Alternative energy

Offshore wind turbines near Copenhagen

Alternative energy is an umbrella term that refers to any source of usable energy intended to supplement or replace fuel sources without the undesired consequences of the replaced fuels. Typically, official uses of the term, such as qualification for governmental incentives, exclude fossil fuels and nuclear energy whose undesired consequences are climate change and difficulties of radioactive waste disposal. Over the years, the nature of what were regarded alternative energy sources has changed considerably, and today because of the variety of energy choices and differing goals of their advocates, defining some energy types as "alternative" is highly controversial.

The term "alternative" presupposes a set of undesirable energy technologies against which "alternative energies" are opposed. As such, the list of energy technologies excluded is an indicator of what problems that the alternative technologies are intended to address. Controversies regarding dominant forms of energy and their alternatives have a long history.

History

Historians of economies have studied the key transitions to alternative energies and regard the transitions as pivotal in bringing about significant economic change. Prior to shift to an alternative energy, supplies of the dominant energy type became erratic, accompanied by rapid increases in energy prices.

Coal as an alternative to wood

Historian Norman F. Cantor describes how in the late medieval period, coal was the new alternative fuel to save the society from overuse of the dominant fuel, wood:

"Europeans had lived in the midst of vast forests throughout the earlier medieval centuries. After 1250 they became so skilled at deforestation that by 1500 AD they were running short of wood for heating and cooking... By 1500 Europe was on the edge of a fuel and nutritional disaster, [from] which it was saved in the sixteenth century only by the burning of soft coal and the cultivation of potatoes and maize."

Petroleum as an alternative to whale oil

Whale oil was the dominant form of lubrication and fuel for lamps in the early 19th century, but by mid century and the depletion of the whale stocks, whale oil prices were skyrocketing and could not compete with the newly discovered source of cheap petroleum from Pennsylvania in 1859.

Alcohol as alternative to fossil fuels

Main article: Ethanol fuel

In 1917, Alexander Graham Bell advocated ethanol alcohol from corn and other foodstuffs as an alternative to coal and oil which he stated we were in measurable distance of reaching the end of supplies. For Bell, the problem requiring an alternative was lack of renewability of orthodox energy sources.

Since the 1970s, Brazil has had an ethanol fuel program which has allowed the country to become the world's second largest producer of ethanol (after the United States) and the world's largest exporter. Brazil’s ethanol fuel program uses modern equipment and cheap sugar cane as feedstock, and the residual cane-waste (bagasse) is used to process heat and power. There are no longer light vehicles in Brazil running on pure gasoline. By the end of 2008 there were 35,000 filling stations throughout Brazil with at least one ethanol pump.

Cellulosic ethanol can be produced from a diverse array of feedstocks, and involves the use of the whole crop. This new approach should increase yields and reduce the carbon footprint because the amount of energy-intensive fertilisers and fungicides will remain the same, for a higher output of usable material. As of 2008, there are nine commercial cellulosic ethanol plants which are either operating, or under construction, in the United States.

Coal gasification as alternative to expensive petroleum

In the 1970s, President Jimmy Carter's administration advocated coal gasification as an alternative to expensive imported oil. The program, including the Synthetic Fuels Corporation was scrapped when petroleum prices plummeted in the 1980s.

Recent forms

Ecologically friendly alternatives

Renewable energy sources such as biomass are sometimes regarded as an alternative to ecologically harmful fossil fuels. Renewables are not inherently alternative energies for this purpose. For example, the Netherlands, once leader in use of palm oil as a biofuel, has suspended all subsidies for palm oil due to the scientific evidence that their use "may sometimes create more environmental harm than fossil fuels". The Netherlands government and environmental groups are trying to trace the origins of imported palm oil, to certify which operations produce the oil in a responsible manner.

Zero carbon alternatives

From the perspective of the climate change issue, low carbon economy fuels are alternative sources that eliminate carbon and methane emissions. For this goal, renewable or sustainable energies such as geothermal, biomass combustion, and hydrogen derived from natural gas do not present viable alternatives because they do not aggressively confront global net carbon increases. Both nuclear power and carbon capture and storage techniques such as clean coal technology are low carbon emission alternative energy technologies but are reviled by other "alternative energy" advocates who argue that these energies do not provide an alternative to harming the environment.

Energy independence alternatives

In Europe, there is a desire to be more independent of Russia supplied energy, and in the US, there is a desire to be independent from petroleum produced in countries that often are hostile to US interests. From this perspective, domestic natural gas, a fossil fuel, is an alternative energy to use of foreign petroleum as a transportation fuel. This is the point of view of T. Boone Pickens as described in his Pickens plan for energy independence, and is reflected in legislation for the state of Florida. Although natural gas is not renewable, it is regarded as an alternative energy from this point of view.

Alternative energy in transportation

Due to steadily rising gas prices in 2008 with the US national average price per gallon of regular unleaded gas rising above $4.00 at one point,, there has been a steady movement towards developing higher fuel efficiency and more alternative fuel vehicles for consumers. In response, many smaller companies have rapidly increased research and development into radically different ways of powering consumer vehicles. While Hybrid Vehicles (such as Toyota's Prius) and Electric Vehicles (such as the Tesla Roadster) are commercially available, other technologies such as fuel cells, flywheels, and ultracapacitors are starting to emerge as viable options.

See also

• Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas (ASPO)
• Alternative Energy Index
• Energy development
• Energy storage topics
  • Alternative fuel vehicle
  • Fuel cell
  • Fischer-Tropsch process
  • Hydrogen economy
• Green electricity in Australia
• Green energy
• Greasestock
• Renewable energy
• Sustainable energy