{"id":3627,"date":"2013-01-29T22:03:42","date_gmt":"2013-01-29T22:03:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/?p=3627"},"modified":"2015-12-21T12:45:51","modified_gmt":"2015-12-21T18:45:51","slug":"do-we-need-breakthroughs-or-a-simple-carbon-diet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2013\/01\/29\/do-we-need-breakthroughs-or-a-simple-carbon-diet\/","title":{"rendered":"Do We Need Breakthroughs Or A Simple \u201cCarbon Diet?\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Over the weekend, The New Republic<\/em> published an interview<\/a> with President Obama, where he noted the following: “On climate change, it’s a daunting task. But we know what releases carbon into the atmosphere, and we have tools right now that would start scaling that back, although we’d still need some big technological breakthrough.”\u00a0 How accurate is the call for breakthroughs and what do we really need?<\/p>\n

First, let\u2019s look at where we don\u2019t need breakthroughs, but instead more deployment \u2013 energy efficiency, of course, being Exhibit A.\u00a0 Creative financing, such as on-bill repayment<\/a> (OBR), at scale can speed up deployment here.\u00a0 Similarly, unlocking clean energy to reduce carbon emissions from the electricity sector hinges on affordability.\u00a0 Wind energy is already competitive with fossil fuels, in large part because the cost of wind energy has come down around 65 percent in the last 20 years, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory<\/a> (yes, declining natural gas prices provide new competition, but EIA projects<\/a> that natural gas prices will begin to increase in 2018, and wind power purchase agreements are signed for around 20 years at a fixed price).\u00a0 Residential solar is verging on the tipping point for \u201cgrid parity<\/a>,\u201d or the point at which a source of power becomes cost competitive with other sources.\u00a0 Bell Labs first introduced solar cells in the 1950s.\u00a0 Environment California\u2019s Research & Policy Center recently reported<\/a> that they expect solar to reach grid parity in mid-2014 to 2016 at the outset.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of course, progress in lowering costs and increasing efficiency comes on the heels of many smaller innovations.\u00a0 For example, innovations in materials science underlie many of the most promising technology evolutions, such as the role of carbon fiber as a basic raw material for wind turbine blades or the use of Gallium Arsenide wafers to reduce manufacturing costs for solar cells.\u00a0 But, nonetheless, given our country\u2019s strength in materials science (think of our leadership with companies like Dow, Dupont and 3M), such innovations seem imminently feasible and in my mind don\u2019t require a major \u201cbreakthrough.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve also delivered numerous hardware and software innovations<\/a> to transform our electric grid into a more resilient, smart, \u201cgreen\u201d grid<\/a>. \u00a0Even carbon capture and storage, to some a high stakes technology bet, is actually just a new configuration or application of engineering equipment we have installed and used for decades, such as heat exchangers, chillers, absorbers, pumps and compressors.<\/p>\n

Where would I wave a wand for a breakthrough?\u00a0 A cheap, reliable and efficient energy storage system wouldn\u2019t hurt, one that replaces the clunky compressed air systems or the size limitations of batteries.\u00a0 But, overall, the declining cost curves for clean energy solutions, due to innovations large and small, tell us an important story:\u00a0 solving the climate crises is not unaffordable or necessarily a drag on our recovering economy as many fear.\u00a0 It is certainly not infeasible nor hinging on that one great technological breakthrough.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We need non-technological breakthroughs.\u00a0 Like the new head of the World Bank, Dr. Jim Kim, who in Davos described<\/a> wanting to make \u201ceverything the Bank does aligned with the effort to slow down climate change.\u201d\u00a0 And it is certainly cheaper than repeating the $50 billion recovery price tags that we might face time and again as Superstorm Sandy becomes the new normal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Americans love the quick technical fix.\u00a0 But, today we have affordable answers right in front of us, it\u2019s the willpower we may be lacking.\u00a0 So, just as most of us believe that rather than wait for a dieting breakthrough, the best answer to weight loss is reduced consumption and more exercise \u2013 we need to go on a carbon diet.\u00a0 Our economic and environmental health depend on it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the weekend, The New Republic published an interview with President Obama, where he noted the following: “On climate change, it’s a daunting task. But we know what releases carbon into the atmosphere, and we have tools right now that would start scaling that back, although we’d still need some big technological breakthrough.”\u00a0 How accurate …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":495,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[439,38678,254,84830,55217,324],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-3627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-climate","category-demand-response","category-energy-efficiency","category-grid-modernization","category-on-bill-repayment-2","category-washington-dc"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDo We Need Breakthroughs Or A Simple \u201cCarbon Diet?\u201d - Energy Exchange<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2013\/01\/29\/do-we-need-breakthroughs-or-a-simple-carbon-diet\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Do We Need Breakthroughs Or A Simple \u201cCarbon Diet?\u201d - Energy Exchange\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Over the weekend, The New Republic published an interview with President Obama, where he noted the following: “On climate change, it’s a daunting task. 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