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Introduction
This book was wirtten to fill a void. The groups involved with the Energy Primer had been receiving numerous inquiries about methods of supplying energy needs that could be implemented by individuals and small groups. Solar/wind devices and methane digesters seemed to be particularly popular, but there were also the inevitable questions about "organic" gardening and farming, water power, wood and alcohol. There were general questions too: "How can I feed and fuel those around me without relying on outside power sources that pollute and that are rising in cost and dwindling in supply?" People wanted to know about food and fuel supplies that came from renewable sources of energy rather than non-renewable oil wells and nuclear reactors.
But it seemed that people were asking much more than just: "How can I build a solar collector," or, "Should I build a solar collector?" Most questions clearly reflected a growing dissatisfaction with a culture that allowed fewer and fewer options with regard to our control over life's everyday needs. The supermarket and the wall plug are still the major supply sources and there seems no end to it.
So we set out to wriate a book about renewable energy systems that people could use for themselves; a description of how they work, their limitations and potentials, and the hardware and techniques necessary to grow, build, and maintain them. But we soon realized that there were limitations. For one thing, the different food and energy systems were in varying states of development and redefinement. New ideas were being offered every day about solar collectors, scaled-down waste systems, wind generators, etc. New companies were starting out all the time in response to the growing demands for devices that harness solar and wind power. Inevitably the book would soon be obsolete. In addition, renewable energy systems were, by their very nature, geared to the local conditions of climate, economy, geography, and resources. It made little sense to try and describe endless possibilities and designs that were already described in widely scattered community and regional publications, technical journals, "underground" brochures, survival texts, and energy magazines both funky and slick. What we wanted was a sourcebook that brought basic information together, not a cookbook.
And we needed something, too: a perspective to what we were doing.
Energy Scarcity, Conservation, and Practical Alternatives
For generations our culture has been enjoying the benefits of a cheap, easily available energy source...fossil fuels. Today, practically all of our luxuries and necessities are totally dependent on coal, natural gas, and oil. The fact that reserves of these fossil fuels are limited has become a platform for politicians, a bargaining point for diplomats, and lucrative commodity for the rich, and a glaring reality for everyone.
Geochemical evidence suggests that every year about 28 million tons of carbon go into the formation of new fossil sediments. Current consumption of fossil fuels is about 6 billion tons of carbon per year. The rate of consumption is therefore over 200 times the rate of deposition. On this basis we can say that fossil fuels are limited and non-renewable. - I.T. Rosenqvist, 1972 Conference on Energy & Humanity
Because we have built our culture and standard of living on easy energy, conventional wisdom pushes harder and harder to find "alternative" energy sources capable of feeding our excessive needs. The most obvious alternative has been the search for more inaccessible deposits of fossil fuels...further offshore and deeper in the ground. But very soon the cost of retrieving new reserves will exceed the benefits provided by them. The search for more oil can only be a short term solution with long term implications for the environment.
Further down the line, many see the development of nuclear power as the answer to our energy problems. But we should at least pause for a moment. The development of nuclear power is not only a mistake, but a self-destructive response to a complex problem. In the first place, uranium itself is a limited resource; reserves can only hope to last for a few generations at best. Moreover, there is the strong possibility that the widescale use of nuclear power plants will simply inaugurate an era of worldwide nuclear armament and global conditions in which no one can afford to make a mistake...political or technical. And finally there are the inevitable nuclear wastes generated and left behind by nuclear power plants that threaten the very existence of life as we know it. Of most concern is plutonium, a by-product of breeder reactors and the deadliest, and one of the most persistent elements in the known universe. Plutonium has a half-life of 24,000 years, and to our knowledge there is no way of safely containing anything...let along plutonium...for 24,000 years (rockets to the sun and salt mines notwithstanding). For a few generations of more easy energy we give to our future generations the consequences and burdens of plutonium and other nuclear wastes. We view this as insanity.
If we dismiss nuclear fusion as being an undeveloped alternative with its own problems of radioactive waste (albeit far less than those of fission), we are left with one alternative energy source that could supply much of our needs...solar power and all of its manifestations in the wind, water, and plants.
