WASHINGTON, July 9 (UPI) -- The United States is on the brink of widely adopting renewable energy sources and more energy-efficient technology, legislators and scientists said Tuesday at a gathering in the Cannon House Office Building.
As the House and Senate confer on an energy bill, measures aimed at boosting both renewables and efficiency need support, said Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., opening the sixth annual Clean Energy Expo on Capitol Hill.
"So much of what we count on as our freedoms ... are because of the energy we have that's reliable and affordable," Udall said. "Renewable and energy efficient technologies have the potential to expand that freedom, not only for us but to people all over the world."
The country's energy security, especially reducing dependence on overseas oil sources, relies on a long-term move to renewables, said Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo. His state can provide the country with examples of how to use wind, solar and geothermal power, all of which are plentiful in Colorado, he said.
"We're right on the brink of making many of these renewable energy technologies, such as photovoltaics, capable of breaking into the market," Allard said.
Wind power is a particularly promising avenue for development, said Patrick Quinlan, senior energy analyst at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo., part of the Department of Energy. Researchers are putting a lot of work into expanding wind power into places such as the Midwest, where wind is common at speeds not currently considered viable for generating electricity, he told United Press International.
"If we can get wind turbines to be cost-effective in moderate wind-speed areas, a lot of farmers in this country will be really excited," Quinlan said. "The Dakotas have been called the 'Saudi Arabia of wind energy,' and that's relatively still untapped."
Placing wind turbines on farmland would not require a lot of ground, Quinlan said, because the generators would sit atop slender poles high above the crops. In order to increase wind power's reliability, planners are moving away from monolithic wind farms to smaller clusters of bigger turbines, he said.
Other government research includes looking at ways to increase the capacity of the nation's existing electricity transmission lines, said Michael Karnitz, deputy director of the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.
Tests already are underway on a new transmission cable based on an aluminum-zirconium alloy, supported by a steel-ceramic core, he told UPI. The alloy can carry two to three times more current than existing steel cables by operating at higher temperatures, Karnitz said. The composite core retains its strength at those temperatures, preventing the cable from sagging as it heats up during use.
Replacing existing transmission lines to bolster the nation's existing power grid would be far less expensive than finding more rights-of-way and building additional towers, Karnitz said, adding the new cables could be certified for use in the next couple of years.
Longer-term research at ORNL is investigating superconducting materials for use in underground transmission lines, said Marilyn Brown, the program's director. Today's superconductors, which offer no resistance to electric current, exist only at temperatures hundreds of degrees below zero. Oak Ridge's EEREP team is working on near-room-temperature substances that display similar properties, Brown told UPI.
The House and Senate renewable energy and energy efficiency caucuses sponsored the expo.
