Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Textbook Navigating The Energy Maze The Transition To A Sustainable Future 1St Edition Roger James Kuhns Ebook All Chapter PDF
Textbook Navigating The Energy Maze The Transition To A Sustainable Future 1St Edition Roger James Kuhns Ebook All Chapter PDF
https://textbookfull.com/product/towards-a-just-and-ecologically-
sustainable-peace-navigating-the-great-transition-joseph-
camilleri/
https://textbookfull.com/product/bioeconomy-shaping-the-
transition-to-a-sustainable-biobased-economy-1st-edition-iris-
lewandowski/
https://textbookfull.com/product/accelerating-the-transition-
to-a-100-renewable-energy-era-tanay-sidki-uyar/
https://textbookfull.com/product/chemistry-the-key-to-our-
sustainable-future-1st-edition-klaudia-czanikova/
Navigating The Patent System Learn the WHYS of the
fundamentals and strategies to protect your invention
1st Edition James C. Yang
https://textbookfull.com/product/navigating-the-patent-system-
learn-the-whys-of-the-fundamentals-and-strategies-to-protect-
your-invention-1st-edition-james-c-yang/
https://textbookfull.com/product/energy-recovery-technology-for-
building-applications-green-innovation-towards-a-sustainable-
future-mardiana-idayu-ahmad/
https://textbookfull.com/product/energy-transition-2nd-edition-
bertrand-cassoret/
https://textbookfull.com/product/sustainable-buildings-and-
infrastructure-paths-to-the-future-2nd-annie-pearce/
https://textbookfull.com/product/climate-action-and-hydrogen-
economy-technologies-shaping-the-energy-transition-green-energy-
and-technology-1st-edition-malti-goel/
Roger James Kuhns · George H. Shaw
Navigating
the Energy
Maze
The Transition to a Sustainable Future
Navigating the Energy Maze
Roger James Kuhns · George H. Shaw
How does our nation as a leader of the global community navigate the near future to
attain a balanced and sustainable national society? A major part of the answer is the
solution to today’s dependence on fossil-based energy. The authors, George Shaw
and Roger Kuhns, propose a sustainable energy path that moves us forward and
leaves behind the fossil fuel-based economy that we have built our society around.
Local, regional, and national experience, long-term records, and extensive and
detailed scientific research clearly and irrefutably point to this societal reliance on
fossil fuels as our Achilles heel. This is our economic disadvantage and weakness
and the source of damaging social and environmental degradation to our society and
our planet. A Comprehensive Sustainable Energy Policy that guides our nation
through the current energy maze and anchors a path to a sustainable energy future is
the core message of the authors in this far-reaching and vitally important work.
By developing and presenting a series of eight interrelated sustainable energy
legislative policy acts, the authors formulate a defensible approach to moving from
today’s unbalanced and dangerous fossil-dominated energy economy to a near
future that makes sustainable living a reachable goal for the country. With detailed
and readable chapters covering all elements of the fossil energy economy and it’s
impacts, as well as the necessary renewable energy components, technology,
impacts, and political support critical to the non-fossil energy solution path,
Navigating the Energy Maze teaches, enlightens, and illuminates the critical path to
reaching our near-future sustainable energy policy national goal.
v
Preface
vii
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the colleagues and elected officials they’ve worked
with or with whom they have discussed energy policy. We’ve had long-standing
discussions with the former Congressman Steve Kagen (D-W18, 2007–2010) and
Congressman Al Swift (D-WA2, 1979–1995) and insightful discussions with
Congressman Joe Courtney (D-CT2, 2007–present). We would like to thank the
members of Citizens’ Climate Lobby, especially Mark Reynolds, Daniel Richter,
Jay Butera, and the many volunteers working toward a carbon-pricing act. Thanks
also go to Neal Gruber, Michael Roach, and John Jimison for their energy grid
insights; the late Oliver Warin, former president of mineral exploration with BHP;
and Eric Cheney, professor emeritus of geology at the University of Washington, for
his many discussions about natural resources, economics, energy, and sustainability.
