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1. Introduction
Alternative energy sources harvest locally available energy flows from wind, sun,
vegetation, garbage, and the sea. This tends to disconnect energy consumers
from distant, hostile suppliers and to stabilize energy markets against ups and
downs in fuel costs. However, alternative energy sources are less concentrated
than fossil-fuel sources and so have technical obstacles of their own to overcome.
The energy sources considered alternative today were the only ones available
throughout most of human history.
Nonrenewable fuels such as coal and petroleum only began to be widely used
starting with the Industrial Revolution in the late 1700s. Some renewables, such
as hydropower and wood, remained in use even after the Industrial Revolution,
though their share of the energy supply dwindled. Nuclear power first became
available for electricity generation in the 1950s.
The Industrial Revolution changed energy production and use. Coal was burned
in vast amounts to power factories and steam engines as the economies of
Europe and North America grew and developed. Later, more efficient electricity
became the preferred power source, but coal still had to be burned to produce
electricity in large power plants. Then in 1886, the first internal combustion
engine was developed and used in an automobile. Within a few decades there
was a demand for gasoline to power these engines. By 1929, the number of cars
in the United States had grown to twenty-three million, and in the quarter-century
between 1904 and 1929, the number of trucks grew from just seven hundred to
3.4 million.
At the same time, technological advances improved life in the home. In 1920, for
example, the United States produced a total of five thousand refrigerators. Just
ten years later, the number had grown to one million per year. These and many
other industrial and consumer developments required vast and growing amounts

2. of fuel. Compounding the problem in the twenty-first century is that other nations
of the world such as China and India are developing burgeoning and modern
industrialized economies powered by fossil fuels.
For decades, coal and oil easily supplied nearly 90 percent of the industrial
world's energy. Alternative energy sources received new attention in the United
States and other energy-importing countries after the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC) oil embargo of 1973. OPEC's Arab member states,
angered by Western support for Israel in the Yom Kippur War (October, 1973),
cut off oil sales as a form of retaliation. The embargo prompted Western
governments to invest in alternative and renewable energy sources and in more
efficient ways to use energy. The 1980s and 1990s were decades of cheap and
abundant fossil fuel, however, and U.S. development of efficient and renewable
energy stagnated. The European commitment remained relatively steady, with
the result that European levels of energy efficiency and alternative energy were
significantly higher than U.S. levels by the early 2000s.
By the end of World War II in 1945, scientists began to imagine a world powered
by fuel that was cheap, clean, and inexhaustible. During the war, the United
States had unleashed the power of the atom to create the atomic bomb. That
atomic and nuclear technology could also be used for peaceful power generation.
They even imagined a day when homes could be powered by their own tiny
nuclear power generators. This dream, however, proved to be just a dream.
Building such plants proved enormously expensive. Moreover, nuclear power
plants produce spent fuel that is dangerous and not easily disposed of. The
public fears that an accident at such a plant could release deadly radiation that
would have disastrous effects on the surrounding area became manifest with the
Soviet Union's 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion (in a n area now
part of Ukraine). The Fukushima nuclear power plant crisis and contamination
following the 2011 tsunami striking Japan once again raised global concerns over
nuclear energy safety. Nuclear power has strong defenders, but it is not cheap,
and safety concerns sometimes make it unpopular. There are also continuing
international concerns that the same technologies used to produce nuclear

3. power can be too easily converted into the production of nuclear weapons.
The dream of a fuel source that is safe, plentiful, clean, and inexpensive,
however, lives on. The awareness of the need for such alternative fuel sources
became greater in the 1970s, when the oil-exporting countries of the Middle East
stopped shipments of oil to the United States and its allies. This situation (an
embargo) caused fuel shortages and rapidly rising prices at the gas pump. In the
decades that followed, gasoline again became plentiful and relatively inexpensive,
but the oil embargo served as a wakeup call for many people. In addition, during
these years people worldwide grew concerned about pollution, industrialization,
and damage to the environment. Accordingly, efforts were intensified to find and
develop alternative sources of energy.
Alternative Energy: Back to the Future
Some of these alternative fuel sources are by no means new. For centuries
people have harnessed the power of running water for a variety of needs,
particularly for agriculture (farming). Water wheels were constructed in the Middle
East, Greece, and China thousands of years ago, and they were common
fixtures on the farms of Europe by the Middle Ages. In the early twenty-first
century hydroelectric dams, which generate electricity from the power of rivers,
provide a small percentage of the electricity in the United States, but in countries
such as Norway, hydroelectric dams provide virtually 100 percent of the nation's
electrical needs. Scientists, though, express concerns about the impact such
dams have on the natural environment.
Water can provide power in other ways. Scientists have been attempting to
harness the enormous power contained in ocean waves, tides, and currents.
Furthermore, they note that the oceans absorb enormous amounts of energy
from the Sun, and they hope someday to be able to tap into that energy for

