What options do we have?
We should acknowledge that electricity without ecological damage is not possible. Not if we evaluate power systems from their cradles to their graves.
So then, to decrease reliable electricity's ecological damage, what options do we have?
Since large-scale solar or wind facilities (whose energy is distributed over long distance and backed up from batteries or fossil fuels) will not reduce energy use, greenhouse gas emissions or costs-- or increase electricity's reliability, several engineers I know advocate for small systems. Placed at or near the point of use and owned and controlled by users, small-solar or wind systems can reduce energy, waste and water-- and increase reliability.
I have not advocated for any kind of solar or wind system because manufacturing either causes so much ecological damage; and neither provides sufficient power for industrial processes like smelting or running a hospital.
Then, a colleague asked me about a power system for post-conflict situations. For residential areas, I found myself suggesting small-scale solar PVs without net-metering, with battery storage and direct current (DC). DC eliminates inverters-- which provide access to alternating current (AC), require energy, and generate harmful dirty power. This would use DC appliances like those made for boats and motor homes. It would keep power within local control.
Focus on reducing electricity demands
In existing situations, we need to reduce ecological harms and increase safety:
1. Challenge every household, school, business, manufacturer and government office building to reduce energy consumption by 3% per month for at least three years. Provide youth-led forums about reducing production and consumption.
2. Create jobs that localize food production, compost kitchen scraps and build nutrient-dense soil. Build insulated raised beds and/or geothermally-heated greenhouses for four-season growing. At schools, have students grow at least 50% of their food-- to reduce oil-and-Internet-dependent agriculture.
3. Employ youth to build anaerobic biodigesters for households, schools and business cafeterias. Biodigesters turn kitchen scraps and human or animal manure into liquid fertilizer and methane gas. One household's daily waste can generate enough methane to cook for two hours. While I question biodigesters' methane emissions (does bio-digesting kitchen scraps and manure reduce overall methane emissions?), I think they're worth exploring. See Environmental & Energy Study Institute's fact sheet about converting waste to energy; How to make biogas at home with a biogas digester, Mother Earth News; Building a Biodigester with T.H. Culhane, and Food waste audit at the University of Florida.
4. Redesign cities for walkability and bicycling. Increase public transportation. Expand libraries to include tool lending. Enact right-to-repair legislation. Celebrate repair-people who gives tools longer life.
5. Swap unused goods like food, medicine, electronics. Share traditional skills. Support elders to provide newborn-family care, hospice and ecological burials.
6. Make unused houses livable and affordable. Employ youth to insulate buildings and paint rooftops with reflective paint to reduce energy demands.
7. With new electrical or telecom service, require documentation from a professional engineer (PE) that overvoltage, fault current, accuracy and the effects of radiofrequency radiation (RF) have been evaluated and mitigated.
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