With energy costs skyrocketing and little prospect of them coming down anytime soon, there is need for a close, hard look at alternative sources.
Bahamians are suffering at the moment from Bahamas Electricity Corporation bills that have doubled in most cases, and filling up that gas tank in the car can put a big dent in the pocketbook. The airline industry, already facing many setbacks, now faces escalating fuel costs that may well put some of them out of business. Many, including Delta and American Airlines, are already cutting out some services.
And overall the price of crude oil is affecting the whole world’s economies and threatening a recession that happened before almost a generation ago.
So what can we do about it?
When such problems arise in our world today there are many “think tanks” round the globe that put their best minds to the task of trying to find solutions.
Recently in Business Week – which we consider one of the best weekly magazines published in America – there was an article in their Science and Technology section drawing attention to what is being done in the heart of the Mojave Desert in California. There solar generators are being run by the heat of the sun and generating enough energy for the needs of a good-sized town.
. As oil has become more expensive, said the article, so have natural gas and coal; the primary fuels for power plants. “At the same time, concerns about global warming have prompted lawmakers – local, state and now the federal government – to unleash incentives for renewable energy. Wind power, solar energy, geothermal and biomass fuels are all benefiting.”
Many years ago we recall reading a fascinating article in the National Geographic Magazine – again one of the world’s best magazines – that dealt with a province in the Pyrenees in Europe that was perfecting a solar energy experiment high up in the mountains.
It was the same method now being used by the American company that is building its facility in the Mojave Desert.
The basis of the development was a series of giant mirror-type reflectors that were positioned into the side of the mountains, all reflecting the rays of the sun into a cave on the other side of the valley where a giant magnifying glass collected the sunrays to drive generators built into the mountain cave. All the giant reflectors or mirrors were controlled by a cornputor to follow the movement of the sun and thereby gain maximum energy all day long.
The American development is virtually the same idea. Giant dish-shaped mirrors measuring 37-feet in diameter track the sun and focus its heat rays “on an oil-barrel-size contraption suspended out in front (of the mirrors), harnessing the heat to drive a 25-kilowatt generator.”
“Plant enough of these solar-dish farms … and they could reduce the need for electric power plants that burn fossil-fuels and emit carbon dioxide,” the Business Week article said.
“If the dishes do well,” said the article, “Stirling Energy’s Systems 4,500-acre farm will usher in new potential for Stirling engines, invented in 1816 by Church of Scotland minister Robert Stirling. His engine is ideal for green energy because it doesn’t burn fuel internally. Instead, its pistons are driven by heating and expanding a reservoir of gas, which then cools for the next cycle. Using the sun’s energy to heat the gas means zero fuel is burned.”
Given our plentiful supply of sunshine throughout the year, this type of solar energy seems an ideal solution for the problems we face in the Bahamas, especially on our remote ”islands where running an electricity generating – plant is not only expensive but has the added difficulty of settlements being so far ‘apart and remote.
Small solar-energy-type plants could be set up to service an area with minimum requirements for fuel and transportation costs.
As to the costs in capital outlay government could approach the G-7 for help. It would be surprising if they would turn down such an opportunity to help reduce global warming and dependency on oil.
We recently talked with a go-ahead young businessman who said the construction industry is way ahead of the energy-saving game. One of the greatest new developments in house construction, for instance, is that an American firm has designed and- manufactured a new solar-panel roof tile that fits together like Lego-blocks. And a house tiled with these panels would be able to run its airconditioners, hot-water heaters and all bath waters without having to use expensive electricity.
Just imagine what that could do for this country.
Source: Editorial, The Tribune
