Kicking the oil habit
p. 20 · Read in the full issue
“WE are once again in love with renewable energy,” said Admiral Ronald J. Hays, but “public indifference” might follow as soon as the current oil crisis subsides. However, Hays hopes that attention to renewable energy might stay.“We are beginning to realise that long-term environmental costs may negate the immediate low monetary cost of conventional fuels,” he said.
Hays is president of Pacific International Centre for High Technology Research (PICHTR) in Honolulu. He told the Pacific 2000: Marine Energy and Mineral Resources Conference in Suva that we can “kick the oil habit”. His alternatives are: • Biomass: “Biofuels technology can transform the energy found in plants and municiple wastes into transportation and
electricity-generating fuel.”
• Geothermal; “The heat of the earth” can provide “clean, reliable, cost-effective energy,” but “developments in science and technology are necessary before this resource can be tapped more fully.” • Solar: “Cost effective solar contributions to a building’s energy requirements can be increased from 40 per cent today to 80 per cent if we put our minds to it.” • Wind: Current well-placed wind turbines competitively produce electricity at about US$O.O9 per kilowatt hour. Better turbines are “on the horizon” that are more efficient and operate in areas with lower average wind speeds. • OTEC: Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion, which uses the temprature differences between the ocean’s surface and depths to drive electricity-producing turbines, is the “most promising of all” ocean energy resources. □