Might as well begin with a disclaimer so that you can rest assured I am neither an authority on the power grid, nor an expert in the effectiveness of solar and alternative energies.
I do, however, possess a modicum of common sense, according to someone whose name I forget once told me.
And that’s enough to tell me that as our state and nation move into the 21st Century, at a time when cyber attacks on our national power grid are significantly on the rise (153 incidents reported last year alone)-and when stretching an enormous transmission line for 50-plus miles across the magnificent forests of the Ozarks is an idea understandably with so much citizen opposition-it seems appropriate and wise to consider some alternatives to generate power.
While I’ve never been what we Arkies would consider a tree-hugger, I’ve always greatly appreciated and enjoyed our God-given natural treasures, which clearly include (above all else) the pristine streams, lakes and forests. And I’ve lately started to better understand and appreciate the obvious potential that solar energy offers as an alternative to the traditional and increasingly fallible power grid. For most of my life I saw passive solar energy pretty much as a lark for reclusive hippies and those who regularly dine on pine cones.
Apparently, I am not alone in my revised view of this wholly sustainable energy source. I read the other day that the solar energy industry reports the installations of new panels and solar systems in the past 18 months has outpaced the combined installations over the previous 30 years.
And there was more: The installation rate last year increased by 41 percent over 2012, which created 4,751 megawatts of energy. Moreover, the industry says solar was responsible for 29 percent of all new electricity generated in 2013, an increase of 10 percent over 2012.
And here’s their reported number that really floored me. In 2013, there were 140,000 individual solar installations in the U.S. with a total market value of $13.7 billion. Today, more than 445,000 solar systems are providing power across the country, making it the second leading alternative energy source after natural gas.
I fully realize that reciting numbers and statistics can make for some staggeringly dazed readers over morning coffee. But if these figures are anywhere close to accurate, they reveal a rapidly changing America when it comes to generating the power we need to run our lives and commerce.
Investment giant Morgan Stanley predicts the installed capacity of solar power in North and South America will increase more than tenfold by 2030, according to a report from consulting firm GlobalData.
I decided to tell you about this today because it seems obvious there are viable and innovative alternatives for the nation’s traditional electric power companies such as SWEPCO and AEP as they consider the power needs for those living in our precious Ozark Mountains. As with so many other Arkansans, I’ve never been even remotely convinced a wide-swathed 340-kilovolt transmission line with 150-foot-tall towers was necessary to supply the power needs to and through Benton and Carroll counties. Unless, of course, the idea is to use all that property and beauty to stretch such a massive line across our state to help fill the power needs in surrounding states.
The emergence of solar as a practical energy source has been a longtime coming. But improved and increasingly relevant technology now obviously is well upon us and growing more rapidly than anyone could possibly have foreseen a decade back. Arkansas has every legitimate reason to climb aboard this Sunshine Express and move toward a front seat rather than watching the trains of innovation and progress pass steadily by.
Incidentally, I’m one of many to have toured the completely energy-independent home built by former Fayetteville Mayor Dan Coody and his wife Deborah. Using the latest, most insulative construction techniques and banks of solar energy, their home last year was named the most energy-efficient house in the nation, producing more power than it uses.
’Bout them hogs
Back to that Cargill-sponsored hog factory our state wrongheadedly (or worse) permitted in the Buffalo National River watershed (bet you wondered how many hours would pass before I raised this familiar stink again, eh?).
During the rally attended by 150 or so at the annual Governor’s Conference on Tourism in Rogers, Gov. Mike Beebe stepped outside to politely address the protesters and explain that the task force the state has formed to examine this controversial matter (that common sense tells us never should even exist) would be transparent and balanced. He also reassured the crowd that if his Department of Environmental Quality (cough) fails to adequately answer all the public’s questions, then his office should be notified. Nice to know.
I’m equally impressed by the three-piece ensemble that played during the event using this appropriate chorus: “We love pigs and we love rivers, but the two do not combine. Factory farming is alarming, bad for rivers, bad for swine.”
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Mike Masterson’s column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at mikemasterson10@hotmail.com. Read his blog at mikemastersonsmessenger.com.
Editorial, Pages 83 on 03/16/2014