There are a number of ambitious ideas for harnessing solar energy. For example, some people have suggested that we could cover the southwest deserts with solar reflectors or send satellites into orbit to microwave solar energy back to earth. There are also plans for building bigger hydroelectric dams and massive digesters to recycle manure from oversized feedlots. There are even schemes for covering the mid-west plains and offshore areas with wind generators, and for growing high-yield plants in vast areas of marginal land to fuel power stations. Certainly these alternatives are infinitely more desirable than nuclear energy, and there is little doubt that some of them will be developed to help supply future energy needs. However, in perspective, they must be viewed as nothing more than extensions of the growing tendency to centralize the generation and control of energy and to alienate people further from the natural forces that support them. A central power station, regardless of its source of energy, still requires elaborate transmission grids to disperse the energy. To some degree this may be realistic, but as the only way of providing energy in an increasing unstable social order it leaves few options for people to adopt.
More and more the energy sources of the world are coming under the control of international corporations and energy cartels. Growing scarcities of energy and natural resources will continue to determine major political policies in the future. To balance this trend, we need to diversify and disperse the physical energy base and dilute the growing economic power bases...a trend that will help us all. The most obvious way to do this is to develop and adopt scaled-down renewable energy systems that are utilized where they are needed and designed for local environments and requirements. The new politics of self-sufficiency...relying on ourselves and our own decentralized energy resources...will conflict with the present politics of centralized institutions and industry. Hopefully, in time, it will come to supplement this tradition rather than conflict with it. The important thing is that we generate as many options as we can for a future whose course grows more uncertain every day.
It's easier and cheaper to save the energy we get from conventional sources than it is to earn (generate) energy from newer, more expensive sources such as the wind and sun. For example, it's cheaper and easier to insulate a home than to produce energy (from renewable sources) to heat an uninsulated dwelling...If we consume all of our fossil fuels in our cars and 'space-hippy' vans, we'll never see the solar-based society to which we must move if we want to survive. - Lee Johnson and Ken Smith
We should have no illusions about local energy systems. Our exaggerated needs cannot be supplied by solar, wind, water, and biofuel energy alone. The prerequisite to using any renewable energy system is CONSERVATION. Without conservation, techniques and devices for using renewable energy will always seem impractical and will always make little economic sense.
It's not very glamorous to deal with energy conservation. Most people would rather concentrate on new pieces of hardware than cultivate living habits that make solar collectors feasible. Unfortunately most strategies for conservation are based on simplifying what we have rather than creating radically new living patterns. Car pools, lowered thermostats, simple appliances, and efficient insulation are all important methods of reducing energy consumption. But by themselves they mean little unless they become part of a personal plan to change our standard of living, recycle our materials and wastes, and make do with less. We needn't be austere, only sensible about our habits. Then and only then can the energies from the sun, wind, and garden begin to support our needs. First we must minimize our needs, then we can start changing our hardware.
There are other realities too. Fossil fuels are an indispensible ingredient for organic chemicals and a valuable fuel for a few high energy processes like ore smelting. At the present time, coal, oil, and natural gas are the only practical energy resources that can provide steel for windmills, digester tanks or circulating pumps, and plastic or glass for solar collectors, greenhouses, etc.
Generally speaking, renewable energy devices are still locked into a costly technology that requires high energy resources like fossil fuels to provide construction materials. This is a reality and shouldn't be hidden in the "something for nothing" attitude that renewable energy systems seem to generate. However this needn't always be so. Future energy policies can be redirected to that material and construction designs will be oriented for posterity and not planned obsolescence.
The problem is that we just don't know what the trade-offs really are. Perhaps it will take several years for a wind generator to "pay back" the energy costs of making it, and there is some evidence to indicate that this may be so. At what scale are renewable energy systems really practical...the household, village, community, or city? These and many more questions remain to be asked. As we observe, think and change, we will often be very much on our own. We willbe our own "experts" and willbe our own "scientists." In this process we will develop many values and perfect many processes that can and should be shared. A desire to facilitate this exchange of information has been one of the moving forces behind the creation of this book.
- Richard Merrill, Chuck Missar, Thomas Gage, and James Bukey