We would also like to thank all the scientists, sustainability-far-sighted policymak-
ers and lawmakers, private sector innovators, and concerned citizens that are work-
ing toward a clean energy economy and a sustainable society.
ix
Contents
xi
xii Contents
Appendices������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 165
Index���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 205
List of Abbreviations
xv
xvi List of Abbreviations
xvii
xviii List of Figures
xxi
Chapter 1
The Energy Maze
Abstract The United States must have a comprehensive sustainable energy policy
in order to exit the carbon economy energy maze into a clean energy economy and
sustainable society. Sustainability is a foundational concept for this policy and illus-
trates how energy policy touches all aspects of the environment, our communities,
and the economy. Formulating a national energy policy is truly difficult in light of
the wide variety of opinions about energy security, opinions on science, concerns
for the environment, and an understanding of how it must be connected to sound
economics and quality of life for Americans. To this end we examine a strategic
focus, traditional grids and microgrids, existing energy-related federal laws, and
energy-related subsidies as a backdrop for the following chapters.
1.1 Introduction
We live in an energy maze. This maze not only puzzles us at times as we attempt
to move towards profitable clean enterprises, but it seems there are designs to this
maze bent on keeping American society from succeeding in navigating the pas-
sageways to a sustainable society. It is our intent here to help lawmakers, industry
practitioners, academics, business owners, and individuals discover a path through
the maze. The destination is a clean energy economy. The first steps include
understanding, legislating, and enacting a comprehensive sustainable energy pol-
icy. We propose eight fundamental pieces of legislation to accomplish this goal.
This policy is envisioned to work in harmony with the private sector as it
innovates greater efficiencies and cleaner electric energy generation for all our
needs and does so profitably.
A comprehensive sustainable energy policy is a kingpin to a sustainable society.
Think of electric personal vehicles and public transportation. Envision electrifying
all of our consumption points so that we eliminate the burning of natural resources
for electricity generation. Imagine the dominant use of renewable sources for our
electricity. Consider the end of deleterious impacts to our communities and environ-
ment from coal mining and petroleum recovery. Fossil fuels have brought us to this
point in our civilization, but it is now time for a transition, a paradigm shift to the
next form of energy – clean energy. We have seen the transition from wood to coal
to petroleum to natural gas, each event spanning decades. But we have been in the
transition from a carbon economy to a clean energy economy for more than a
decade, and this can now be accelerated. And imagine reducing the impacts from
global warming and climate change. It might seem like a utopia, but it really would
be an economically balanced, equitable, and healthy society – a more sustainable
society. And one of the first steps towards that is a comprehensive sustainable energy
policy on the national level.
The connections between energy supplies, living standards-quality of life, popu-
lation, foreign policy, economic productivity, environmental quality, and sustain-
ability are the focus of state and national policy and community strategies. During
the last few decades, we have been reminded of this when energy prices have
“spiked” or supplies have seemed precarious due to various international events. We
have also been faced with the unintended consequences of fossil fuel energy pro-
duction and use on both local and global scales: oil spills, refinery fires, graphic
pictures of coal mining disasters, acid rain precipitation, wars, conflicts over trans-
portation and pipelines, environmental threats from fracking and mining, and the
continuing record of climate change impacts and costs to our society. We under-
stand the market forces that are propelled by need and innovation and how these
forces are often fortified through government and laws that fund and support such
factors. We understand that industry is not good at self-regulation, and this is par-
ticularly true in areas of pollution and especially with respect to energy-related
emissions. We understand that market transparency and diversity protect consum-
ers. For all of these reasons, we see the need for a comprehensive sustainable energy
policy for our nation. This policy reaches out to our government to lead, not follow,
in our quest towards a sustainable society and a clean energy economy.
