Page 38 - Sustainable Cities and Communities Design Handbook

The Green Industrial Revolution Chapter j 2 15

Japan, and now China become ever more aggressive in renewable energy
generation and technologies.
Energy independence and subsequent elimination of energy bills are part of
the potential benefits waiting as we transition into GIR. As soon as possible,
America needs to give up freebasing fossil fuels and embrace a healthier
community with intelligent development and greater community connectivity.
What is crucial is that Americans, starting in local communities, must see the
vision and take action. Almost every community has the renewable resources
to make itself energy independent and carbon neutral. The United States must
get started. Americans must come to an understanding and develop a national
energy policy, then get out of the way and let America’s historic innovation
and entrepreneurship take over and “leapfrog” to what other nations have done
and are doing. Clark notes some of this in his study for Asian Development on
Inner Mongolia in China (2007), which has been published globally in the
Utility Policy Journal (2010).
Clark and Bradshaw (2004), in their pioneering book on the future of
energy policy due to the “global lessons from the California energy crisis,”
Agile Energy Systems, concluded by noting that the “new localized energy
(read: distributed energy systems) market place will redefine how integrated
resource management (read: renewable energy power generation and storage
that is combined or integrated into “smart grids”) is implemented in a public
market (read: regulations and standards must exist and be adhered to) where
private companies can compete in a socially responsible manner (read: basic
infrastructures like energy, water, waste, transportation etc. must be provided
for everyone)” (2004, p. 459).

WHAT IS A RENEWABLE ENERGY POWER SOURCE?

“Renewable” energy generation is part of being sustainable, one of those terms
that everyone thinks they understand until forced to use it in conversation.
Basically, it’s a source of energy that is not carbon based and would not
diminishdthat is, it’s the “gift that keeps on giving.” For example, the sun is
always shinning and the wind blows fairly consistently. Each needs some form
of storage or feedback when the wind is not blowing or at nighttime when
there is no sunshine. That is why these forms of energy generation are called
“intermittent” and need technologies to provide for base load (round-the-clock
power availability) energy generation.
The ocean is always there with tides and water. The most common
renewable energy sources are systems that make use of the wind, the sun,
water, or a digestive process that changes waste into biomass and waste
recycling for fuel generation. Other renewable sources include geothermal,
“run of the river streams,” and now increasingly, bacteria and algae.
Wind generation is fairly straightforward and has been used as a power
source for hundreds of years. A large propeller is placed in the path of the