant speed, so battery systems would handle peak loads, excess could be sold back to a nationalized grid. Home energy production is 30 to 40 percent more efficient than our current system so even though it would run on NG the CO2 would be greatly diminished. A battery system with enough capacity to handle summer air conditioning would get a home through a day or two running the furnace blower if the NG pipeline is disrupted. Cheap back up tanks of LP could substitute.

The technology is here now. These systems are already on the market in Japan. It won't happen unless we can develop the political willpower to reorganize the local power companies. With deregulation there would be a free for all of capitalism developing lots of better ideas.

We would all be richer, safer, and healthier for it.