Power Is Everything

Energy use is related to quality of life. Currently, our energy supply is primarily derived from fossil fuels. Fossil fuels release carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, when burned. While there are uncertainties in the models involved in climate science, continued burning of fossil fuels is likely to have negative consequences. With only 1 billion of the earth's inhabitance within the quality zone, another 5 billion people will need to be brought up to this standard. This will require a tremendous amount of energy, from where will this energy supply come? It is not possible to conserve one's way out of this situation. Energy will still be required to meet daily use. One possible energy mix that might meet the needs of the next 100 years, is a 20% fossil fuel, 40% renewables, and 40% nuclear. For this to occur, solar, wind, and nuclear energy will need to grow dramatically. Unfortunately, this is not a trivial task and it also comes with it’s own set of potential unintended consequences. This talk will cover the expectations of the electricity grid. It will cover the potential difficulties involved in increasing the energy supply from nuclear and renewable sources in order to provide for a low carbon future. We cannot move to a low carbon electricity grid based on engineering or economics alone. While these much play an important role, we must also consider the consequences of rebuilding the grid to other species, farming, and quality of life. These are all subjects that tend to be a little more difficult to address than engineering and economics. We will almost certainly need input from scientists, engineers, ecologists, social scientists, and economists to develop a reasonable plan on how to accomplish the transition. No one is going to be happy with every suggestion they come up with, and we will have to accept some tough but pragmatic solutions, but if we do it right, maybe we won’t need to rebuild the entire system after another 100 years.