As an engineer, you know we have many kilowatts per home coming in via solar, waiting for some engineer to produce more efficient and cheaper PVs by half an order of magnitude, which ain't much considering what the chip foundries have done with Moore's Law (sure, that deals also with complexity, but it also deals with high volume production techniques). South Dakota has enough wind power to run the US if they were dumb enough to cover the state. My small turbines have enough for what we're doing, by itself, by being more intelligent in selecting appliances. 50% of energy use is space heating, and the building design makes that more efficient.
The point is we can improve matters. If we focus national efforts on increasing volume, efficiency and new technologies, dramatic things can happen. Keep drilling, but only an idiot would ignore the fact that as much energy independence can be gained from technology than from old-style non-renewables.
It doesn't have to be much. A 20% improvement reduces dependence on our enemy tremendously. California did 16% immediately during their crisis, and is still 10%, in spite of high tech growth.
It doesn't have to reduce our standard of living. As engineers, you and I should believe technology can solve problems that earlier generations thought were insoluable. At least I do. |
