Willis Parker
Public Policy 1101-A
Prof. Richard Barke
15 February 2005
Policy Position Paper: Draft
I am in agreement with the notion of the United States diligently undertaking a
large-scale research and development program for alternative energy resources in order to
gain energy independence by the year 2030. Of the research that I have done so far on
research for alternative energies like fuel cells and geothermal energy, I have found that
not only have research in these fields shown pertinent progress toward the goal of energy
dependence for the United States, but also it has shown that both these energies are more
economical and far more clean that your average fossil fuel. I also like to iterate the fact
that just being able to explore two separate potential sources of energy mean that the idea
of energy independence I not being looked at from one angle. Research on a broad range
of energy sources means not just an answer to one particular shortage dilemma, but opens
the door to many other problems that face our society today when it comes to energy.
Research on just these two energy sources alone to date has proved to show more than
exceptional results. With a large-scale government research and development program
implemented, the answer of U.S. energy independence can finally be answered.
Taking a look at fuel cells first, stemming from the first water electrolysis
experiments by Schoenbein and Grove in 1834 through 1854, fuels cell have definitely
made there mark on today’s society. As far as fuel cell development goes, one can date
this subject back to the year 1937 when Bauer and Preis were the first conceptualized and
create solid oxide fuel cells. With years to come, research and development due to space
programs (in the 1960s and 1970s), and design tweaks in the 1980s, fuel cells finally
became commercially available in the 1990s. The advantages of fuel cells that are most
intriguing are its high energy conversion (40-60%) and low emission of greenhouse
gases. With attributes like these, fuel cells have been considered to be the alternative
energy source to reduce oil dependency. Not only does fuel cells produce a sufficient
amount of energy, but it also is far cleaner and requires low maintenance. As for the
present day, it just so happens that the company leading in fuel cell development and
research, Fuel Cell Inc., is based in Danbury, Connecticut. With all the research done
recently within this field, the public now enjoy certain innovations like the hybrid
automobile which also plays a role in energy independence as well. With as much time
and effort that was put into this field alone, the United States, not to mention the entire
world, is now possibly on the brink of not only energy independence for separate
countries, but on the brinks of coming up with an answer to the age old question of what
will mankind look toward for future sources of energy if our natural resources can
possibly be depleted one day. If government research and development was implemented
on a large scale then the possibility of an adequate alternative energy source could finally
be realized.
Although geothermal energy is the newer of the two energy sources that I am
discussing, it also shows the potential of leading the United States towards energy
independence. Starting its research and development in 1971 by DOE (the Department of
Energy), geothermal energy is now making the move to provide energy to the western
United States through electricity and heating. As one can already guess, geothermal
power is both renewable and more cost efficient than crude oil or natural gas. Right now,
geothermal energy is only in its incipient stage, but the DOE has set goals of doubling the
amount of geothermal energy facilities by next year, dropping the cost of production by 5
to 7 cents per kWh by 2007, and to supply at least 7million homes and businesses with
either geothermal electricity or heat by 2010 as reported in its annual fiscal report in
2003. Although the development of this technology is quite astounding in itself, its
almost useless if the DOE cannot find consumers to utilize this energy source. In fact,
the DOE funded $455,000 just for the programs that trained and educated the public as
well as developers on the potential and convenience of geothermal energy. In fact, as for
funding the entire development, research, and education of geothermal energy has cost
the DOE millions of dollars in 2003 alone. If ever that much money is invested into an
idea then it’s obvious that some group (namely the DOE) has high expectations for this
somewhat modern energy supply. In all however, one of the main goal, as I may have
mention earlier for geothermal energy, is to lower the cost of production in order to lower
the cost for consumption. From the looks of things the whole plan of the Department of
Energy was to make this energy widely available so that the U.S. would turn to
geothermal energy as an alternative.