We are about to see a classic case of what misdirected policies can do to a build up of momentum. Just when we were seeing an unprecedented momentum in the area of Climate Change and people had started to entertain thoughts of living in a carbon constrained world, politicians do a volte face. Or maybe this is what they are taught to do.
The US Congress is tending towards passing a Cash for Clunkers program which aims at retiring the current old fleet of cars and increasing the average mileage of the transportation sector. They aim at doing this by providing incentives to people to retire their cars, if they are older than a particular age. This is done by providing them with a tax credit for the new car that they buy. This tax would be premised on the difference of mileage between the retired and the new car.
This is how it will work: A matrix is drawn with the type of car and the difference of mileage between the cars are the axes. Depending on your x and y co-ordinates, you will be entitled to a particular tax credit amount.
This is not a new concept that the US Congress is introducing. Germany was the first one to try this. Lets get this straight, there are some good things about this concept. It will reduce the CO2 emissions from the transportation sector, the most difficult one to control in the fight for climate. This will also be the much needed fillip for the US car manufacturers, for this policy will lay the foundation for increased buying by people. It could also be the vanguard for technological change, for you might be tempted to buy the hybrid cars through a nested policy. That will be more than helpful for the hybrid technology, just waiting on the wings to take off!
There are reportedly 2 issues with this scheme, as the German experience has shown:
- This is the costliest way of reducing carbon, per unit of carbon reduced. So, if you look at the amount of carbon dioxide emission reduced by this scheme, the amount comes out to be exorbitantly higher than the ones being demanded by CCS community! It is so high that the cost of doing Air Capture, capturing CO2 from air, looks reasonable enough! This clearly shows the wrangled calculations of the policy makers!
- It also has a national competitiveness angle to it. It was seen in Germany that most of the cars that were bought new were Japanese cars, as opposed to the German cars. And this policy is aimed at providing the must needed boost to the US automobile manufacturers. I am not sure how much will they like old Fords, GMs and Chryslers being dismantled and paving the way for even more Toyotas! At least, the old Fords and GMs and Chryslers were providing some money in the form of maintainence to them!
All in all, I guess this policy needs a second, closer look at! Somehow, I feel the politicians here have come into the Santa Claus mode, where they are bent upon distributing money in the masses! Why not then give it to the hard working researchers like us who are trying to make CCS a reality than do something like this, I often wonder?:P
Ok...next time the US Climate Bill, for sure:)
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Sunday, May 3, 2009
NIMBY and NIMO(c)
No, you are not mistaken! You are on the right blog and to dispel any fears that may have arisen, we are not going to talk about animation movies here:)
NIMBY and NIMO(c) are two of the most common acronyms you would have heard, or are about to hear, as the world shifts towards a cleaner energy portfolio, or tries to pay for their past sins through Carbon Capture and Sequestration(CCS). The terms stand for:
NIMBY: Not In My Back Yard
NIMO(c): Not In My Ocean
You can easily see the connection between the large scale deployment of the renewable sources of energy and the inherent problems due to these concepts. All the major renewable sources, viz. Solar, Wind, Hydro require a distributed foot print. All the solar power, or wind power cannot be harnessed by one behemoth like solar panel, or a wind turbine of the size of the sun, installed in a God-forsaken place and the power be transmitted to your home. They have to be put up in a diffused manner, in your and my backyards. And lets not even start to talk about hydro electricity here. People in the developing world are well versed with the tragedies associated with building a large hydro electric installation.
Add to this the fact that to capture carbon and store it through the process of CCS, you need storage locations and most of these would fall within the boundaries of your home. How comfortable are people with installing a solar panel on their roof is well understood but how comfortable will you be if a wind turbine was put in your backyard or if someday people start putting CO2 in the patch of land in your home will define the pace at which these technolgies develop. The expert opinion is that the government will have to step up and make some regulations here for this is too complex a matter to be left to the public. So much for NIMBY..
There has been talks of doing all these operations off-shore, mostly sequestration of the carbon dioxide captured through CCS. It is reported that the liquid CO2 stays at the botton of the ocean for thousands of years as it is heavier than water. The fear there is that countries might oppose using their maritime boundaries for this purpose. If that is the case, this will again increase the costs of transporting the liquid CO2 over large distances over these boundaries. This is the concept of NIMO and has been promulgated and patented by my research advisor here at MIT:) Just kidding!
While I do believe that government regulations are important to overcome this issue and governments around the world have to rally together to achieve the proliferation of 'green energy', the technology also has to prove its worth to placate the sensitive behavior of people towards them. What do you propose as a plausible solution?
One thing is sure, soon gone will be the days when your energy used to be produced at slimy, dirty, unseen corners of the world and transported to your house at the flick of a switch. In the 'green age' you will have to play a role in its generation and use. How about this level of democratization!:) Thou shalt generate thy energy thyself!:P I hope Shakespeare has not turned in his grave by my misuse of his language here:)
Maybe, when US endeavors to transport the model of democracy in the future, remember Afganistan and Iraq, this concept of energy democracy will play a major role in it:) Maybe, I should start patenting some ideas soon:)
NIMBY and NIMO(c) are two of the most common acronyms you would have heard, or are about to hear, as the world shifts towards a cleaner energy portfolio, or tries to pay for their past sins through Carbon Capture and Sequestration(CCS). The terms stand for:
NIMBY: Not In My Back Yard
NIMO(c): Not In My Ocean
You can easily see the connection between the large scale deployment of the renewable sources of energy and the inherent problems due to these concepts. All the major renewable sources, viz. Solar, Wind, Hydro require a distributed foot print. All the solar power, or wind power cannot be harnessed by one behemoth like solar panel, or a wind turbine of the size of the sun, installed in a God-forsaken place and the power be transmitted to your home. They have to be put up in a diffused manner, in your and my backyards. And lets not even start to talk about hydro electricity here. People in the developing world are well versed with the tragedies associated with building a large hydro electric installation.
Add to this the fact that to capture carbon and store it through the process of CCS, you need storage locations and most of these would fall within the boundaries of your home. How comfortable are people with installing a solar panel on their roof is well understood but how comfortable will you be if a wind turbine was put in your backyard or if someday people start putting CO2 in the patch of land in your home will define the pace at which these technolgies develop. The expert opinion is that the government will have to step up and make some regulations here for this is too complex a matter to be left to the public. So much for NIMBY..
There has been talks of doing all these operations off-shore, mostly sequestration of the carbon dioxide captured through CCS. It is reported that the liquid CO2 stays at the botton of the ocean for thousands of years as it is heavier than water. The fear there is that countries might oppose using their maritime boundaries for this purpose. If that is the case, this will again increase the costs of transporting the liquid CO2 over large distances over these boundaries. This is the concept of NIMO and has been promulgated and patented by my research advisor here at MIT:) Just kidding!
While I do believe that government regulations are important to overcome this issue and governments around the world have to rally together to achieve the proliferation of 'green energy', the technology also has to prove its worth to placate the sensitive behavior of people towards them. What do you propose as a plausible solution?
One thing is sure, soon gone will be the days when your energy used to be produced at slimy, dirty, unseen corners of the world and transported to your house at the flick of a switch. In the 'green age' you will have to play a role in its generation and use. How about this level of democratization!:) Thou shalt generate thy energy thyself!:P I hope Shakespeare has not turned in his grave by my misuse of his language here:)
Maybe, when US endeavors to transport the model of democracy in the future, remember Afganistan and Iraq, this concept of energy democracy will play a major role in it:) Maybe, I should start patenting some ideas soon:)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)