Is Hydropower a Renewable Energy Resource?

Venezuela's Drought, the Worst in 50 Years

Republican politicians have for some time argued that hydroelectric power should be classified as a renewable resource. Their motivation is clear. If hydropower is renewable, then states like Washington, which require that public utilities generate a given percentage of their electricity (15% for Washington) from renewable energy resources by a certain date (2020 in the case of Washington), would effectively have to do nothing. About 87 percent of the electricity made in Washington state is produced by hydroelectric facilities. The State even sells some of its hydroelectric power to other states. But is hydropower renewable?

The situation in Venezuela today is instructive. Up to now, hydropower has been the major energy source in Venezuela — providing residents and industry with up to two-thirds of the total electricity produced. But a record lack of rainfall has resulted in low water flows and several power interruptions.

Venezuela imposed electricity and water rationing in December to prevent a collapse of the electricity grid as water levels behind the Guri Dam fell to critical lows. The dam supplies most of Venezuela's electricity.

Rolling blackouts lasting up to four hours are bring imposed throughout the country except the capital of Caracas as the country struggles with the severe drought.

Hugo Chavez is moving to build wind farms and is vowing to develop nuclear energy, whether the U.S. likes it or not. If Chavez’s nuclear bluster is just a lot of hot air, then at least he’ll have the wind turbines to harness it.

In the meantime, Republicans might want to rethink their energy platform.

US Energy Sources and Demand by Sector

Where does the U. S. gets its energy?

85% from fossil fuels:
39% from petroleum
23% from natural gas
23% from coal

8% from nuclear fission - all used for electricity

3% from biomass - mostly used for fuel
3% from hydro - mostly used for electricity

1% from geothermal, wind and solar total

What happens to this energy?

55% is utilized:
41% used directly as fuel for vehicles, as feedstocks for industrial products, and heat sources for buildings
14% as electricity output from power plants

45% is lost as "waste heat"
27% lost in conversion from chemical to electrical energy
18% lost in conversion from chemical energy to mechanical energy

What is this energy used for?

31% used by industry
29% used for transportation
21% residential uses, such as heating, cooling and lighting
18% commercial uses, such as heating, cooling and lighting

Source: MIT Technology Review, May/June 2010.

Uranium, Kazakhstan, and Fiction

My novel, The Lion and the Sun, starts with a prologue that describes how my protagonist, Daniel Conte, undertakes a mission to Ost-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan, in the spring of 1993 to corroborate reports that the Ulb Metallugical Plant there has over 600 kilos of highly enriched uranium (HEU) stored in an essentially unsecured warehouse. The episode is based on fact. The actual mission to recover the HEU was code named "Project Sapphire," and was completed in November of 1994.
Fast forward. Iran now appears poised to import Kazak uranium ostensibly for use in its "peaceful" nuclear energy program. US officials have said repeatedly than Iran is developing the capability to create nuclear weapons. What is Iran's real purpose, building nuclear power plants, or building nuclear armed missiles? Read The Lion and the Sun, and you come away with a pretty good idea of what the answer is, but is it fact or fiction?

Coming in 2009 -- Increasing World Energy Demand

Total world consumption of marketed energy is projected to increase by 50 percent from 2005 to 2030.

Coal will continue to dominate as the fuel of choice for electricity generation over the next two decades.

The recent increase in concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is the result of human activities, mainly the burning of fossil fuels. As the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has increased, so has the average surface temperature of the earth.