… why the Toquop power plant is a bad idea.

When I was managing software development projects, we had a saying:

If you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got.

There are some people with money who want to build a big, coal-fired power plant in the Nevada desert north of Las Vegas. (See my article Smoke Gets In Your Eyes.) Haven’t we done this before?

I admit, big coal-fired power plants do produce electricity. What else do they do?

• They belch forth oceans of the exhaust and gas that is ruining the Earth 
• They gulp down millions of gallons of water in a land that is almost wrung dry anyway
• They disembowel the Earth to rip out the coal they need, leaving wasteland behind
• They make investors, real estate developers, and casino owners rich!

That last factor may be the only real reason why this power plant has a very good chance of actually being built.

Another big thing is that it’s a great example of just doing what we always did so we don’t get a chance to get more than we always got. If we keep on doing what we keep on doing, there is a horrible crash in our future.

We desperately need a new idea.

But huge, new money and resource gobbling plants like this keep on making it hard for people who actually have a new idea to try it out. But maybe not any more. Some new people from way outside the equation have just entered the picture: Google. Yep. That’s right. The Internet search people.

Google plans on finding a new and better way to do it. Here’s the way they explain it on their own page:

RE<C (Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal)

“Clean and affordable energy is a growing need for our company, so we’re excited about launching RE<C, a strategic initiative whose mission is to develop electricity from renewable sources cheaper than electricity produced from coal. Initially, this project to create renewable energy cheaper than coal will focus on advanced solar thermal power, wind power technologies, and enhanced geothermal systems – but we’ll explore other potential breakthrough technologies too.

“We’re busy assembling our own internal research and development group and hiring a team of engineers and energy experts tasked with building 1 gigawatt of renewable energy capacity that is cheaper than coal. (That’s enough electricity to power a city the size of San Francisco.) Google’s R&D effort will begin with a significant effort on solar thermal technology, and will also investigate enhanced geothermal systems and other areas.”

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Enough renewable energy to power San Francisco cheaper than coal. Now that’s a new idea!

But this is serious stuff! How can we trust a company with a silly name like Google to do something this important. (Never mind that they’re beating Microsoft at their own game and they went from zilch to a market cap of over 200 billion dollars in just a few years.) Let’s look at the pro’s and con’s for a minute.

Pro: Their technologies won’t create global warming and create a downstream wind of noxious gas.

Pro: They won’t have to tear up the land and pollute the water.

Pro: It’s their money. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t come out of your pocket.

On the other hand, consider what would happen if the Toquop power plant turns out to be impractical. Like, for example, if Google shows that the abundant sunshine in the Nevada desert can really be turned into power cheaper than the Toquop plant can make it. Not only will we already have the destruction of the environment necessary to get the plant up and running, but these things are traditionally underwritten with a lot of public money. At the very least, a lot of ’mom and pop’ investors will lose their shirt. I’m not sure that we can say that with Toquop, “it’s their money”. Certainly, if it DOES work, I know who will get rich. But if it doesn’t, I think we’ll all get more poor.

This is why forward looking communities in Color Country like the town of Springdale are opposing the Toquop power plant. Last night (December 3), the Springdale Town Council officially passed Resolution 2007-12, opposing the construction of Toquop. Let’s just hope that it’s not too late.

If you want to read more about RE<C, visit Google’s site:

http://www.google.com/corporate/green/energy/index.html