Green | June 28, 2008 | 1 comment

"Global Limits of Biomass Energy" Reports Science Daily

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TouchArt
Current environmental energy news from scientist Bill Brown, TouchArt's friend up in Taos at New Mexico Global Warming and The Climate Change Project.
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Greetings, All -- Below are a couple of briefs containing tightly summarized information and data on biomass power potential and a current vision of solar power potential.

Carnegie Institution of Science researchers make the reasonable case that sustainable biomass energy production on suitable land (primarily abandoned cropland and pastureland) could provide about five percent of human demands for primary energy. However, biomass development in excess of this amount -- particularly using land and water needed to grow food or converting existing ecosystems to biomass production -- could threaten food security and exacerbate climate change.
[Carnegie Institution of Science: http://www.ciw.edu/related_links]

In the second article, Ausra CEO Robert Fishman [http://ausra.com/] indicates one potential for solar power (solar thermal power as contrasted with solar photovoltaic power) contingent upon policy decisions on clean energy tax credits and carbon taxes. [This corresponds to what I try to tell people about economics: we can make policy decisions that move us toward the kind of energy economy we want.] Fishman's statement re the "crossover point" could be interpreted to say that clean energy will remain competitive with obsolescent fossil fuel energy, whereas it is more likely that new technology clean energy will grow rapidly while old technology energy from inefficient and polluting sources will continue to decline.

-- Bill Brown
www.nmglobalwarming.org
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From TouchArt.net and One Earth Blog at www.OneEarthBlog.Blogspot.com
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