Block’s Indicator of Sustainable Growth

by Ray Block

The Washington Post published an article by Robert Bryce relating to myths about green energy. Bryce is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, and has published a book “Power Hungry: The Myths of ‘Green’ Energy’ and the Real Fuels of the Future.” The book was published in the USA on April 27 2010.

Bryce’s point, although he overdoes it, is that renewable and alternative energy technologies have great emotional and political appeal, but don’t reduce CO2 by much, don’t reduce dependence on imported oil, nor create many new jobs, and so the list goes on and on.

It is true that the hype about renewable/ and alternative energy can be overdone, they are also costly in subsidies, and the reduction in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is currently minute.

Bryce makes an important point that in the case of hybrids and electric vehicles, the electric motor consumption of rare earth elements is unduly dependent on the only abundant global supplier, which just happens to be China, which by 2012 is expected to be the dominant supplier of hybrids and electric vehicles for domestic and international sales. Consequently, there may not be any surplus of rare earth elements available for export.

Bryce says that solar and wind energies “require huge amounts of land to deliver relatively small amounts of energy, disrupting natural habitats. Even an ageing natural gas well producing 60,000 cubic feet per day generate more than 20 times the watts per square metre of a wind turbine. A nuclear power plant cranks out about 56 watts per square metre, eight times as much as is derived from solar photovoltaic installations.”

All true, but so what. As I have said repeatedly, renewable (and alternative) energy industries, which are still in their infancy will ultimately become the giant industries of the future. These industries are still to reach their peak efficiency levels and become fully competitive with industries relying on coal and oil. But there are no alternatives on offer.