NATURAL GAS: THE TRANSITION FUEL
Chapter 5. Building the Solar/Hydrogen Economy
Lester R. Brown, Eco-Economy: Building an Economy for the Earth
(W.W. Norton & Co., NY: 2001).
Over the last half-century, the use of natural
gas has increased 12-fold. Indeed, in 1999 natural gas eclipsed
coal as a world source of energy, making it second only to oil.
(See Figure 5-5.) This growth in natural gas use is fortuitous,
because as this energy source grows, the storage and distribution
systemwhether
long-distance pipelines or the detailed distribution networks within
cities that supply natural gas to individual residencesis
also expanding, setting the stage for the eventual switch to a hydrogen
economy.53
Natural gas could overtake oil as the world's leading source of
energy within the next 20 years, particularly if an anticipated
downturn in oil production comes in this decade rather than the
next. Natural gas has gained in popularity both because it is a
clean-burning source of energy and because it is less carbon-intensive
than either coal or oil. It emits scarcely half as much carbon as
coal does for each unit of energy produced. In contrast to both
coal and oil, which often emit sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxides
when burned, gas burns cleanly.54
It is this clean-burning quality that has appealed to governments
as a way of reducing air pollution. In China, for example, shifting
from coal to natural gas for both industrial and residential uses
is reducing the urban air pollution that has claimed literally millions
of lives in recent years. As part of its long-term planning, China
is building a new pipeline from gas fields discovered in its far
northwest to the city of Lanzhou in Gansu Province. The government
has also approved the import of natural gas and is now planning
to build a pipeline linking Russia's Siberian gas fields with Beijing
and Tianjin, both leading industrial cities.55
Natural gas's potential to play a central role in the transition
from the fossil fuel era to the solar/hydrogen era has not escaped
the more progressive leaders in this industry. For example, Gasunie,
the Netherlands natural gas utility, expects to be a major player
in this transition. Although Gasunie now transports natural gas
from the North Sea gas fields across the Netherlands to other countries
in Europe, the firm plans eventually to use offshore wind power
to generate electricity, converting it into hydrogen that will then
be moved through the pipeline system now used for natural gas.56
In the United States, Enron, a Texas-based natural gas company that
in recent years has become a global energy company, is also keenly
aware of the part it can play in the transition to the new energy
economy. In recent years, it has purchased two wind companies, which
gives it the capacity to exploit the vast wind resources of Texas.
This abundance of wind to generate cheap electricity and produce
hydrogen gives Enron the option of one day feeding the hydrogen
into the same distribution network of pipelines that it now uses
to distribute natural gas in the Northeast and Midwest.57
A similar situation exists in China, where the development of natural
gas fields in the northwest and the pipelines used to carry the
gas eastward to industrial cities could one day be used to carry
hydrogen produced with the region's wealth of wind resources. (The
installation of wind turbines along with the more traditional windbreaks
of trees in areas where soil is vulnerable to wind erosion could
also help control erosion and the dust storms that blow across the
country to Beijing and other cities.)
Natural gas companies are well positioned to be leaders in building
the solar/hydrogen economy. They may someday invest in wind electric
generation in remote regions that have a wealth of wind, and then
use that electricity to electrolyze water and produce hydrogen.
This could then be exported in liquid form, much as natural gas
is now compressed into liquid form for shipping in tankers.
ENDNOTES:
53.
Figure 5-5 from Dunn, op. cit. note 4.
54. Gregg Marland, "Carbon Dioxide Emissions Rates for Conventional
and Synthetic Fuels," Energy, vol. 8, no. 12 (1983); DOE, EIA, Impacts
of the Kyoto Protocol on US Energy Markets and Economic Activity
(Washington, DC: October 1998), p. 95.
55. EIA, "Country Analysis Brief: China" (Washington, DC: DOE, April
2001), www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/china.html.
56. Lester R. Brown and Christopher Flavin, "A New Economy for a
New Century," in Lester R. Brown et al., State of the World 1999
(New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1999), p. 17.
57. Enron purchases of solar companies (Zond in the United States
and Tacke in Germany) from AWEA and from Enron Wind, "Enron Forms
Enron Renewable Energy Corp.," press release (Houston, TX: 6 January
1997).
Copyright
© 2001 Earth Policy Institute
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