4. human needs. Technical problems continue to occur. It remains likely that ocean
power will serve only to supplement (add to) existing power sources in the near
future.
Another source of energy that is not new is solar power. For centuries, people
have used the heat of the Sun to warm houses, dry laundry, and preserve food.
In the twenty-first century such passive uses of the Sun's rays have been
supplemented with photovoltaic devices that convert the energy of the Sun into
electricity. Solar power, though, is limited geographically to regions of the Earth
where sunshine is plentiful.
Another old source of heat is geothermal power, referring to the heat that seeps
out of the earth in places such as hot springs. In the past this heat was used
directly, but in the modern world it is also used indirectly to produce electricity.
Geothermal power is restricted, however, by the limited number of suitable sites
for tapping it.
Finally, wind power is getting a closer look. For centuries, people have
harnessed the power of the wind to turn windmills, using the energy to
accomplish work. Its future development, is hampered by limitations on the
number of sites with enough wind and by concerns about large numbers of wind
turbines marring the landscape, causing noise, or harming nearby bird
populations.
Non-Nuclear Alternative and Renewable Energy Sources
Although some sources of energy fit both categories, alternative energy generally
refers to energy not requiring fossil fuels while renewable energy refers to energy
from sources that can be replenished. Examples of both alternative and
renewable energy sources include energy derived from sunlight, tides, wind,
biofuels, and geothermal sources. About 18 percent of the world's energy comes
from renewable or alternative sources, and 3 percent comes from nuclear power.
Technically, nuclear power, because it is based on the energy emitted by certain

5. radioactive materials as they degrade is not a renewable resource.
Renewable energy sources are advantageous from a climate standpoint because
they produce fewer, if any, greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide (CO2).
Renewable energy can also be obtained with less degradation to the
environment than non-renewable sources of energy.
Energy policies must, however, also be carefully considered. Even alternative
energy production can have unintended negative consequences. The continued
production of biofuels from crops such as corn may prove to be problematic, as
the quantities of the crop needed to generate meaningful amounts of biofuel
make less corn available for food, particularly for the raising of cattle. More
importantly, the energy needed to generate the biofuel often exceeds the energy
that becomes available in the final product. For example, the conversion of corn
to biofuel requires almost 30 percent more energy than the fuel produced, and
conversion of sunflowers requires over 100 percent more energy than the fuel
produced. This negative energy balance limits the use of biofuel as a major
renewable energy source.
According to the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), on a global
scale, and despite a global economic recession, investment in power production
relying on alternative energy sources are on the increase. Overall investment
increased in spite of declines in investments in biofuel programs and investments
in power production utilizing wind energy grew by 14 percent in 2009 and 2010.
Other sectors, including investment in new battery technology and other forms of
energy storage rose by more than 30 percent. United Nations Sustainable
Energy Finance Initiative officials asserted that because prices were generally
declining for alternative energy hardware, the lower costs resulted in greater
production capacity per dollar invested.
UNEP estimated that alterative and renewable energy accounted for more than
half of the new energy production capacity in the United States. Globally, new
production of energy from alternative sources surpassed new production
dependent upon fossil fuels in 2011.

6. In December 2010, climate negotiators at the COP16 summit in Cancun, Mexico,
reached agreements to secure and allocate $100 billion in funding to poorer
nations that was promised as part of the 2009 Copenhagen Accord. The money
is also intended to promote alternative energy use in developing nations.
Energy policies can also be internationally contentious. There are also calls to
review the distribution of investments in renewable and alternative energy
development. In 2010, about 25 percent of the estimated $160 billion global
investment in renewable energy went to projects in rapidly industrializing Brazil,
China, and India. Only about 10 percent was spent directly in poorer countries.
in January 2011, during his annual State of the Union Address to Congress, U.S.
President Barack Obama set ambitious green energy goals. Linking current
engineering challenges to the early Space Race, Obama called for funding that
would produce Sputnik-like breakthroughs in renewable energy research. Obama
declared that "this is our generation's Sputnik moment," referencing the fact that
just as the Soviets beat the Americans into space, other countries (especially
China) are currently leading the U.S. in renewable energy research investment.
Obama set forth a race-to-the-moon-like goal of having 80 percent of American
households fueled by renewable or cleaner fuel sources before 2035. Just as
increased funding was essential to the success of the American space program,
Obama called for increased research funding to spur modern advances in
nuclear, wind, solar, and clean-coal technologies.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), by August 2011,
renewable sources of energy produced nearly 12 percent of U.S. energy needs.
K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, editors.
Apt, France.
November, 2011
Contributing editors K. Lee Lerner (scholar.harvard.edu/kleelerner) and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner's (scholar.harvard.edu/brendawilmothlerner) combined
portfolio includes respected journalism, book, and media awards, including multiple RUSA Book and Media Awards, as well as books named
Outstanding Academic Titles. They are cofounders of LMG (London, Paris, Cambridge) Additional information may be found at
scholar.harvard.edu/kleelerner and scholar.harvard.edu/brendawilmothlerner

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