Numerous specialists, commentators, and political figures, even industry repre-
sentatives, have speculated and warned of the energy-related difficulties we are
experiencing and might expect in the next several decades in accommodating our
increasing need for energy resources. Our long-standing dependence on fossil fuels
for most of our energy needs and the direct and emerging impacts of fossil fuel use
on quality of life are key reasons for developing a sustainably oriented long-term
energy policy. A few have tried to outline strategies that could address these prob-
lems, but almost invariably such efforts have been either narrowly focused on just a
part of the overall issue, or they have been driven by a desire to promote a particular
agenda or have even been the offspring of ideology. Just as there has never been a
1.2 Sustainability 3
truly comprehensive energy policy for the United States, and we believe such a
policy is possible, no one has yet proposed a way to navigate the next half-century
with any hope of arriving at an energy supply system that is secure, economically
viable, and sustainable while delivering the services that we expect. Our hope with
this book is to provide just such a legislative policy road map, one which addresses
the needs of consumers and the economy, preserves the integrity of the environment
at all scales, is physically practical, and arrives at an energy system that is sustain-
able. In other words, we are proposing an integrated and sustainably focused
national policy and legislative guide.
1.2 Sustainability
This graphic (Fig. 1.1) illustrates the way in which an environment can host a
community within which economic activity occurs. In the broadest sense, this could
apply to nonhuman “communities” of interacting organisms, such as natural eco-
systems. In the case of human communities, the environment encompasses all of the
surroundings essential to the human community including the organic and inorganic
and natural and constructed components. One could also define the boundaries to
focus on particular communities of humans. In this book we are looking at the com-
munities in the United States. This does not mean, of course, that the environment
under consideration is restricted to the lands of the United States. This would not be
either sensible or useful. We could have chosen larger bounds for our community,
such as all of North America. However, our restriction is at least partly based on a
desire for political expedience in the United States. Trying to formulate policies for
the politically diverse global community is beyond the scope of this book.
Note that sustainability does not mean unchanging. It means that we as a people
can adapt to change and thrive for the long term by providing for our needs through
responsible, renewable, and repurposed practices: sustainable practices. This is
fundamental to our proposed energy policy because it works with the centers of
power and the public to adapt to changes in terms of fuel types, sources, uses, and
diversity through policy formulation.
important, and how this may change with time colors the nature of any comprehensive
energy policy initiative. One can overlay the perspective of sustainability on these
five factors. This is perhaps most obvious in the joint concerns with economic and
environmental issues. But, just as community encompasses economics, it also
incorporates issues of distribution of power and security. Sustainability focuses our
attention in a slightly different way, which can help with policy formulation, espe-
cially for the long term. Our proposals below will no doubt find more favor with
some than with others, and we expect everyone will find some aspect to dislike. In
fact, we don’t completely agree with each other on all matters, but our result is an
honest effort to arrive at a balanced strategy. We do believe that it is possible to
formulate a balanced strategy that is practical and effective and gets us to a sustain-
able future without serious community, economic, or environmental harm.
In order to create our strategy, we have made several assumptions based on sci-
entific data that can reasonably be projected into the future. The four most important
of these address:
1. Fossil fuel reserves and consumption rates
2. Temporal changes in the components of climate
3. Specifics of energy uses, transport, storage, and needs by various sectors
4. Economic limiters and incentives, such as a carbon fee or tax, and various subsi-
dies affecting energy supplies and use
The first has given rise to the concept of peak oil, a term which seems to be mis-
used almost as much as it is properly used. Careful determination of the fossil fuel
reserve base is vital in formulating various alternatives for sustaining essential
energy services in the short- to midterm while setting the stage for the long term.
The second is global warming, which has been the subject of considerable partisan
exchange. While we very much agree with the vast majority of climate scientists on
this issue, we are aware of the scientific uncertainties involved in making projec-
tions on the future state of something as large and complex as Earth’s surface envi-
ronment. We are also sensitive to the idea that economic factors must be part of any
discussion concerning approaches to climate change and how it impacts peoples’
quality of life.
