Can Wind and Solar Replace America's Coal Plants?

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/04/28/Clean_Coal_Myth_or_Reality

Panelists hotly debate Google's proposed plan to phase out all coal plants by 2030 and replace them with alternative energy plants. Clean coal advocate Joe Lucas draws from an example of a North Dakota town to argue against the vulnerability of wind power.

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Is clean coal hope for the future, or just misleading marketing jargon? Panelists weigh in on the possibilities and opportunities.

Coal-fired power plants are the largest U.S. emitters of CO2 and human-generated mercury, yet our nation is poised to build many new coal plants in the future. Panelists discuss new technologies for carbon capture and storage and IGCC, and the implications of energy policy decisions on the health of our economy and our planet. - Commonwealth Club of California

Julio Freidman is Director of the Carbon Sequestration Project at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Ray Lane is a Managing Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, focused on helping entrepreneurs with technological and market insight, organizational development, team building, selling and managing growth. Since joining KPCB, Ray has sponsored several investments for the firm in enterprise and consumer technology, as well as clean and alternative energy. These companies include Ausra (solar concentrator), GreatPoint Energy (coal to gas conversion), Fisker Automotive (plug-in hybrid car), Th!nk NA (electric car), Luca Technologies (biologically enhanced gas recovery from fossilized hydrocarbons), Xsigo Systems (virtual I/O switch for datacenters), SpikeSource (open source platform for integration and testing), MEVIO (social media network), Virsa (compliance for large enterprises) and Elance (marketplace for services). He also serves on the board of Quest Software.

Joe Lucas is the Vice President of the Americans for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE).

Bruce Nilles joined the Sierra Club in 2002 and currently directs its National Coal Campaign, the largest component of Sierra Club's new Climate Recovery Campaign. The national coal campaign is working to reduce America's over reliance on coal, slash coal's contribution to global warming and other pollution woes, end destructive mining, and secure massive investments in clean energy alternatives. Bruce previously worked as a staff attorney for Earthjustice's San Francisco office, and during the Clinton Administration as Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for the U.S. Department of Justice's Environment and Natural Resources Division in Washington D.C. He received his J.D. and B.S. degrees from the University of Wisconsin.

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[ImTheRiffRaff]

A paid representative of the coal industry is skeptical about solar and wind? What a shock!

[merdufer]

if only we could turn the energy invested into advocacy and debates into electricity

[Zoidode]

What blocks renewables in most countries are poitics, regulations and favourism for conventional energy generation & their operators.

The value of individual & community based energy independence is completly ignored.

Germany is moving ahead on this and with it the free society is being empowered. Germany installed 100 TWh of renewables last decade... 50% of that is owned by private individuals & farmers. Just 6.5% is owned by the large energy corporations. Literally: Power to the people.

[acmna]

@exenrontexas They do have wind farms...........that turn off during the winter.

[exenrontexas]

The COAL guy is WRONG. Council Bluffs gets their energy from Iowa Power and Light AND Omaha Public Power. BOTH use natural gas and nuclear and coal. This is a typical half truth told by the coal industry. Furthermore, Iowa has HUGE wind farms a few miles from Council Bluffs and all the way up to the MN border from Des Moines.

[musclecarpower]

The only way we will get rid of the dirty coal is if the wealthy that run this country let us. The wealthy will have to be able to rape the people of their hard earned money through wind power energy or it will not happen

[jocomag4]

We need wind and solar on a residential level if we wait for big power to approve it that will be the day after they have got control of it so build your own system to power your own home if we power a million homes then they will have to buy it from us be independent DIY

[heartlessvietboy]

So far to me, cosmetically, a smaller wind turbine looks better. It is like our olden day windmills, upon human grasp. So there are other ways we can design wind turbines, and we should not rush into installing millions of them until we have designed a proper looking one. The same with solar panels. Each will be catering to its surrounding environment.

[dubmarine122]

American energy consumption is the biggest & most controllable factor of our energy crisis.

U.S. = consumes 1/4 of the world's oil

The U.S. Military spends huge amounts of American taxpayers money on a global assault aimed at controlling energy sources for future domination militarily and economically. Foreign oil dependence can be solved, but must first start with legislation to tax gasoline heavily to fund alternatives. Most importantly the U.S. government must set high MPG standards! Peace

[Beastmasterification]

Wind, Solar and Geothermal can only supplement not replace Coal and Oil. You can make Coal more clean and more efficient. Not to mention there is still an abundant source of Coal.

I agree with Joe Lucas.

[NathanofHumphrey]

In order for renewables to be used as a baseload power there needs to be a system of storage, The storage technologies(Hydrogen fuel cell, Lithium Ion) are about 10 years behind what they need to be in order to adequately increase the amount of renewables on the grid. You can put a higher percentage of Solar on the grid currently because it is being produced during periods of greater demand. But to get wind over 10% you will need a much more connected grid than the USA currently has.