First Solar Road A Success in Netherlands--Oil Business as Usual in US

When you think about how much of the Earth's surface is covered in cement or asphalt, this idea makes a huge amount of sense. The Netherlands is home to the world's first solar road, and it is performing better than its builders expected. The 230 foot road between Krommenie and Wormerveer, suburbs of Amsterdam, was built for bike traffic only in a nation that loves bicycles. Still the road produced more than 70kwh/m² per year, the upper limit of laboratory tests.

The road is embedded with solar cells protected by two layers of safety glass and could withstand heavier traffic according to developers. They are working on cells that can withstand buses and trucks. Although road emplacements do not produce as much energy as solar arrays on buildings and fields, they take up less room and therefore can be installed in heavily populated areas. The Federal Highway Administration is yet to be convinced that a solar road is appropriate for all vehicular traffic. Cost of solar road installation is also a concern. Since November of last year, the Dutch solar road has produced 3,000 kwh of clean energy or enough to power a small household for one year.

Shell's Kulluk rig aground 12-31-2012

Update: On Tuesday the Port of Seattle asked that the arrival of Shell's drilling rigs be delayed, but the board did not rescind the lease signed earlier this year that allows Shell to use a 50 acred site near downtown. The decision to lease Terminal 5 has aroused considerable opposition among Seattle's activists. The city's progressive council has denounced the lease, but it does not control the port. Foss Maritime, Shell's contractor said the request will not delay preparations for the arrival of two large drilling rigs. Activists say they will use kayaks to block the company's operations.

In contrast to Netherlands' innovative approach to alternative energy is the current administration's business as usual with fossil fuel companies. On Tuesday the BOEM announced that Royal Dutch Shell would be allowed to resume offshore exploration in the Arctic. Environmental groups immediately criticized the decision as making a large oil spill in the unforgiving conditions of the Arctic inevitable. Even the captured regulator, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management put the chances of one or more major spills in the near future at 75% with 44-62% of the spilled crude staying in what is now a largely unpolluted marine ecosystem thirty days after the spill. Unlike the Gulf of Mexico's warm temperatures, volatile fractions will not evaporate in the cold Arctic climate. No company in the West has yet demonstrated an ability to clean up a spill, so essentially the federal government is saying the potential energy to be recovered is worth an environmental disaster.  The company still need seven more permits before exploration in the Chukchi Sea can begin.  A dispute is also brewing with the City of Seattle where Shell plans to dock its Arctic drilling rigs.

Ocean experts say such a irresponsible approach to stewardship is unfathomable when the energy in place (estimated at 24bn barrels) will be there one hundred years from now when methodology and infrastructure has improved. Currently the land area near the Beaufort and Chukchi Sea leases has only one road, no rail system, limited airport facilities, and the nearest Coast Guard station with spill equipment is more than a thousand miles away. Not only is there a lack of facilities, but by 2040 scientists say the Arctic Sea wil be ice-free in summer. Earthjustice, a public interest law firm specializing in environmental cases and which has filed suit against the use of Seattle port facilities, said the decision puts big oil before people. US Person says profit trumps common sense every time.