Lignite Smoke and Photovoltaic Mirrors
In a recent post from The Green Economy Post, an article titled, "Green Energy’s Big Challenge: The Daunting Task of Scaling Up" places the penetration progress of our various resources into proper perspective. With impressive increases in acceptance of renewable energy, (see "$6-billion solar industry logs another record year") society is nowhere near snapping the umbilical connection to fossil fuels. One of the more prominent notions is that the United States is trailing Europe in renewable project implementation. Make no mistake, this form of international "in-your-face" is necessary for innovation here in the states. However, the article goes on further to stifle the belief that countries like Germany are faring better. "Despite more than 21,000 wind turbines and 13 million square meters of solar installations, Germany still gets more than 50 percent of its electricity from burning fossil fuels, including lignite, the most polluting form of coal." Lignite?
I'll go into lignite soon. My immediate reaction was to question the efforts of the country if it still had 50% reliance on fossil fuels, let alone lignite. Why boast progress at the gym when you still go home and demolish cupcakes? Let's be honest. The US is far from sainthood when it comes to fossil fuels. To satisfy my
curiosity on lignite, I decided to do some research.
First, I want to give you some data from the Lignite Energy Council to show lignite usage and a graphic representation of coal reserves in the US from 1996.
In the above picture, lignite is identified in yellow.
And here is a report from 2010 by the American Coal Foundation.
Notice the difference in lignite reserves between the two maps. It's no surprise that the coal that causes the highest level of pollution would show little presence on the 2010 map, especially in this era of environmental awareness, but that's the conspiracy theorist in me. Further research shows that a state like Arkansas has about 4.3 billion tons of lignite readily available to power your kid's Playstation 3.
Additional key info found at the Lignite site:
North Dakota’s four large lignite mines produced 29.7 million tons of lignite coal in 2008 – falling just short of 30 million tons. For the past 20 years, North Dakota’s lignite production has consistently been near 30 million tons per year, making North Dakota one of 10 major coal-producing states in the United States.
"The lignite mines and power plants represent one of our state’s largest and steadiest industries, providing good paying jobs and substantial tax revenue to the state,” said Steve Van Dyke, director of communications for the Lignite Energy Council. “Employees in the lignite industry earn wages above almost all other industries in the state.”
"Estimated state tax revenues resulting from lignite activities were $103.2 million in 2008. Direct and indirect employment connected to the lignite industry increased from 25,000 jobs in 2007 to nearly 28,000 jobs in 2008, according to an economic study conducted by NDSU economics professor Larry Leistritz. This means that approximately one in 12 jobs in North Dakota is tied to the lignite industry, according to statistics provided by Job Service North Dakota."
So how does an industry that is meant to be a solution compete with the numbers above? Granted these numbers are pre-Recession, but it simply reminds us what is necessary for renewables to replace a fossil-fuel dependent infrastructure. Incentives and jobs.
This is where the emphasis of sustainability becomes important. Given the very nature of oil-driven politics (yes, "nature", "oil" and "politics" in the same sentence), the sustainability community behind the movement must not be divided. Opinions differ on the government influence on renewables and I understand each side's position. In order for the idea of a sustainable community to survive, there has to be some level of acceptance in the purity of the renewable industry, regardless of the players involved. For without the inclusion of renewable solutions, fossil fuels will maintain a strong and unrelenting presence.
~Michael
I'll go into lignite soon. My immediate reaction was to question the efforts of the country if it still had 50% reliance on fossil fuels, let alone lignite. Why boast progress at the gym when you still go home and demolish cupcakes? Let's be honest. The US is far from sainthood when it comes to fossil fuels. To satisfy my
curiosity on lignite, I decided to do some research.
First, I want to give you some data from the Lignite Energy Council to show lignite usage and a graphic representation of coal reserves in the US from 1996.
In the above picture, lignite is identified in yellow.And here is a report from 2010 by the American Coal Foundation.
Notice the difference in lignite reserves between the two maps. It's no surprise that the coal that causes the highest level of pollution would show little presence on the 2010 map, especially in this era of environmental awareness, but that's the conspiracy theorist in me. Further research shows that a state like Arkansas has about 4.3 billion tons of lignite readily available to power your kid's Playstation 3.Additional key info found at the Lignite site:
North Dakota’s four large lignite mines produced 29.7 million tons of lignite coal in 2008 – falling just short of 30 million tons. For the past 20 years, North Dakota’s lignite production has consistently been near 30 million tons per year, making North Dakota one of 10 major coal-producing states in the United States.
"The lignite mines and power plants represent one of our state’s largest and steadiest industries, providing good paying jobs and substantial tax revenue to the state,” said Steve Van Dyke, director of communications for the Lignite Energy Council. “Employees in the lignite industry earn wages above almost all other industries in the state.”
"Estimated state tax revenues resulting from lignite activities were $103.2 million in 2008. Direct and indirect employment connected to the lignite industry increased from 25,000 jobs in 2007 to nearly 28,000 jobs in 2008, according to an economic study conducted by NDSU economics professor Larry Leistritz. This means that approximately one in 12 jobs in North Dakota is tied to the lignite industry, according to statistics provided by Job Service North Dakota."
So how does an industry that is meant to be a solution compete with the numbers above? Granted these numbers are pre-Recession, but it simply reminds us what is necessary for renewables to replace a fossil-fuel dependent infrastructure. Incentives and jobs.
This is where the emphasis of sustainability becomes important. Given the very nature of oil-driven politics (yes, "nature", "oil" and "politics" in the same sentence), the sustainability community behind the movement must not be divided. Opinions differ on the government influence on renewables and I understand each side's position. In order for the idea of a sustainable community to survive, there has to be some level of acceptance in the purity of the renewable industry, regardless of the players involved. For without the inclusion of renewable solutions, fossil fuels will maintain a strong and unrelenting presence.
~Michael
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