Wind leading the pack of winning Clean Tech technologies

a very interesting article based on research from right here at Stanford.

http://www.cleantechblog.com/2008/10/wind-leading-pack-of-winning-clean-tech.html

Wind leading the pack of winning Clean Tech technologies
by Marguerite Manteau-Rao

Mark Jakobson, professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, at Stanford University, performed a thorough evaluation of energy solutions to global warming, as applied to alternative vehicle technologies. His answers may surprise you.Pr. Jakobson looked at the following energy sources:

wind turbines
battery electric vehicles
solar photovoltaics
hydrogen fuel cell vehicles
geothermal power plants
tidal turbines
wave devices
concentrated solar power
hydroelectric power plants
nuclear power plants
coal with carbon capture and sequestration
corn ethanol
flex-fuel vehicles
cellulosic ethanol

and evaluated them according to the following criteria:

resource abundance
carbon-dioxide equivalent emissions
opportunity cost emissions from planning-to-operation delays
leakage from carbon sequestration
nuclear war/terrorism emission riks from nuclear-energy
air pollution mortality
water consumption
footprint on the ground
spacing required
effects on wildlife
thermal pollution
water chemical pollution/radioactive waste
energy supply disruption
normal operating reliability

Here's the outcome:

Wind comes out the clear winner. Concentrated solar power, geothermal, solar photovoltaics, tidal, wave, are good additions to the mix. Hydroelectric is added for its load balancing ability. Nuclear and coal are less beneficial. Corn and cellulosic ethanol should not be included in policy options. Hopefully, the next administration will be wise enough to follow Pr. Jakobson's recommendation . . . and align its subsidies with the right kind of technologies.

Marguerite Manteau-Rao is a green blogger and marketing consultant on sustainability and social media. Her green blog, La Marguerite, focuses on behavioral solutions to climate change and other global sustainability issues. Marguerite is a regular contributor to The Huffington Post. Since Sarah Palin's VP nomination, she has also been impersonating Ms. Palin at What's Sarah Thinking? blog

Labels: air pollution, alternative energy, energy security bill, global warming, Mark Jacobson, solutions, vehicle technologies