Blog #12

I wrote an article that pertained to a similar issue a couple of weeks ago, but I think that it warrants mention and discussion again because it is such a big step for us in order to evolve our energy production from petroleum into alternative sources.
There is a lot of talk about the solar power potential of Nevada and the wind power potential of the Great Plains. But as this article mentions, that is the just the issue, it is only potential right now because the infrastructure to take that energy and deliver it to homes. Transmission is the key word in the article. We can build massive wind fields and huge solar farms, but that energy would go to waste until the ability to pipe that energy from the fields to the power plant and to your home is yet unavailable (at least within reasonable monetary capabilities). With current forms of energy we can bring the energy to a location to provide subscribers but with wind and solar, you can't bring the source somewhere, you have to go where it occurs in enough quantity to use. So how do we do that? And what is the sociological impact of this problem? The simple answer is improve and restructure our energy grid and delivery of alternative energy. But that is not so cheaply achieved and the price of that is going to affect our society as a whole; the answer to the second question. Regardless, the cost of energy is going up, so what do we do? Pay more right now, to move to the openly available alternative energy or pay the cheaper cost of petroleum and watch as it climbs until we cannot afford it anymore. Getting people on board would be a change in the ideology of our nation and how we consume and buy our energy. Our entire economical structure is going to change. We can either facilitate it, or we can sit by idly and wait for it to strike. What would you rather?