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Monday, October 29, 2012
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Finally, someone else proposes that one size will not fit all in our future energy supply system
How to Decarbonize the U.S. Power Grid
A new proposal by AMO, the thinktank arm of architect Rem Koolhaas’s firm OMA, has a plan to make the United States carbon-neutral by 2050. The plan calls for a shift to renewable energy that takes advantage of U.S. geographic diversity—solar for some areas, hydro for another—in other words, no one-size-fits-all solution. This proposal has been entered into GE’s Powering the Grid Ecomagination Challenge, which is awarding $200 million to the best ideas for a next-generation power grid.
(via Good)
YAY! It’s like the proposal was designed by ADULTS!! Rational ones, even!!
COOL!
Um, but I had to snicker during the part of the video where they refer to how we need a “politically agnostic” energy policy. Yeah, right, like that will happen!
No, what we need is a ban on lobbyists. Return the right of free speech to individuals only. No more Chatty Cathy for corporations! (Especially since they’re so good at pulling the strings coming out of their own backs… )
What also worries me about their proposal is the excessive use of biomass. Doesn’t the creation of biomass energy require a lot of oil-based energy first? I need to read more about this. I also would have assumed that along the oceans we’d have wind farms.
Regardless, I applaud their efforts for putting this proposal together. We all need to grow up and face the reality that there won’t be a single, “one-size fits all” solution to our energy needs. Oil doesn’t have one replacement, it has many.
I just hope we can make these changes before it’s too late (2050 for Europe? Yikes!)
I think, for that, we will need an Apollo-like program to reach our goal.