Energy & Environment

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10 April 2008
Solar and Wind Resources Can Fuel the Future

By Lea Terhune
Staff Writer

Washington -- David Sandalow knows energy and the environment. As a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, he writes about both. His 2007 book Freedom from Oil discusses ways the United States can wean itself from oil.

“I think that clean energy is one of the greatest opportunities of our time,” he told international participants in a March “Ask America” webchat.

“Wind power has tremendous potential to generate electricity,” he said, adding that it is a fast-growing power source around the world. “In many places, wind power costs no more than dirtier sources of power. People everywhere can benefit by exploring opportunities for wind power.”

Sun, wind and water are rich resources that the right technologies can turn into electricity. Organic waste, or biomass, likewise may provide fuel that replaces greenhouse gas-emitting fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum.

“I would recommend bringing solar and wind power to every city and village in the nation,” he said in response to a question from Pakistan. “Pakistan can skip over some of the dirty industrial practices of the 20th century and build a modern, 21st century energy infrastructure using decentralized sources of power such as the sun and wind.” He added that multilateral financial institutions should participate accomplishing this.

Developed countries have put the brakes on old energy infrastructure. “In the United States and many other countries, construction of new coal-fired power plants has slowed dramatically because of concerns about global warming. During the decades ahead, the world's energy systems will increasingly come from renewable power,” he said.

He told the group that many U.S. cities have embraced Kyoto Protocol targets independently. “Major U.S.-based companies such as General Electric and Wal-Mart have taken important steps to become part of the solution.”

Sandalow predicted that some form of legislation limiting U.S. greenhouse gas emissions will be enacted by 2009 or 2010 because presidential candidates from both Democratic and Republican parties support it.

He said the clean-energy industry is one of expanding opportunities and encouraged students to consider it for career opportunities. People with many different backgrounds and skills will be needed “to bring clean energy to billions of people around the world,” he said -- engineers, business people, technicians, farmers and political leaders, among others.

“Renewable energy sources produce much less pollution and global warming gases than other sources of energy. For example, substituting solar or wind power for power from fossil fuels is an essential part of the solution to the global warming problem. Renewable energy is especially important for villages without connections to electric grid. For such villages, solar and wind power can often bring electricity cheaper and with much less pollution than fossil fuels,” Sandalow said.

He also discussed technologies for converting waste and methane gas to clean energy.

Sandalow is enthusiastic about plug-in electric cars. He drives one. “We all grew up with cars that use only one fuel -- oil. But it doesn't need to be that way. Technology is available today to produce cars that run on electricity. ... These electric cars are a great way to use renewable energy technologies -- such as solar and wind power -- to power our vehicle fleets.”

In response to questions, he said both China and India have set “aggressive goals” for improving energy efficiency, adding “China will play a central role in the world’s transition to clean energy.” India has “enormous renewable energy resources” which he thinks “will grow very rapidly in the decades ahead.”

Regarding the United States, Sandalow said, “Fortunately the energy efficiency of the U.S. economy has been improving for several decades, but there are still many ways to save money and energy.”

For more information, see the transcript of Sandalow’s webchat.

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