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The National Academies Summit on America's Energy Future Summary of a Meeting (2008) / Chapter Skim
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8 Other Renewable Sources of Energy
Pages 59-62

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From page 59...
... SOLAR POWER AND WIND POWER Hydropower, which is a fairly mature energy source in the United States, was discussed very little at the summit. But several speakers touched on the prospects for greatly expanding the use of solar power and wind power.
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From page 60...
... [And] as wind power grows rapidly in certain parts of the United States and the world, we need a storage approach." Today, intermittent sources of electricity, such as wind or solar power, can make electricity grids unstable. To manage large amounts of renewable power generation, smart grids using advanced power electronics and electrical storage devices are needed to manage the transmission and distribution of electricity from where it is produced to where it is being used.
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From page 61...
... "If we can figure out how to exploit it, it could be developed in the large megawatt range." There are no scientific showstoppers to exploiting this resource, said Reicher, but there are "great engineering challenges." No such system has been developed anywhere in the world; existing geothermal energy sources rely on heated water and steam that is near the surface of the earth. Furthermore, exploiting this resource requires that holes be drilled as deep as 10 kilometers into the earth and that rocks be fractured at great depths.
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From page 62...
... There are 30 companies in Australia working at this today, and we're playing catch up." ADVANCED ENERGY R&D Orbach also discussed ways of generating energy that will require what he called "transformational discoveries" in basic research. Over the past 5 years the Energy Department has conducted a series of workshops on basic research needs for a secure energy future, examining such topics as superconductivity, the hydrogen economy, solid-state lighting, advanced nuclear reactor designs, energy storage, and materials science.
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Key Terms

  • wind power
  • energy storage
  • energy future
  • solar energy
  • geothermal energy

  • enhanced geothermal
  • compressed air
  • energy department
  • air energy
  • intermittent sources

  • oil industry
  • power grows
  • existing gas
  • air storage
  • energy source

  • energy sources
  • power hydropower
  • energy producers
  • storage approach
  • renewable power

  • existing geothermal
  • power electronics
  • converting solar
  • generating energy
  • storage devices

  • using advanced
  • aboveground storage
  • smart grids
  • unlike solar
  • grids using


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