Let's
start from the basics. Jobs are created
when businesses, companies, organizations,
government departments, and institutions
need people to work in order to build and
deliver their products and services. These
employers need revenue from sales to pay
salaries and other expenses. They also need
investments to be able to develop products
and services that there is demand for. Additionally,
they need part of the investment to be capital
in hand in order to recruit and employ people
to provide the products and services and
to pay for overheads. Now this is a simple
model and a everyone would agree that it
is very straight forward model of operating
a business.
The important part of all
of this is that the company needs to make
profit to stay in business. A business needs
to generate revenue by selling and after
deducting its expense, it should have a
profit in order to continue its operation.
Profitability depends heavily
on two things: 1) Sales; and, 2) Expenses.
If you can keep expenses
down, then you are more likely to have profitability
with the same level of sales. This is the
main advantage of investing in renewable
sources of energy is that the cost of energy
can be reduce and hence the overhead costs
(expenses) are reduced resulting in higher
profitability.
Investing
in renewable energy such as solar, wind
and the use of municipal and agricultural
waste for fuel can produce four million
lasting jobs in America simply because it
results in overall reduction of expenses
(reducing cost of doing business and improving
profitability and allowing expension of
operations).
Energy resources are among
the most important resources to mankind
today because business operation depends
heavily on the cost of energy. Your current
employer needs to pay for energy for office/plant
energy costs as well as the products/services/parts
your employer purchases from vendors. Vendors
have incorporated their cost of energy for
production and manufacturing into their
pricing. When you drive to work you have
to pay for energy (gasoline) and when you
are at home, you have to pay for energy
for heating and cooling (gas or electric
bills). All the offices and factories in
America use energy and pass their expenses
on through the price of products and services
they provide. Restaurants need electricity
(or gas) to cook food, have lighting in
the restaurant, and pay for fuel costs for
delivery of fresh produce and meet each
day. Reducing cost of energy increases profitablity
and reduces expenses for everyone. This
much is obvious to everyone.
Now let's consider the cost
of energy, in terms of transportation and
the unit price of energy itself.
What do you think is cheaper,
bringing a barrel of oil from Saudi Arabia
in the Persian Gulf to Denver, Colorado
nearly 8,000 miles, or building a solar
panel in Arizona that can produce the same
amount of energy as a barrel of oil?
A solar panel array (consisting
of solar modules) can continually produce
electricity for about 10 years (or more
with new designs) before being replaced.
Let's compare this to the price for each
barrel of oil shipped from Saudi Arabia
and then the cost associated to transportation.
1
barrel of oil = 5,800,000 BTUs = 1,706 KWH
( since 3,400 BTUs = 1
KWH)
Source: Department of
Energy
A standard panel of Polycrystalline
PV cell Solar Panel module will produce
and average of 4.8 KWH. To equate the energy
production of one barrel of oil (for comparison
purposes) we would need 355 modules in an
array, and at a (higher end) cost of $11
per module, we would need $3,900 investment
to produce the equivalent of one barrel
of oil - one time. But when you have the
solar array (with all the modules), you
could produce the equivalent of that barrel
of oil for 10 years, at little or no additional
cost.
10
year cost of producing 1,706 KWH (1 barrel)
with Solar Array = $1.06
per day
Now transportation cost
of 1 barrel of oil from the Persian Gulf
to a port in U.S. is $3.50 and if you add
the cost for transporting of 1 barrel of
oil per day for 10 years (to compare with
a solar array), it would equate to $12,775
- just for transportation costs. The oil
for 10 years on average price of only $50
per barrel would amount to $182,500 with
a total (inclusive of transportation cost)
10 year cost reaching $195,275.
10 year cost of 1 barrel
of oil per day= aprox.
$200,000 ; 10 year cost
of solar array= aprox.
$5,000
10 year cost of heating/cooling
a house in U.S. = aprox.
$11K with oil ; aprox.
$710 with solar
The numbers speak for themselves.
The problem is that the initial cost of
conversion.
Whether you pay for your
house to be converted or, on a larger scale,
a company invests in developing a plant
for manufacturing solar modules at a cost
of $30 million, it is quite clear the investment
is absolutely viable and the world is not
going to stop needing energy.
