Small Changes to Stem Climate Change in Oregon
We ought to seize individual opportunities to be sustainable and support a culture of conservation.
Formerly the Mayor of Baker City; now just a wind farm owner/operator, audio engineer, bass player, woodworker, barista, entrepreneur, and general repairman.
It's becoming harder and harder to deny that our planet's climate is changing; the record heatwave in Oregon last month coupled with the intense drought has made it apparent that our current practices are not sustainable. While it might be long past time to adjust our behaviour, it's not too late to make some changes.
My family has been dabbling in renewable energy as long as I can remember, mainly because of a desire for self-sufficiency and to save money while living in rural areas prone to power outages and away from natural gas service. We ran a water line through our woodstove to feed the hot water heater and installed solar thermal panels to heat water for radiant floors. We made biodiesel out of waste vegetable oil to run our tractors, trucks, and equipment on. In 2010, we built a 3 megawatt wind farm on land in Baker County we leased from the Bureau of Land Management with refurbished wind turbines.
All of those things involved a disproportionate amount of work for the return on investment. While our reliance on fossil fuels was reduced, I can't say that these are things that individuals should all be doing to help alleviate the climate crisis. They are too difficult, too costly, or not sustainable enough in the long run. Luckily technology has finally begun to catch up with our energy needs. Convenient and accessible steps to reduce your carbon footprint are becoming more available. Utility companies have made grid tied systems easier to install, and solar panels have dropped in cost to $3-$5/watt installed. And, electric vehicles are viable options for an increasingly large part of the population.
Within the next year I plan to drive an all electric vehicle and install a 10 kilowatt solar farm to be net metered through our local utility. I estimate an 8-10 year payback period for the solar panels--they are good for approximately 25-30 years. This is achievable for just about anyone that owns their own home and is looking to purchase a new vehicle. I encourage anyone that can to do this as soon as possible. Creating more demand for these technologies as a consumer will lead to greater advancements and reductions in cost. Batteries without lithium or cobalt that can store a day's worth of electricity generated by solar panels integrated into a building's structure is achievable in our lifetime if we give it the push needed.
These small actions may not seem significant but as we cumulatively take more steps to shield our loved ones from the worst effects of climate change, we ought to do so in a thoughtful and deliberate way. For example, as Oregon gets hotter and drier, air conditioning will become more prevalent. Water flows (and subsequent hydroelectric generation) will be reduced. But an uptick in AC use doesn’t have to be unsustainable. Thankfully the demand for AC mirrors very closely the availability of solar energy. Electrical utilities can offset the inevitable increase in demand for electricity by encouraging more solar projects within their own customer base.
Please keep these ideas in your mind as you shop for a new vehicle or look for ways to reduce your electric bill. Climate change is a wicked problem that’s made worse by a ton of variables outside of any one person’s control. That’s why we ought to seize individual opportunities to be sustainable and support a culture of conservation.
Exactly!
Loran, what you're doing and thinking of doing parallel what we've done at our home (installing solar) and hope to do (purchase an EV or two), which will make use of the excess power we're now generating.
It seems to me that farms, ranches and rural homesites with acreage have a great asset to make use of -- namely, their land. Our ground-based solar takes up about 1.000 square feet in a south-facing portion of our three-acre parcel and helps to buffer noise from the adjacent roadway. More importantly, we're generating twice as much electricity as we use, four times as much in the summer even with three new window air conditioners. So I second your point about the happy coincidence of the increase in solar power to use when the need for AC is greatest.
Another factor that can work to promote the use of EVs in rural areas: the torque of battery power in tractors and pickup trucks. When my tractor can out pull your tractor and my pickup can beat yours, that will change the whole image of EVs, as the new battery-powered Ford F-150s are likely to do.
Let me add another small idea to the mix. In addition to subsidizing the purchase of new EVs, governments should extend their tax credits to the retrofitting of gas vehicles into EVs. That's being done on a small, cottage industry basis now without subsidies, as far as I know, for costs in the neighborhood of $10,000 or so. Plus, there's a carbon savings from using existing auto bodies rather than manufacturing them anew. With subsidies in the range of $10,000 for new EV purchases, the government could offer free conversions to those who want them and, here's the quid pro quo, those who commit to a gas tax alternative based in the form of a fee paid for miles driven. We'll still need roads in an EV world and will still have to pay for them.
There are lots of opportunities for small scale solar. If we think small, we can make big gains.
Tim Nesbitt