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Many times in the past decade
we met skeptics who state: 'it will require vast tracks of land if you want
to use wind and solar to power the nation.' They are wrong and they
misinform the public to the abundant potential of clean energy in the United
States. In fact, every continent is also blessed with abundant and untapped
solar, wind and geothermal resources. This map from the US Dept. of Energy
National Renewable Energy Lab highlights Class 5-7 winds in the Midwest and along
the east and west coastlines. When developed, that's utility scale power.
 In America's Power Plan the authors make the
linkage between our present energy use and the environmental consequences. Their
solution "is to de-carbonize our electricity system by building renewable
energy projects, linked to cities and large urban centers with new transmission
lines."
The land area required to
meet all our needs is about 3-4% of the U.S. land base – mostly in ranches and farmland for wind and
southwestern deserts for solar installations.
High voltage transmission
can deliver this power to our cities and industry... and it doesn’t
have to be so hard! We know how to build electric grids.
We
don't mean to minimize the hurdles: private, public and native American lands,
environmental impacts and multiple jurisdictions. But analogous to the human
nervous system, transmission lines act as the highway for electricity to
deliver clean energy from remote wind, solar and geothermal resources. America's
Power Plan makes sense. This Plan is also applicable in 196 nations, if we
choose to work together and benefit everyone.
In partnership for the
planet,
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