Now you are probably thinking,
why have we not done this already on a large
scale?
Who would prefer to see
the renewable sources marginalized?
The answer is, all those
that have vested interest in the oil infrastructure,
such as: oil shipping transportation companies,
oil companies, oil storage companies, transportation
port authorities that receive shipping fees,
oil shipping insurance companies, exploration
companies, shipping manufacturers, fossil
fuel power plants, trucking companies, power
plants, steam turbine designers and manufacturers,
institutional investors in the oil industry,
gas station owners, and the huge lobby groups
supporting the entire industry. They are
all very powerful organizations who have
invested in the oil economy and want to
first received return on their investments
before seeing a transition to renewable
resources that would cut through their profits.
Now I am not proposing to
stop oil consumption overnight. What I am
suggesting is to invest in the renewable
energy to compensate for the global energy
increase (about 3% annually now) that is
needed instead of relying on fossil fuels
only as a major source of our energy.
2007 Figures:
U.S. Petroleum Consumption 20,680,000 barrels/day
U.S. Motor Gasoline Consumption 9,286,000
barrels/day (390 million gallons/day)
Share of US Oil Consumption for Transportation
70%
U.S. Total Petroleum Exports 1,433,000 barrels/day
(most of this goes to Israel as financial
Aid - i.e. free)
U.S. Crude Oil Production 5,064,000 barrels/day
U.S. Crude Oil Imports 10,031,000 barrels/day
U.S. Petroleum Product Imports 3,437,000
barrels/day
U.S. Net Petroleum Imports 12,036,000 barrels/day
Dependence on Net Petroleum Imports 58.2%
Top U.S. Crude Oil Supplier Canada - 1,888,000
barrels/day
Top U.S. Total Petroleum Supplier Canada
- 2,455,000 barrels/day
U.S. Crude Oil Imports from OPEC 5,980,000
barrels/day
U.S. Petroleum Product Imports from OPEC
592,000 barrels/day
State Ranking of Crude Oil Production Texas
- 1,087,000 barrels/day
Top U.S. Producing Companies (2006) BP -
586,000 barrels/day
Top U.S. Oil Fields by Production (2006)
Prudhoe Bay, AK
Top Oil Producing Countries & Exporters
#1 - Saudi Arabia (10,665 bbls/day in 2006)
Top Oil Consuming Countries & Importers
#1 - United States (20,680 bbls/day)
At $50/barrel,
U.S. spends = $378 billion
for crude oil per year ($3.78
trillion in 10 years)
At $75/barrel,
U.S. spends = $567 billion
for crude oil per year ($5.67
trillion in 10 years)
Many organizations including,
The Berkeley Research Center, The Kato Institute,
National Organization for Science and Environment,
High Technology Management Research, and
others have conducted detailed research
analysis and universally agree that investing
between $75-$300 billion (combined figure
from all the research findings) in the renewable
resources industry will create 4 million
jobs in 6 years. These are mostly high paying
jobs that cannot be shipped away to china,
or India, or Philippines.
The researchers suggest
that increasing renewable energy use alone
in the next 2 years can create 240,000 in
agricultural biomass burning and more than
double this many jobs by 2020. Solar power
can be used in only 5% of the massive non-usable
desert land in California, Arizona, Texas,
New Mexico, and Nevada and replace 40% of
our nation's heating oil consumption
with an investment of $160 billion which
saves our country more than $830 billion
($50/barrel parity) over the next 10 years.
As we develop our renewable
energy infrastructure, plants, technology,
and expertise, U.S. can once again become
an exporter of high-end skills and technology
and received premium for its intellectual
property. We certainly cannot complete with
cheap labor force, not with Asian, South
American, or African countries. Most importantly
we increase value of output per unit value
of labor. This is the way to compete in
the future of global economy.
By investing in all of our
current renewable technology and existing
infrastructure we can double the number
of jobs in a single year and improve efficiencies
that reduce business expenses and in a short
period of time fund the project itself.
And at the same time protect future jobs
by building skills and expertise in solar
energy, wind power, hydrogen and fuel cells,
bioenergy, geothermal energy, ocean thermal
and wave energy. |
(last 30 days)
