Alternative Energy Comes of Age

Even optimists acknowledge that oil production will peak in the next thirty to fifty years. This realization, along with concern about global warming, has boosted the popularity of alternative sources of power, such as wind, solar, geothermal (the Earth's steam and heat) and biomass (plant matter and animal waste). After more than thirty years on the fringes, renewable energy has now become big business. Major corporations — predominantly European ones — control key segments of the green-energy sector, and even some leading oil companies have been much more vigorous in promoting alternative energy than the Bush administration. "I bet about $150 million of the family fortune that there's money to be made in renewable energy," says Texas multimillionaire Sam Wyly, who made his money on the breakup of the telecom and computer monopolies. "We wouldn't make that size investment with the notion that if we lose it maybe we'll advance a noble cause a small step. We can't afford to do that."

The four main technology groups generating sustainable and environmentally friendly electricity — wind, solar, geothermal and biomass — each harness forces that will exist as long as the planet does: heat, motion and gravity. Solar and geothermal energy use heat from the sun and the Earth's core, respectively. Wind turbines exploit the weather, which is affected by all three forces. Biomass relies on plants and animals that convert the sun's energy. Large-scale hydroelectric power, which produces more than eight percent of the country's electricity, is "renewable," but environmentalists don't consider it green because of the harm that dams inflict on river ecosystems.

Now competitive on the deregulated energy market, wind has become the fastest-growing energy source in the world. Aided by U.S.-government-financed research, and price guarantees in Denmark (where wind generates thirteen percent of electricity) and Germany (2.5 percent), the cost of wind energy has fallen eighty percent since the early 1980s. It now costs four to six cents per kilowatt-hour (enough to run a computer for about ten hours, or a refrigerator for two hours) in ideal locations like the Great Plains and Texas. That's comparable to the price of coal or natural gas.