Article ~ "Energy" by Andy Lau

Editor: One person who is adding to the public discussion about energy solutions is Andy Lau, an engineer, Penn State professor and Associate Director of the Penn State Center for Sustainability where a 100% solar-powered house has been constructed for the Solar Decathlon in Washington D.C. on October 12.

Lau works in solar energy, analyzes energy efficiency of buildings, does "green" design and was a founder of the Green Building Association of Central Pennsylvania. He will be one of two featured speakers, among 21 speaker/workshops, at The Conference for Wellness Through Natural Living at HACC, in Harrisburg, on September 29. His topic is "Beyond Oil: Envisioning a Solar Future." If you're thinking this sounds way too technical, here's what Andy says: "My goal is to translate the technical knowledge in a way that I hope is engaging and light-hearted. I will definitely work hard at not being boring—because then I would get bored too." In the following paragraphs, Andy shares his passionate view on living in relationship to the Earth.

The Earth is alive with energy, flowing from the sun, through all of the creatures and matter that make up this beautiful planet. I breathe in some of that energy with every breath, and I share part of me with every exhalation. Wind moves. Water rises and falls. There is so much power—yet it is subtle too. We can harmoniously tap into that natural power. As Fritjof Capra says in The Tao of Physics: "If one refrains from acting contrary to nature or, as Needham says, from 'going against the grain of things,' one is in harmony with the Tao and thus one's actions will be successful."

What would our human activity be like if it was built upon this recognition of harmony and abundant yet subtle power? It's hard to say in this age of fossil energy, built upon the ages-old residues of sunlight and life that has been dead for millennia. One thing is certain: each of us in the United States, other than the poor, would use a lot less energy than we've grown accustomed to in that flash of time known as the Industrial Revolution. How we get from here to there is daunting because we just assume that our current way of life is normal, and we can't easily imagine life any other way.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Agency, per capita energy use in 1998 was 352 million BTU. Given current energy prices, we pay about $15 per million BTU, so that costs each of us annually about $5,300 (352 x $15 = $5,300). Keep in mind that the $5,300 is for all of the energy we use, much of it indirectly in the products we purchase.

To put our modern energy use in perspective, let's estimate the number of people it would take to produce this average energy use.

A healthy adult can produce about 0.10 horsepower continuously, by pedaling a bicycle for instance. That's about 255 Btu/hr. Assuming a person works 2000 hours per year, the people equivalent of our energy use is 690 people (352,000,000 BTU / (255 BTU/hr x 2000 hr).

Wow. Stop a minute and think about that. Each of us, in a year, uses an amount of energy that it would take 690 people pedaling bicycles full-time to produce. If we paid those people a wage of $10 per hour, that would cost us 690 times 2000 times $10, or $13,800,000 a year!

Does that give you a sense of just how cheap fossil energy is? And how outrageously huge our energy appetite is?

So how do we bring our energy appetite in tune with more subtle solar energy flows? By far the greatest first step is to recognize our energy gluttony that arose from our disconnection with natural harmony. Our fundamental view of the world as a nonliving storehouse of riches for satisfying our every desire must be replaced with a view of the world as a wondrous living community that depends on our participation as stewards of this awesome place we call Earth.

It's time to apply our incredible mental powers not to finding new sources of fossil fuel but to discovering how we can fit into the harmony of thriving ecosystems.