We believe that a truly conservative approach avoids exacerbating existing
impacts and probable future difficulties that are widely recognized in the most
advanced global warming models. Additionally, many of these measured and mod-
eled difficulties are extremely harmful to our current functioning economies.
Therefore, addressing them while limiting excessive costs is crucial for sustainable
policy viability and incorporating bipartisan and public endorsement. Within these
subjects we offer reasonable carbon fee and dividend solutions that put a price on
carbon and act as a catalyst for innovation towards a sustainable energy economy.
The element of the third factor, energy needs, can be most cogently summed up
as the requirement for liquid fuels for transportation (30% of US consumption);
liquid, gas, and solid fuels for electricity generation; and space heating for build-
ings (42% US consumption) and industry (25% US consumption). In these three
principal areas of energy consumption, the transportation fuel requirement is the
6 1 The Energy Maze
In preparing our strategy, we focus on the United States. We do this for several rea-
sons. First, because the United States is the world’s major energy consumer, espe-
cially in terms of per capita energy use. Reductions in consumption made here can
have a significant impact on overall global energy consumption. Even though China
has now passed the United States in terms of total energy consumption and carbon
emissions, their lower per capita consumption, political system, and large population
provide less latitude for change. The demand by the Chinese people for improved liv-
ing standards drives an increasing demand for energy. The Chinese have exceeded the
United States in installing renewable energy systems to meet demand.
The accumulated wealth and technological capital in the United States provide
avenues for innovation and advantages in developing new ways of satisfying energy
needs. These advantages give us the flexibility to experiment without excessive risk
to our energy economy and infrastructure. We see this approach yielding consider-
able economic, technological, quality of life, and environmental dividends. Another
reason to focus on the United States is because we think that such a capitalistic and
social democratic framework is especially well suited to adaptive responses to mea-
sured and perceived trends. In short, if we can’t do it in the United States, there may
be little chance for the global community. However, it is also fair to say that other
highly developed Western countries have to some extent already adopted practices
we can emulate and apply to our more heterogeneous, complex, and demanding
society. In sustainability terms, our “community” of interest is the United States.
Included in the “environment” are not only the nonhuman global environment but
also the human communities outside the United States. Interactions with this larger
environment will certainly be affected by our actions and vice versa.
1.5 Traditional Grids and Microgrids 7
Some readers will note that what we are calling for is government action when
they think that what we should be doing is simply to follow the free-market eco-
nomic model. But relying on the free market without government guidance has not
worked towards establishing a national sustainable energy policy anywhere in the
world. Therefore, we think a careful reading will reveal our reasons for going in a
legislative direction. Such critics should keep in mind that the “invisible hand” of
Adam Smith does not require us to proceed with a blindfold glued to our faces.
“Policy” implies government action and consideration of our future state as a whole.
This clearly implies a large degree of planning for that future. We believe that our
suggestions, while promulgated by government, are consistent with and improved
by the operation of competitive market forces and free development of innovative
solutions to important problems. It is our belief that government should set out suit-
able, long-range ground rules and allow innovators, investors, and the public at
large to carry us forward.
Much of what we propose is not new. Some of these ideas have been explicitly
proposed by others, or at least hinted at. We do not want to reinvent the wheel but to
draw upon those insightful and innovative approaches to help solve the US energy
policy problem. That being said, to our knowledge, some ideas have not been pro-
posed before. What we believe most that separates our approach from previous
efforts is the attempt to develop a comprehensive, though not overly complex, set of
integrated proposals that addresses what promises to be the most important transi-
tion in more than a century: the shift from a nonrenewable fossil fuel-based econ-
omy to a sustainable energy economy. Although this is our ultimate target, it is
important to understand that this cannot be done without continued use of fossil
fuels in selected sectors for at least the next generation. This is predicated on the
desire to have the United States and global economies remain viable and that they
improve the quality of peoples’ lives. We are convinced that we can negotiate the
energy maze in which we find ourselves and arrive at our desired goal without dan-
gerous alterations of the environment or disruptions to socioeconomic life.
