America’s Energy Future Dinner 1. Draft lessons
November 18th, 2007
As we ramp up for our second dinner this season “Energy Alternatives a la Carte: Fossils and Sunshine and Garbage, oh my!” we’ve drawn up a draft of what we’ve learned, so far. Find it here.
Here’s hitting the high points:
1. Diversify energy sources to minimize economic risk.
2. Make 50-year decisions despite 4-year terms.
3. Bank on correct principles, not prophecies.
4. When possible, let the market find the solutions.
5. No one size fits all: Seek local solutions to specific local energy demands.
6. Scale matters. So pay attention.
7. Energy independence is a national security issue.
Do you agree? Disagree? What would you add to or take off of this list? What qualifications would you add? The Village Square will make our conclusions public at the end of this season, so we want to keep this conversation going until then.
Entry Filed under: Get Local: Tallahassee, Energy & Environment
2 Comments Add your own
1. Kay Perkins | January 7th, 2008 at 11:41 am
What exactly does #6. “Scale Matters” mean?
2. Liz | January 7th, 2008 at 11:59 am
Hi Kay, You can go to this page for a more extensive explanation of each point - http://www.tothevillagesquare.org/powering-up-1 .
Under #6, we have this written: ”
Discussions of energy alternatives need to squarely face the challenge of scale. For example, the recent announcement of a solar thermal plant capable of scaling up to 300 MW could - at best - provide .6% of Florida’s energy demand.”
It can be very sexy to talk about certain emerging technologies without stopping to realize that it may meet only a teensy part of the demand. So when citizens are sizing things up, they need to remember SCALE.
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