by Cheryl Batavia

Let There Be Light/ A Clean-Energy Future

Ruins of Great Western Iron Smelting Furnace, Tennessee, 1855-1856. The furnace burned charcoal, and temperatures in the furnace reached 3,000 degrees F. Photo used by permission of the photographer.

Let There Be Light

Where there is sunshine,

let there be solar farms…

Let there be light!

Solar farm in Germany. Photo by Marcus Spiske from Unsplash

Where there is wind,

let there be turbines…

Let there be energy!

Wind Turbines. Photo by Jason Blackeye from Unsplash

Where there is flowing water,

let there be hydroelectric plants…

Let there be power!

Vintage Hydroelectric Plant, West Virginia. Photo courtesy of the photographer.

Where there are ocean waves,

let there be wave-power generation…

Let there be electricity!

Gulf of Mexico, Florida Beach. Photo by Eve Ellen Maher

When people travel,

let them drive electric cars…

Let there be zero emissions!

Charging station in the Netherlands. Photo by Fer Troulik from Unsplash

Where there is imagination,

let there be innovation…

Let there be clean energy!

Photo by Alessandro Bianchi from Unsplash

Wherever children have dreams,

let their dreams be fulfilled…

Let there be clean energy for all!

Photo by Nathan Dumlao from Unsplash

A Clean-Energy Future

Although we might like an instant, one-size-fits-all source of clean energy, it may not exist. It seems that we need to work with mother nature to develop solutions using local resources. It also seems that reducing the use of fossil fuels will be a gradual process. We will continue using some fossil fuels for quite some time.

Mine cave-ins, black lung, oils slicks, acid rain, micro-plastic waste in our food supply and our bodies, toxic petrochemicals in insecticides and household cleaning products, landfills filled with non-biodegradable plastics, water pollution, smog, and climate change are a few of the problems associated with fossil fuels. Fossil fuels threaten our environment and pose risks to our health.

Clean-energy solutions have problems too. Dams can disrupt ecosystems and cause extinction of species; solar panels require rare minerals to manufacture them and have a limited lifespan; some wind turbine designs are hazardous to birds.

Heat pumps, geothermal heating systems, and river turbines are examples of clean- energy systems that may be useful in certain locations. Older river turbines were hazardous to fish, but newer designs don’t harm them.

Electric cars, one important clean energy measure, currently have a top range of 300-500 miles. There are insufficient numbers of charging stations at the present time. Batteries have been manufactured with toxic ingredients that present disposal problems. Scientists are currently developing batteries with cheaper, non-toxic chemicals and greater range between charges. A too-rapid increase in the number of electric vehicles would overburden energy grids.

Atomic power plants, which use nuclear fission, are subject to melt-downs and radiation leaks. Fission has great destructive potential. Nuclear fusion holds promise for the future as a safer alternative, if it can ever be made practical.

There are no simple fixes. Solving our problems requires dedication and commitment. It requires cooperation among many professions and among all nations.

Atomic Power Plant, Belgium. Photo by Frederic Paulussen from Unsplash

*My thanks to Robert Snyder for consulting on this article. There are many YouTube videos about developments in clean-energy technologies.

Copyright © 2023 by Cheryl Batavia

45 Comments

  3. Unknown's avatar

    Thank you for this interesting and well balanced article. Better, cleaner, and cheaper energy storage is important for renewables but there are some recent interesting developments. I think we will get there. My home country Sweden has a fossil free grid but they are combining, as of yet intermittent renewables, with hydro and nuclear.

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    1. Unknown's avatar

      Thank you, Cindy, for your lovely response. ❤ Watching Hurricane Idalia on the news prompted me to write the poem. I hope she is our last hurricane this season! California having a tropical storm is a frightening development. The wildfires and earthquakes are enough already!

      Hope you and your family are doing well, Cindy! ❤ ❤ ❤

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  10. Unknown's avatar

    This is not only thought provoking post, but also action oriented one, as we have to take a call, e.g. opting for electric cars, installing solar panels, using less energy consuming devices etc. Nowadays I see new buildings coming up with solar panels that are used for heating water, dispensing with geysers. I’m sure that the so-called non-conventional energies will become conventional in days to come. Thank you, Cheryl, for this timely post.👍💐💖

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      1. Unknown's avatar

        aha we are all enjoying spring very much! I just returned from my whale watching trip, and caught up with loads of friends up north. More videos to post once I edit them … nice to be home 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

  14. Unknown's avatar

    A very important message for all of us. I enjoyed the post. I feel like let the experiments be done catering to the future of mother nature. Everything we experiment is to bring the overall cost down instead of looking at what harm we are doing to mother nature. Its my opinion completely.

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    1. Unknown's avatar

      Thank you, Kritika, for your thoughtful response. ❤ I agree that cost is often the only consideration. That approach is coming back to haunt us! GMO foods sprayed with Roundup, a neurotoxin that makes us sick, toxic chemicals in cosmetics and household products, artificial ingredients in foods…the list goes on!

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  16. Unknown's avatar

    Clean energy – something we all so desperately need but don’t work enough towards it. If we all take even one baby step towards the direction, the change will be massive and that’s a commitment we need to make towards our planet.

    Very well written post! 👌👌

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  18. Unknown's avatar

    Wow, I never knew that things like solar panels, electric cars, wind turbines, and dams can have negative effects too. We really need to keep working towards saving our planet. We’re starting to make changes, but its not enough. It could be if we all worked together to fight it though. Unfortunately, for big companies, working against climate change can be anti-capitalist so they don’t care.

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  19. Unknown's avatar

    Considering all the problems with producing energy and electricity from fossil and non-fossils, think about how we can do without using as much as we do now. That should ve part of our planning. In case the planned new sources do not work out.

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