Go Green : Ecological SustainabilIITy, Economic ProsperIITy and National SecurIITy

In the last century, numerous scientific and engineering achievements have shaped our day to day lives. Amongst them, electrical energy has a profound and deep impact on our day to day activities. However, our generation currently face a looming global energy crisis . We as individuals, can no longer stay  isolated from the  social challenges  like depletion of  non renewable sources ,  increasing fuel price and consumer demand  and environmental impact due to green house gas emissions. The crisis presents us with untapped potential for growth and wide ranging opportunities in the areas of green technology, especially in the electric power and transportation industries.

“Green Technology’ or “Clean Technology” encompasses wide variety of standards, principles, methods, and materials in major areas such as;  energy, construction, transportation and consumer products. Green technology  focuses on the application of science and engineering principles to harness eco -friendly energy sources  and establish a solid foundation  for ecological sustainability. The fundamental challenge is to create a synergistic environment, where ecological sustainability and economic growth can coexist.

A recent survey from Pew indicates that global clean energy industry is experiencing and would continue to experience bullish growth. Clean technology investments is expected to increase  by 25% from $162 billion in 2009 to $200 billion in 2010. Even though overall clean energy finance and investment in the United States more than doubled during the past five years, its growth rate lags behind  Turkey , Brazil,  China ,the United Kingdom  and Italy. Local, state and national leaders in the United States and around the world increasingly realize that safe, reliable, clean energy  can be harnessed to create jobs and businesses, reduce dependence on foreign energy sources, enhance national security and reduce global warming. Policy makers, public/private sector enterprises, law makers and aspiring entrepreneurs, believe that the 21st century can be aptly named as the “century of the environment“.

The current climate legislation in Congress, might not be enough to compete with Asian countries such as China, South Korea and Japan in clean technology market expansion and associated investments. The U.S. believes that by placing any sort of tax on Carbon, would stimulate clean energy economy, but China, South Korea and Japan are able to attract public/private funding in clean technology without putting a price on Carbon. The U.S. needs to step up efforts in implementing clean technology, or else we might lose out on one of the significant economic opportunities of the current generation. A recent report by the Breakthrough Institute, Brookings Metropolitan Program, and the Informational Technology and Innovation Foundation titled, ” Strengthening Clean Energy Competitiveness – Opportunities for Americas Competes Re-authorization” identifies three strategic areas:

1.      Increasing the scale of investment in clean energy education, research and innovation,
and production and manufacturing.

2.      Funding innovative programs that offer new institutional paradigms for accelerating
the pace of clean energy innovation.

3.      Effectively leveraging federal investments by fostering coordination between existing
and new clean energy innovation programs to spur regional public-private
collaboration, strengthen clean energy industry clusters, and accelerate technology
innovation, manufacturing, and commercialization.

Last February, President Barack Obama signed the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Some of key points related to clean energy are summarized below:

1. A three-year extension to Production Tax Credit (PTC) for wind, which would have expired at the end of this year, and an extension until the end of 2013 for geothermal and biomass renewable-energy projects.
2. $ 2.0 billion worth, energy related manufacturing investment credits.
3. $ 16.8 billion in direct spending for renewable energy and energy efficiency programs over a period of 10 years.
4. $ 11.0 billion to modernize the electricity grid. This includes $4.5 billion in direct spending to modernize the electricity grid with smart-grid technologies and  $6.5 billion for federal power marketing administrations to assist with financing the construction, acquisition and replacement of their transmission systems.
5. $2.0 billion in loans to manufacture advanced batteries and components for applications such as plug-in electric cars.
6. A tax credit of between $2,500 and $5,000 for purchase of plug-in electric vehicles, available for the first 200,000 placed into service.
7. $6.0 billion for temporary loan guarantee for renewable energy power generation and transmission projects.

The City of Chicago is also undertaking projects to promote clean technology and sustainable infrastructure. Currently 250 buildings are under construction to qualify for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification, more than any city in the US.  Chicago Green Homes Program uses a point based system to award builders and construction companies with star ratings for employing green materials and technologies. Chicago was highly instrumental in helping a statewide legislation to pass Renewable Portfolio Standards for Illinois utilities, which requires that 10 percent of power supplied to the state come from renewable sources by 2015. According to the Standard, a minimum of 75 percent of this renewable energy must come from wind power, and the remaining amount (25 percent) from other eligible renewable sources.  As part of continuous effort to improve air quality, the City of Chicago  is working with the  Chicago Area Clean Cities  Coalition and the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus to promote the use of alternative fuel vehicles in municipal fleets. The City has already transitioned 1,200 of its municipal fleet to alternative fuels.

The Perfect Power project at IIT would be developing nation`s first, one of a kind, high reliability distribution system. IIT has partnered with  Galvin Electricity Initiative  and the U.S. Department of Energy to develop the Perfect Power System. Self sustaining infrastructure, sustainable energy systems and green buildings, consumer friendly interactive power delivery options, and utilization of distributed intelligence to develop a smart micro grid to improve the overall reliability of  the system are some of the prime objectives of this project. IIT also received $8 million grant from Department of Energy to perform focused research on critical wind energy challenges identified in the “20% Wind Energy by 2030” report, including wind technology challenge, grid system integration, and workforce challenge.  ComEd is planning to launch a “Smart Grid Innovation Corridor” in Bellwood, Berwyn, Broadview, Forest Park, Hillside, Melrose Park, Oak Park, River Forest and Chicago’s Humboldt Park to test rooftop solar and electric vehicle charging stations. The  city of Naperville expects to save residents about $22 million and reduce 180,000 tons of carbon emissions in about 15 years by investing in infrastructure and electric utility system upgrades as part of their smart grid initiatives.

As we move forward, green technology would attract significant investments, federal policy initiatives and consumer awareness .  Time is ripe to shift our focus on making wise energy choices to create a cleaner, sustainable, healthy and secure nation. Energy conservation would lay the foundation of energy independence which would further ensure that our future is controlled by us and not the other way and our economic prosperity can be decoupled from foreign oil dependence. By turning a blind eye towards the energy crisis, we are trapping our self in ignorance and passing the buck to the future generations to pay for the wrong choices we make.