Less than a year ago, gasoline and home heating oil prices in Alaska were over $5 per gallon.   Now, because global demand for oil has decreased due to the recession,  oil prices have dropped over half price.   This has decreased interest and investment in renewable energy projects.   HOWEVER,   as soon as the economy gets a glimmer of recovering, OPEC will be raising prices again, spinning the economy BACK into recession.   At least this is the “hope” of the investment community according to this article in Trend Capital:

“Pioneer Astronautics president Robert Zubrin says the OPEC decision will not boost oil prices much right now.

“But as soon as the world economy starts to recover this decision, combined with OPEC’s other recent decisions to take crude out of production, will shoot oil prices up over $100 per barrel,” Zubrin told Trend Capital via e-mail.

He said all these decisions could send the world economy right back into recession, causing oil prices to collapse again.”

Obviously there is a tight coupling with energy costs and the economy.  By creating a more distributed energy model where we are all producing our own energy or at least we produce the energy we need much closer to where it’s actually needed, OPEC will continue to be able to exert far too much influence over the economic stability of our day to day lives.

This is why it’s imperative, EVEN with current day oil prices, that we use this time of lower prices to learn how to become energy independent.   By breaking the energy monopoly that oil has on our energy needs, THEN we will have more stable oil prices.   This is a matter of national security as well as a matter of our own economic security.

The US Environmental Protection Agency has a website where you can enter your zip code and it will show how your electricity is generated, and the byproducts of that electrical generation.   What amazes me is how the companies creating electricity that causes long term damage to the environment are not responsible for paying the costs of that long term damage.   We are in fact subsidizing our own demise here with the pollution output by the burning of fossil fuels (including coal) to generate electricity.

I entered my zip code for Nevada and found out that  almost half the power for Northern Nevada (for 2005) was generated by hydro power, about a third was generated by coal, a tenth by natural gas, and about 2 - 3 percent between nuclear and other renewable forms.  Electricity generated from oil was just a fraction of a percent.    And for this type of power, Northern Nevada creates about 2/3 the average of CO2 emissions as the rest of the country, and 1/5th the sulfer dioxide emissions of the rest of the country (the hydro power probably is bringing that number down).

how-clean-is-the-electricity

Back Yard Micro Refueling Station for Ethanol - 350 gallons of Sugar create 35 gallons of fuel per week.

E-Fuel Corporation, a Silicon Valley startup, has created a backyard refueling station that looks about as difficult as making beer. Okay - maybe easier than making beer as it doesn’t require all the vessel transfers. It uses water, sugar, and yeast to create ethanol. It takes ten gallons of sugar (unusual measurement for a dry product) to create one gallon of ethanol. Over a week, the system can create 35 gallons of fuel. This means you’d have to have 350 gallons of sugar on hand on a weekly basis to create the ethanol. Where do you store all that sugar? What I do really like about this though is that this is set up for the individual to create their own fuel. They are selling these now, but delivery is not until fourth quarter this year. For just $9995 you can have your own ethanol back yard refueling station.

I love the name of this one - the Freedom Fueler. It’s the home biodiesel maker. You just need to collect waste oil from your local fry house. They have several different models - the entry level one is $3495 and can produce 40 gallons of fuel with just 30 minutes of effort. With 80 gallons of waste oil and 22 gallons of methanol, you produce 80 gallons of biodiesel with a by product of 22 gallons of glycerin. Glycerin is used in hand lotions, and in creating nitroglycerin (the explosive). Additionally, biodiesel has a high clouding temperature and is not suitable for use in cold climates without putting in a winterizing additive or blending it with diesel oil.

My ideal is to have an algae biofuel system that can create 35 gallons per day of algae biofuel from a small back yard system. In my ideal system, you grow your own algae and have the compressor set up to automatically create the fuel. Considering algae doubles in size every day, you’d have to get the right strain that would grow the best for your area. The ability to do this is much further away than fourth quarter this year so I might go with this micro fuel system first while the algae biofuel technology becomes more developed.   There are varying levels of success so far with algae biodiesel, yet tremendous research is happening on this front - Ames Laboratory is testing out an idea that would produce 10,000 gallons of algae biodiesel per year on just 1 acre of land.  If they are successful, a smaller scale back yard operation producing the amount of fuel a small family needs to heat their home and fuel their vehicles is possible.