Why Energy Sense - Intro

We are living in a world that has increased its push to changing its energy resources.  There are concerns about global warming, and continued pushes to reduce carbon emissions.  Electric utilities are being pushed to include a mandatory percentage of its generation from renewable resources, and there is are also mandates for increasing the amounts energy efficiency.  With all this in mind, and an increased level of polarization in our country as to what we should do in terms of future energy resources.  Most of the dialog on these issues is focused on differences of costs, and does not get into some of the more intricate issues of how energy is sourced, and delivered.  These issues can be much more difficult to explain and most of the experts are not exactly the best writers and communicators on the earth.  Their job is to keep the lights on and they go the job every day, do home and don't write books.  It is high time that we get into some information about how we can do the job we do right now, and understand what it will take for any new ideas to be able to provide the same level of usefulness that we are currently getting from electricity.  It is my contention that we are living in a world with one-dimensional ideas that have not been fully vetted to know that they will work.  Here are a list of some basic issues that need to be wrung out in the light of not only an economic discussion, but also a technical discussion so we can discuss energy ideas in the arena of being a plan, and not a thrust of a few ideas that may or may not fit into a workable plan.

Here are the basic assumptions I assume that we are all seeking when it comes to energy:

1. People need to maintain their ability to have shelter from the elements that allows protection from both the elements of weather, and the extremes of temperatures
2. People will continue to need to eat, and will not be growing their own produce or herding their own cattle.  This will require the full range of growing, processing, transporting and retailing food products across the range of food products where some are frozen, canned, dried, and fresh.
3. People will need to be transported from places of residence to places of work, recreation, going on errands, etc. and desire the flexibility to be able to set their own schedules for such transportation
4. Energy usage in modern societies allow for the highest level of economic activity to occur, minimizing periods for food preparation, transportation, gathering fuel, etc.  Less developed counties have situations where people are walking long distances to work, school etc, cooking over their own fires, dealing with needing to buy fresh food every few days because of lack of refrigeration, etc.
5. Energy usage in modern societies allow for incredible levels of inefficiencies due to the development of machinery, farm equipment, road graders, pay loaders etc.  The reduction in manual labor, increased levels of productivity, reduced accidents etc have been astounding.
6. Electric energy usage has provided an incredible range of products that provide work, allow food storage, power heating and cooling delivery systems, and power the wide range of modern computing devices.
7. Energy solutions for providing heat and transportation in colder climates must receive basic scrutiny as to their viability.
8. Changes to energy systems must include considerations of both the viability of the alternatives being considered, and economics of the alternative, including the viability of customers being able to make the necessary purchases
9.  Costs for new energy systems need to include not only the capital costs, operating costs, but also the maintenance costs.  For some systems such as hybrid cars, there is a significant cost of needing to replace battery systems at some point.  This would also be the case for battery energy storage systems that are being considered as the lynch pin to widespread developments of renewable energy systems.
10. The acceptance of new energy systems needs to be considered as a vital element in making any desired transformations.  Pushing for mandates to "get the job done" is likely to be a path that leads to higher costs and unhappy customers.  The termination of producing the Chevy Volt in 2008 was not widely discussed, but is a clear indication that people are either not ready, or they can't afford an electric car that includes an on-board gas powered battery charger.  Forcing the usage of the compact florescent is an example of mandated change, and this has been met with resistance and concerns over issues like unhealthy waves radiating from the lights, dangers of mercury being spilled from a broken bulb.