Solar Water Heating--Revised & Expanded Edition. Bob Ramlow

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СКАЧАТЬ fuels and electricity.

      How can this be? First, the fossil fuel companies are among the richest corporations in the world, with tremendous influence in politics. For nearly a century they have manipulated the government into granting them numerous tax breaks and outright payments that are not enjoyed by any other class of corporation. The end result is that they pay little if any tax but significantly influence how our tax dollars are spent. They have managed to get the government to pay for lots of expensive research for their industry.

      The costs to the environment of using fossil fuels are also hidden. Burning fossil fuels releases carbon into the atmosphere, leading to global climate changes that will disrupt life as we know it on every corner of the Earth. The costs of dealing with these changes will be astronomical and are directly linked to burning fossil fuels. When we burn fossil fuels, especially coal, we release into the atmosphere chemicals that cause acid rain, polluting our rivers, lakes and soil. Acid rain kills wildlife, trees and vegetation and degrades our buildings, roads and anything else exposed to it. Although we are already paying some of the costs to fix these problems, we are not paying them all. Eventually, someone will have to pay them.

      Then there are health-related costs. Whenever we burn any fossil fuel, we release air pollutants that harm our health. Our health insurance costs go up to help pay for the care required by those most affected. Our taxes are increased to help pay for those who cannot afford their own care, and our general health care costs go up for the same reason. Again, we do not pay these costs at the pump or with our utility bills.

      Some of our electricity is generated in nuclear power plants. The waste generated by these plants is one of the most toxic substances known to humanity. We have no clue how to safely dispose of it. We can send people to the moon, but we have not figured out how to deal with these incredibly toxic waste products. Undoubtedly, if we do figure out a way to safely dispose of them, it will be incredibly expensive. This cost is not included when we pay our electricity bill. We also invite you homeowners and renters to read the fine print of your insurance policies. Note that if there is ever an accident involving nuclear fuel or waste, your insurance policy does not cover that. Ask the people living around the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, whose lives were devastated by the nuclear accident there, how they feel. We will guarantee you that they are not happy. Many lost everything.

      Assigning a true cost to the use of fossil fuels relates directly to solar water heaters and any other renewable energy system. Admittedly, it costs money to invest in renewable energy equipment. Often, people will look at that cost and say that it is just too much more than using fossil fuels. When you get to this point, please remember the above discussion. How much higher should the costs of fossil fuels really be? Twice as expensive? Three times? Four times? Experts who have spent considerable time researching this issue have calculated that these costs are five times more than the bill we pay at the pump or meter.

      While these true costs are not reflected in our bills, we do see that the price we pay tends to increase every year. In order to understand where fossil fuel prices are heading, we first have to understand what has happened in the past. Having a handle on energy price inflation is basic to understanding the economic impacts of investing in solar thermal energy systems.

A Brief History of Fossil Fuels

      Soon after oil was first discovered in the mid-1800s there was a glut, keeping its price very low. With the advent of mass-produced automobiles, there was a steady demand for oil, and prices became stable, rising at a rate at or slightly above the inflation rate. During World War II, fossil fuels were diverted to the war effort, so they became hard to get and more expensive. After the war, fuel again became plentiful and relatively inexpensive. During the postwar period, per-capita consumption of fossil fuels skyrocketed.

      It is important to note that until the 1970s, almost all the oil used in the United States was produced here. In 1970 the United States reached peak oil production while demand continued to escalate. About 1996, imported oil overtook domestically produced oil for use in US consumption.

       The Oil Embargo

      Beginning in 1973, political factors caused a shortage of oil in the worldwide market, followed by a global recession. The shortage continued through the early 1980s. The OPEC oil embargo made people think about how they used energy, and energy conservation became common practice. For the first time, people began to talk about running out of oil on a large scale. In fact, though, during this period there was plenty of oil available and in the ground. The oil spigots could have been opened at any time and the crisis would have been over in a day. In fact, this is essentially what happened in the mid-1980s.

       Peak Oil and Natural Gas

      Today we are facing an oil shortage much different than that of the ’70s and ’80s. We are entering the era of peak oil. There are many good books on this subject, such as The Party’s Over by Richard Heinberg, so we will not go into a lot of detail here. But essentially, today we are at a turning point in the history of modern civilization because the production of oil is at its peak; it will never grow larger, as it has in the past. At the same time, worldwide demand for oil is growing faster than at any time in history. As a result, the price of oil will continue to rise while the supply will decrease. It is important to note that Earth’s oil supply is not entirely depleted. About one-half of all the oil there ever was is still left in the ground. The reality is that we have reached peak oil production, while demand for oil continues to rise at record levels. For some time there will still be oil to be had, but producing it will become increasingly more expensive.

      You are probably wondering why we have been discussing oil at such length. Though oil is rarely used to heat water, the price of oil affects the price of all other forms of energy. When it goes up, they do too. This is especially true for electricity. It takes large amounts of oil to mine coal, the basic feedstock of most of our electrical generating capacity in the US. It takes oil to mine and process uranium to feed our nuclear power plants. Oil is used in the natural gas exploration and distribution industry. Our society is completely and utterly dependent on a constant flow of cheap oil. As we enter the peak oil era, its price will continue to rise, with no end in sight.

      The same holds true for natural gas, which is used to heat water. We have now reached peak natural gas production in North America, where all the natural gas used in the United States is produced. We will never be able to produce more natural gas than today, even if demand rises (which it is doing). When the United States reached peak oil production in 1970, this was a significant milestone, but it was not devastating to our economy or culture. The oil companies could inexpensively import oil from other parts of the world. All they had to do was to build inexpensive oil tankers to ship foreign oil to the US. This is not the case for natural gas. It takes very sophisticated and expensive ships to import natural gas from foreign sources. Also, expensive and sophisticated terminals must be built at both the shipping and receiving ports. This infrastructure is not in place and it will take many years and a substantial investment to create it. This will significantly affect the price of natural gas in the future. The bottom line is that the cost of natural gas will also continue to rise, with no end in sight.

Life-Cycle Costing

      People often ask, “Why would I consider purchasing a solar water heater that costs several thousand dollars when I can purchase a gas or electric water heater for only several hundred dollars?” The answer lies in the fact that they do not think about life-cycle costing. Life-cycle costing adds the original cost of a piece of equipment to its operating cost over the equipment’s lifetime, or at least over a certain amount of time. Using an analysis like life-cycle costing gives an accurate СКАЧАТЬ