Power Hungry.

• Author: Jones, Theresa Chin
• Position: Book review

The BP oil well disaster has us all talking about oil and the environment again, but before we pontificate, we need to add to our store of knowledge. Power Hungry by Robert Bryce offers solid information, numbers, tables, and charts with little hyperbole. Whether or not you support the use of fossil fuels, whether you want to return to a pre-industrial "Eden" or to fast-forward to all solar-wind-bio renewables, you still must cope with the basic physics of energy and power. Bryce provides some "nutrition" information to those who would ban food to combat obesity. His points will hold until technological advances in electricity storage, solar cell efficiency, and bio production change the cost/benefit balance between the different energy forms. The real problem is not lack of energy--we get plenty from the sun, tides, and winds--but the need for power that we can use to generate electricity, move vehicles, and manufacture goods.

Bryce argues that policies based on uneasiness caused by guilt, fear, and ignorance will not solve our energy needs or allow us to maintain current standards of living while drastically cutting greenhouse gas production. He offers a wealth of facts to counter myths that many have accepted as proven science.

Myth: Wind and solar are "green."

Reality: A nature conservancy 2009 study, Energy Sprawl or Energy Efficiency, noted corn ethanol requires 144 times as much land as nuclear; wind 30 times; solar photovoltaic 15 times.

Myth: Wind power reduces CO2 emissions and reduces the need for natural gas.

Reality: In the U.S. wind operates 36% of the time; coal plant utilization is 70%. 100 MW of wind generation requires 100 MW of gas generation backup. In 2009, a Canadian engineer observed that the on/off cycling of gas-fired generators to back up wind power resulted in more gas consumption than if there were no wind turbines.

Myth: Denmark provides an energy model for the United States.

Reality: Although at the beginning of 2007, wind power accounted for 13.4% of all electricity generated in Denmark, coal consumption did not change. For example, in 2006 the Danish grid consumed 50% more coal-fired electricity than it did in 2005 because of the need for backup for wind. Despite its efforts, Denmark is more reliant on oil as percentage of primary energy than the U.S. (i.e. in 2007, 51% of primary energy from oil versus 40% from the U.S.). A 2009 Danish Center for Political Studies analysis said that Denmark's wind industry...