One cautionary note: even if our proposals succeed, they will be of little use
unless human populations stabilize and preferably decline somewhat to levels rea-
sonable for a planet of Earth’s dimensions. That the increasing human population is
inconsistent with sustainability is a topic of debate, but continued growth is clearly
unsustainable.
As Edward Abbey well advised, “Be fruitful like human beings, not like
rabbits.”
The existing transmission grid system in the United States, the numerous public
utilities, and the variety of natural resources for energy generation are complex, and
details are beyond the scope of this book. However, an overview of the grid picture,
in particular the importance of the increasing use of microgrids, is important for
8 1 The Energy Maze
understanding the need for new and expanded energy corridors, integration with
transportation, and reliable clean energy supplies to the private, commercial, and
industrial sectors of our society, which are addressed in the following chapters.
An energy grid connects a power source to its service area customers, including
homes, businesses, schools, municipal buildings, and the like. The grid supplies
electricity for everything from appliances and lights to factory machinery. The US
grid network is complex, involving different kV scale transmission lines, and public
and private operators (www.usngcenter.org). The electrical grid system is divided
into interconnected regions and connects power generators, distributers, and users
across the United States (Fig. 1.2).
Traditional grids are broadly connected, such as the grid system for the Eastern
United States, and when they are shut down due to maintenance or system failures,
then the entire region is affected.
A microgrid is a localized, small energy grid that balances the demand for elec-
trical resources with the captive supply to maintain reliable and consistent service
(Fig. 1.3). It includes a group of micro sources and loads that operate as a single
controllable system and provide power and heat to its local area (USDOE 2017;
Lasseter et al. 2002; MicroGrid Institute 2017; Roach 2014).
Fig. 1.2 Transmission grids and interconnection regions of the United States (information com-
piled from the FEMA 2016, and NAERC 2017)
1.5 Traditional Grids and Microgrids 9
Fig. 1.3 Comparison of microgrids and traditional grids. On the left are four examples of
microgrids, including (1) smart cities and their neighborhoods functioning as stand-alone or inde-
pendently operational and linked to the traditional grid, (2) business parks linked to stand-alone
microgrids, (3) rural or small town situations, and (4) single building stand-alone microgrids
referred to as nanogrids
2015 and 2020. Worldwide there are nearly 1440 microgrids. In the United States,
there are over 105.2 GW of installed microgrid power capacity.
The microgrid system also considers the built and fleet environments in the total
picture. The systems operate with maximized system intelligence and optimization
to ensure bidirectional power flow, whether from the power provider or the local
consumer’s on-site generation, that is to say the consumer functions more as a part-
ner. Because of this approach, microgrids have the capacity to “island” electrical
loads for individual customers, as well as interact with larger traditional or “legacy”
grid systems and investor-owned utilities (IOUs).
The US government is on the cusp of developing National Clean Power Standards
(NCPS) as part of energy policy, particularly in the development of new energy cor-
ridors. Renewable energy applications are also addressed in the Energy Policy Act
of 2005 to the extent that the Secretary of Energy and the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission address transmission capacity issues as part of a national interest elec-
tric transmission corridor (NETC) and for the issuance of permits for interstate
transmission lines.
