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Repower America is a proposal to convert the U.S. to 100% clean electricity in 10 years. This a project of Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection. Mostly this plan can be implemented with existing technology. The plan can be improved upon as new technology comes online in the next five to ten years. A top level description can be viewed at repoweramerica.org. Note the analysis page that specifies how the goals for the plan will be acheived. Note also that this proposal has a good base a support.
Three Main Components
1. Energy Efficiency. One of the most important and least costly methods of converting to a clean electricity ecomony is become more efficient in our use of electricity.
2. Renewable Generation. We can use existing technology to scale up our use wind, solar and geothermal.
3. National Unified Smart Grid. What we need is a rebuilt infrastructure for efficiently moving electricity long distances to where it is needed. This is doable with existing technology.
Benefits of Repower America
1. 100% Clean Electricity. All our electrical needs for residential and commerical buildings and industrial processes would be come from non-carbon emitting sources.
2. Clean Plug-in Cars. Repowered America would supply the electricity to allow us to largely eliminate the use of CO2 emitting fuels (including ethanol) for automobiles. Additionally, there is the potential for electric car batteries to act as supplemental battery storage for the national unified smart electric grid.
How Does This Relate to Appropriate Technology Projects?
For those promoting sustainability and appropriate technology, being knowledgeable about doable, practical, comprehensive national repowering plans is important. We can help move the country towards the political will to implement a plan such as Repower America. As we work on how-to's and appropriate technology projects today, we can also plan for and discuss how today's projects connect with and prepare us for our "repowered future". Also, we can evaluate the planning and political will in our state and in our community. Are my local and state governments promoting a national repower plan in ten years? If not, why not? Related to this are Community Action Plans. Does my community have a Climate Action Plan? Is it complete? Is it ambitious? Is it dependent on and supportive of implementing a comprehensive national energy plan?
Other Similar Proposals
There are a number of other similar proposals for a retooled U.S. Energy policy. One comprehensive example is Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free, Arjun Makhijani, IEER Press, 2007, 257 pages. It is fully referenced and provides a detailed feasibility study for changing to clean energy. Makhijani has received much favorable peer review for this work. You can download it free or order it from Amazon, etc.