Background
The current global energy situation has been deteriorating for many years, resulting in many massive failures of the existing power supply system:
The Great Northeast Blackout of 1965
More than 80,000 square miles and over 30 million people throughout eastern U.S. and Canada are left in the dark for many hours.
The New York Blackout of July 1977
After multiple lightening strikes knocked out power to all of the New York City area, 8 million people were left without power . This blackout triggered mass arson and looting across the city, costing businesses and residents millions in damages.
The Northwestern Blackout of 1996
Transmission lines sagged into a grove of trees, causing an electrical short that knocked out power to more than 4 million residents of Oregon, California, and several other western U.S. states.
Eastern North America August 14-15, 2003
Over 50 million people lose power, some for days across the Midwestern U.S., around the Great Lakes and into Canada, apparently due to a technical problem with a series of transmission lines called "The Lake Erie Loop". The biggest power failure in U.S. history cost hundreds of millions of dollars in lost business, and crippled many key facilities for days.
October 2, 2003 Italian blackout blamed on falling branch
A storm-tossed tree branch that hit Swiss power lines helped trigger a massive blackout covering almost all of Italy. It trapped thousands on trains and even forced the Pope to use a back-up generator to proclaim his new cardinals.
The blackout underlined the dangers of Italy's reliance on imported power. It was Italy's worst power cut since the Second World War. Most of the country's 58 million people were affected - more than in North America's biggest blackout, which left 50 million people without power in Canada and the United States on August 14, 2003. As experts tried to determine the cause, none of the three countries involved wanted to take the blame. Swiss and French energy officials said the responsibility was Italy's, while the Italians noted that the power cut came from France. Initial investigations indicated a chain reaction that started in Switzerland and moved through France.
August 28, 2003 London, England
A massive power outage occurred in many parts of London on August 28, 2003. It was the largest blackout in South East England since the 1987 storm, affecting an estimated 500,000 people Even before the blackout, the UK media was anticipating a UK equivalent of the 2003 US-Canada blackout, which occurred two weeks earlier (August 14) and affected about 100 times more people. For example, on August 15, The Daily Express had reported that the National Grid might not be able to cope with predicted power surges in the winter of 2004.
On the day of the blackout London Mayor Ken Livingstone declared the situation a "catastrophic failure of our electrical power system".
Notable Quotations
"Without a clear, coherent energy strategy for the nation, all Americans could go through what Californians have experienced, or worse…..the aim here is efficiency, not austerity…the nation cannot simply conserve or ration our way out of the situation we are in." Vice President Dick Cheney Presidential Task Force on Energy (Associated Press General Meeting May 2001)
"A number of leading geologists and oil consultants are publishing the results of a new study…their calculations suggest that global production of cheap crude oil - the lifeblood of the global economy - could peak before the year 2010, but no later than 2020." - Jeremy Rifkin, "The Hydrogen Economy"
"To talk about "the hydrogen economy" is to talk about a world that is fundamentally different from the one we know now. A hydrogen economy will mean a world where our pollution problems are solved and where our need for abundant and affordable energy is secure…and where concerns about dwindling resources are a thing of the past." - Spencer Abraham, U.S. Secretary of Energy (from U.S. Department of Energy National Hydrogen Energy Roadmap Nov. 2002)
Today, the North American and much of the Western world's power supply industry is in a state of crisis, although perhaps not as "visible" on a daily basis as the Oil Crisis of 1973. In the United States, domestic energy production peaked in 1970 and has been steadily decreasing since. The current system cannot continue to attempt to fulfill the rising demand by an energy-hungry Western world combined with many rapidly developing, expanding Third World nations. Presently, we consume about two barrels of conventional crude oil for every new barrel discovered. The negative effects of continuous fossil fuel use on the global environment are being felt in every corner of the Earth, as we continue to desperately search, produce and burn more fossil fuels. Since the majority of electric power in the U.S. originates from fossil-fuel fired generating plants, an increase in energy production equals a proportionate increase in emissions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants, which contribute to the global warming problems.
Serious geo-political concerns (currently the politically unstable, volatile Middle East controls about 30% of all known oil reserves), the availability of abundant new fuels, rising exploration, production and retail costs of natural gas and crude oil all demonstrate that reliable, secure, affordable energy sources are needed now, not in thirty years.
An ideal solution would be one that increases domestic power output without the requisite increase in fossil fuel burning and resultant effluence. A new economic model, based on affordable, reliable, domestically-produced hydrogen, would resolve the world's fundamental energy supply, security, pollution and greenhouse gas emission issues.
Recent legislation in California and across much of the U.S. has mandated much more stringent controls on automotive emission standards, forcing every automaker to scramble to reinvest shrinking corporate profits into new hydrogen and fuel cell powered cars and trucks - many of which will not be launched for mass production for several years, and much later if the supply and distribution of hydrogen is limited to much lower levels than we currently have for gasoline and diesel. General Motors and Toyota are leading these efforts, GM having publicly revealed a new hydrogen fuel cell concept car at the September 2002 Paris Car Show and at the Detroit Auto Show in January 2003. One of the primary stumbling blocks of this hydrogen usage model in the automotive fuel cell segment is the prototypical "chicken and egg" scenario. What must come first - thousands of hydrogen-fueled cars and trucks on the road or the widespread distribution of inexpensive fuel to power them? Currently there are no public commitments from the major fuel retailers to convert the over 176,000 retail stations across the United States to delivering hydrogen until there is enough true demand. And if there were, full conversion and deployment could be several years away.
The field of alternate energy has largely surfaced out of this energy supply and production crisis, endeavoring to provide an economically-friendly, yet energy-viable solution. The alternate energy industry is most well known for its research and development on the fuel cell, popularized by more than forty fuel cell firms across North America and Europe. Though fuel cell companies do produce clean power and some trade publicly with established capital values in the billions of dollars, the practical application of the technology is significantly limited due to the high installed cost, especially for PEM-based fuel cell organizations. For this reason, the fuel cell has not been widely adopted as it is simply not an economically feasible solution in such applications as home and commercial energy, automotive, fleet transportation, stationary, government/military and micro/portable fuel cells.
The stage is set: Alternate Energy Corporation owns an affordable, reliable, scaleable, on-demand, high-grade hydrogen production process that is capable of handling many of these complex energy needs, globally.
Sources:
Washington Post, "Fight Ahead on Emissions - McCain, Lieberman Plan Push for Greenhouse Gas Limits", Eric Pianin, Tuesday, January 7, 2003; Page A04
National Energy Policy, Chapter 1 - Taking Stock: Energy Challenges Facing the United States
UTC Fuel Cells Website - FAQ Section, http://www.utcfuelcells.com/commercial/faq.shtml
US Department of Energy Website, 2001 - Total US MegaWatt (MW) Demand - http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/usa.html#elec
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