There are five basic categories for microgrids, according to the Microgrid
Institute (2017):
1. Off-grid microgrids. Islanding of local power grids apart from the utility
network
2. Campus microgrids. Independent of, but connected to local utility networks
3. Community microgrids. Integrated into local utility networks to provide support
or emergency power for vital community assets
4. District energy microgrids. Independent systems providing electricity and ther-
mal energy for heating and cooling to multiple facilities
5. Nanogrids. A single building or stand-alone energy system operating indepen-
dently of the local utility networks
The microgrid power paradigm considers a number of differences as compared
to the traditional utility. Traditional utilities rely on established engineering designs,
unidirectional power flow, and overdesign of generation and transmissions to cover
margins and are typically incremental or “silo-oriented” when it comes to innova-
tion application. In traditional utilities the consumers typically have little or no
choice in regard to the source of power or the impacts to the larger environment,
except for green power purchase plans.
Microgrids are becoming increasingly cost-effective. The levelized cost of energy
(LCOE) of microgrids is dropping to meet traditional grid operators, thus offering a
choice to consumers. In addition to cost comparatives, microgrids can add a level of
dependability, stand-alone choices, and a total value aspect that will well suit neigh-
borhoods and business parks within cities, to city scale, and those living in rural
environments. Microgrids integrated with smart buildings, sustainable building prac-
tices, virtual power plants, and electrical transportation systems reside on the near
horizon of many cities. This whole of networked neighborhoods, business parks, and
cities as nodes envelopes the concept of nodal architecture. This stand-alone potential
of microgrids also adds a layer of security, in that the microgrid can be isolated from
1.5 Traditional Grids and Microgrids 11
Fig. 1.4 Principal regions of independent system operators (ISOs) and regional transmission
organizations (RTOs) (Map from FERC 2016)
12 1 The Energy Maze
States such as California (CAISO) and Texas (ERCOT) and regions including
the Midcontinent (MISO) and New England (ISO-NE) are currently operating in
the United States This approach can also subvert the diversification of renewable
clean energy by promoting nuclear power as a low-carbon energy source through
subsidies, remembering that the nuclear industry is subsidized more than any other
energy generation type and has waste disposal risks.
Barriers exist to the installation of microgrids, whether independent or inter-
connected with traditional grids. These barriers include (1) infrastructure restric-
tions, (2) market inconsistencies, (3) financial and economic barriers, and (4)
technical barriers.
Additionally, reassessment of power purchase agreement (PPA) coverage and
structure may be needed to fully embrace the integration of microgrids with tradi-
tional grids, different power generation sources, and sound economics. The PPA is
an agreement detailing technical and financial aspects of a project and lock in the
purchase of power by an energy purchaser from a power-generating facility over
long periods (10–15 years) of time. In the PPA all commercial terms for the sale of
electricity are detailed. It is also within this agreement that revenues and credits, as
well as secondary purchases of power, are established. PPAs fall under the regula-
tory authority of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and, to some
extent, state public service commissions. As part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005,
FERC oversees the application of PPAs to various energy generation facilities and
can also assist with financing. PPAs are used industry wide and include addressing
the design, permitting, financing, and installing renewable energy sources.
Perhaps the greatest motivator for microgrids is the strong move towards net-
zero systems. In microgrid systems, the net-zero energy distribution network
operator system (NZE-DNO) balances its energy generation and use such that it
is net zero.
Innovative technology is a driving force in microgrids, and optimization of oper-
ations through the advanced distribution management system (ADMS) and transac-
tive energy markets creates more choices for the stakeholder. Growth is seen as a
sustainable steady-state system based on ultrahigh energy efficiency. Microgrids
also seek greater community involvement as stakeholders and partners. Microgrids
managed by Clean Energy Resource Teams, or CERTs, are a move to better connect
clean energy resource diversity and increased renewable energy use to individuals
and their communities. This will become more critical to allowing innovation and
customer service choices as renewables gain dominance in US electrical
generation.
— Iltaa. Herroilla on, nään mä, makea illallinen. Tulin tänne erästä
tuttavaa tapaamaan, mutta kun en häntä tavannut, ei minulla olisi
mitään vastaan, jos sallitte minun istua samaan pöytään.
— Kyllä ymmärrän.
*****
*****