Alt Energy Smackdown

The question we put to them was this: Wind, solar or biofuels? Which doyou think will have the biggest impact first?

Like any group of people, our LinkedIn group is not without its wisecrackers. As Bob White,president and chief engineer at Embedded Power Labs, put it: "Wind and biofuelsare simply different ways of harvesting solar power." While he's certainlycorrect, we could just end the discussion saying that all life and forms ofenergy on the planet wouldn't exist without the sun, so it's really all justvarious forms of solar power. But what fun would that be? So, on with thediscussion ...

Weighing in on behalf of biofuels was DanielJohnson-O'Mara, an instrumentation technician at the University of Iowa PowerPlant. "Storage is the principle problem (when it comes to) megawatts of solarand wind," he said.

Storage issues aside, biofuels definitely had itsdetractors. "I usually get angry when I see someone mixing biofuel withrenewable energies like wind and solar," said Emilijan Iljoski, general managerat EiP Elektronika Co. He maintains that biofuels are as polluting as oil orcoal, plus the fact that setting aside crops for biofuels manufacture leads tofood cost and production issues for humans worldwide.

Chris Stergiou, a mechanical and manufacturing systemengineer, doesn't consider biofuel a renewable energy source and thereforegives his nod to solar. "Since it is practically unlimited, relatively lowefficiencies are tolerable as long as practical amounts can be converted withminimum physical footprints," he said.

Taking a different tack on the discussion, Andrew Wright,machine design and electronics sales at Wright Track Enterprises Inc., suggeststhat it is not a question of which will have the most impact based on its ownmerits as an energy source. Instead he contends the answer will be all aboutwhich one experiences the biggest comeback (since none of them are new) oncepeople "finally grow tired of rising fuel prices."

Based on his own experiences in building an off-the-gridhome, Wright said that "while my county's building restrictions aren'tprohibitive, trying to get someone to insure the home has proven a challenge." He added that in North Dakota (where he's building), the "individual and business tax incentives for adding alternative energy sourcesto your property were low to non-existent last time I checked."