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Alan W. Dowd is a Senior Fellow with the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes on the full range of topics relating to national defense, foreign policy and international security. Dowd’s commentaries and essays have appeared in Policy Review, Parameters, Military Officer, The American Legion Magazine, The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, The Claremont Review of Books, World Politics Review, The Wall Street Journal Europe, The Jerusalem Post, The Financial Times Deutschland, The Washington Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Examiner, The Detroit News, The Sacramento Bee, The Vancouver Sun, The National Post, The Landing Zone, Current, The World & I, The American Enterprise, Fraser Forum, American Outlook, The American and the online editions of Weekly Standard, National Review and American Interest. Beyond his work in opinion journalism, Dowd has served as an adjunct professor and university lecturer; congressional aide; and administrator, researcher and writer at leading think tanks, including the Hudson Institute, Sagamore Institute and Fraser Institute. An award-winning writer, Dowd has been interviewed by Fox News Channel, Cox News Service, The Washington Times, The National Post, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and numerous radio programs across North America. In addition, his work has been quoted by and/or reprinted in The Guardian, CBS News, BBC News and the Council on Foreign Relations. Dowd holds degrees from Butler University and Indiana University. Follow him at twitter.com/alanwdowd.

ASCF News

Scott Tilley is a Senior Fellow at the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes the “Technical Power” column, focusing on the societal and national security implications of advanced technology in cybersecurity, space, and foreign relations.

He is an emeritus professor at the Florida Institute of Technology. Previously, he was with the University of California, Riverside, Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute, and IBM. His research and teaching were in the areas of computer science, software & systems engineering, educational technology, the design of communication, and business information systems.

He is president and founder of the Center for Technology & Society, president and co-founder of Big Data Florida, past president of INCOSE Space Coast, and a Space Coast Writers’ Guild Fellow.

He has authored over 150 academic papers and has published 28 books (technical and non-technical), most recently Systems Analysis & Design (Cengage, 2020), SPACE (Anthology Alliance, 2019), and Technical Justice (CTS Press, 2019). He wrote the “Technology Today” column for FLORIDA TODAY from 2010 to 2018.

He is a popular public speaker, having delivered numerous keynote presentations and “Tech Talks” for a general audience. Recent examples include the role of big data in the space program, a four-part series on machine learning, and a four-part series on fake news.

He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Victoria (1995).

Contact him at stilley@cts.today.

Green Energy - Not So Clean - By Laurence F. Sanford

Thursday, April 14, 2022

Categories: ASCF News ASCF Articles

Comments: 0

By ASCF Senior Analyst Laurence F. Sanford
April 6, 2022

Photo: Flickr

Green energy from wind, solar, hydro and geothermal is not so clean. Green energy may be carbon free but green energy is also a serious environmental polluter.

Rare earth minerals used in the manufacture of solar panels, windmill blades, and storage batteries are costly and primarily sourced in China. The mining process, the refining process, and transportation all have serious environmental and cost issues. Child slave labor in Africa and Uighur slave labor in China are used to mine rare earth minerals for processing in China.

The United States is the leading energy country in the world. By attempting to Go Green and dismantling fossil/nuclear fuel sources of energy, America is committing societal suicide. Energy is the foundation of modern civilization without which industry and national defense are impotent. Reducing carbon and improving a clean environment are noble objectives, but should be acted on with feasible, realistic, and cost effective programs. Yes, increase solar panels on buildings, but not on solar farms which require huge tracts of land and a transmission infrastructure. At present, and for the near future, there are no battery backups capable of providing electrical energy 24/7/365.

China dominates the world’s manufacturing of solar panels, windmill blades, and batteries. By going Green, America would be subjected to totalitarian communist China. Chinese suppression in Tibet, on the Muslim Uyghurs, in Hong Kong and Tiananmen Square; the Cultural Revolution; the One Child policy; as well as the South China Sea military buildup, the surveillance state, and threats to Taiwan, should not be forgotten. Perhaps the most dangerous of all Chinese threats is the buy-out of American political, entertainment, Wall Street, media, and Silicon Valley elites, who have sold their souls and American interests for the sake of the almighty dollar (or soon to be the mightier Chinese yuan).

Solar panel and windmill blade production creates tons of hazardous waste and contaminated water. The now defunct Solyndra used its $535 million federal taxpayer subsidy to generate 12.5 million pounds of hazardous waste. Cadium, indium, lead, CIS and nitrogen triflouride gases are some of the toxic chemicals used and spun off from solar production.

Solar panels and windmill blades have an average life span of 20 years. Currently there is limited recycling of these panels and blades, and thus they end up in landfills with built-in toxic materials. Windmills require increasing maintenance and are less efficient as they age. The average maintenance cost is approximately 25% of income generated. Since wind does not always blow and varies in speed, windmills produce energy intermittently. Solar panels do not produce energy at night, in cloudy weather, or when covered in snow. In the winter, with less sunlight, the efficiency of solar panels in northern states can be as low as 10%.

Solar and wind are low-intensity energy sources that require enormous amounts of land compared to fossil fuels and nuclear energy. Merely meeting America’s current electricity demands with wind energy would require 12% of the continental U.S. land or the equivalent of two States of California. Solar farms and battery storage also require enormous land use.

Connecting wind and solar to the grid would require doubling the present 240,000 miles of high voltage transmission capacity. Appropriating land for transmission lines of this magnitude would encounter fierce local and environmental opposition. The costs for land acquisition and line transmission towers would be in the billions of dollars.

Lastly, solar and wind are harmful to humans and birds. Wind turbines generate noise that affect human sleep patterns and quality of life. In the ocean, windmill construction disturbs sea beds and interferes with bird and ocean animal migratory patterns. Windmills and solar panels kill thousands of birds and bats per year. Giant 200 foot high windmill towers with blades that can rotate at speeds in excess of 200 mph instantly kill eagles and other birds, while solar panels incinerate birds. Windmills crash and catch fire, battery backups catch fire, and solar panels and windmill towers are eyesores. They occupy valuable farmland, ocean vistas, and scenic hills.

In summary, Green energy is not so clean for the environment, nor is it the panacea for a carbon free future. It cannot meet the energy requirements of a modern and growing civilization, which includes the growing need of electricity for electric vehicles. America and the world need fossil fuels and nuclear energy to meet civilization's electricity needs.

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