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Why Renewable Energy Is Not Cheap and Not Green
Biomass: The Air Emission Renewable
Biomass is electricity created from a variety of energies such as wood, wood waste, peat wood, wood sludge, liquors, railroad ties, pitch, municipal solid waste, straw, tires, landfill gases, fish oils and other waste products. Of these inputs, wood accounts for more than 60 percent of biomass. Biomass generated 60 billion kwh in 1995, 1.7 percent of national electric power output and 16 percent of national renewable production.
The economic problem of biomass is not only up-front cost but high operating cost with the expense of wood or waste fuel a constant. In California, where approximately 10 percent of national capacity is located, nearly 20 biomass facilities representing 200 megawatts have left operation due to the expiration of high-priced contracts.197
Biomass is not economical today, and even the projected research and development goal of 4 cents to 5 cents per kwh is still well above new gas-fired capacity and roughly double the spot price of surplus electricity.198 In the Worldwatch Institute's Power Surge, the authors report that a government-sponsored design competition for a 25-30 MW biomass-fueled gas turbine could cut costs from 8 cents to 5 cents per kwh, "making biomass-fired electricity competitive with conventional coal-fired power plants."199
Biomass is not environmentally benign from the energy environmentalist's own perspective, since carbon dioxide is released upon combustion -- even more than from coal plants in some applications.200 Nitrogen oxide and particulates are also emitted. Other environmental problems were cited by Christopher Flavin and Nicholas Lenssen of the Worldwatch Institute:
Despite being more akin to fossil fuels than renewables, mainstream environmentalists have kept biomass on the favored energy renewables list. With hydro banished, biomass is the only sizeable option in the eco-energy planners' portfolio. New capacity will not come cheap, however. The Yergin Task Force estimates that $930 million in future DOE subsidies will be necessary to approach commercialization.202
Although biomass is a renewable resource, much of it is currently used in ways that are neither renewable nor sustainable. In many parts of the world, firewood is in increasingly short supply as growing populations convert forests to agricultural lands and the remaining trees are burned as fuel. . . . As a result of poor agricultural practices, soils in the United States Corn Belt . . . are being eroded 18 times faster than they are being formed. If the contribution of biomass to the world energy economy is to grow, technological innovations will be needed, so that biomass can be converted to usable energy in ways that are more efficient, less polluting, and at least as economical as today's practices.201