Tariq Nelson

Many people think that with gas prices lowering, it will weaken our resolve to go forward with alternative fuels as it did in the late 1970’s. One difference is that this time, there is a President entering the White House that is committed to alternative energy sources (unlike Reagan) and to freeing us from dependence on foreign oil. Had McCain been the President-elect, the fears of losing momentum may be justified.

Tumbling gas-pump prices make motorists smile, but not Peter Vanderzee. They remind him how falling oil costs sank his effort to unshackle the United States from Middle East oil two decades ago.

As project manager for two large alternative-energy projects under President Carter’s US Synthetic Fuels program launched in 1980, Mr. Vanderzee was pushing his team to make methanol from coal for auto fuel.

But in 1985, just as his technology was starting to produce results, oil plummeted. In today’s inflation-adjusted dollars, oil went from $53 a barrel to $28, with pump prices falling from $2.20 a gallon to $1.60. The next year, President Reagan pulled the plug on the US Synfuels program.

“It was a huge letdown,” Vanderzee recalls. “We had the technology ready to go. But Mideast crude oil suppliers decided the US was serious about our program and just didn’t want the US making alternatives to oil. So they pumped more oil and lowered the price.”

[...]

Falling oil prices “will make the problem harder and slower to deal with,” says the cofounder of the Rocky Mountain Institute, an energy think tank. But because the last few years have seen “the rise of such a vibrant efficiency and renewable sector … this time it’s not going away. We can take a hit and still bounce back.”

[...]“When oil prices dropped, it killed that push to ethanol – and you could have that happen again,” says Chad Hart, an agricultural economist at Iowa State University. But there is a safety net this time, he and others agree: the US Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). Today the US produces 9 billion gallons of ethanol from corn but under RFS is mandated to make 36 billion gallons by 2022.

That demand, most of which must by law come from cellulosic ethanol and advanced biofuels, is aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving US energy security. The RFS currently pays gasoline blenders a hefty 51-cents-per-gallon subsidy for every gallon of ethanol they use.

“Things are fundamentally different than they were in the 1980s, especially with respect to fuels policy,” says Bob Dinneen, president of the Renewable Fuels Association. “We now have the RFS in place. So no matter what happens, we have a foundation, a safety net.”

Meanwhile, Swiss and Chinese scientists are developing improved solar technology

Researchers in China and Switzerland are reporting the highest efficiency ever for a promising new genre of solar cells, which many scientists think offer the best hope for making the sun a mainstay source of energy in the future. The photovoltaic cells, called dye-sensitized solar cells or Grätzel cells, could expand the use of solar energy for homes, businesses, and other practical applications, the scientists say. Their study is scheduled for the November 13 issue of ACS’ The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, a weekly publication.

The research, conducted by Peng Wang and colleagues — who include Michael Grätzel, inventor of the first dye-sensitized solar cell — involves photovoltaic cells composed of titanium dioxide and powerful light-harvesting dyes. Grätzel cells are less expensive than standard silicon-based solar cells and can be made into flexible sheets or coatings. Although promising, Grätzel cells until now have had serious drawbacks. They have not been efficient enough at converting light into electricity. And their performance dropped after relatively short exposures to sunlight.

If this technology works, the light weight could pave the way for “solar cars”

Filed under: Changing World, Practical Solutions