The Washington State project is sort of the result and focus of a lot of things to do with CASA Earth. As I said in my first blog post, I have been worried about Climate Change for the last 40 yrs and realized it is now time to start preparing in earnest for its unavoidable impact. This is really not for me but rather for my children and grandchildren.
Early on, I thought, let’s save the World from Climate Change and build things that can be used to get clean, renewable energy. I came up with an idea for a utility scale ocean wave energy system, did my research and filed a patent 20 yrs ago, which was granted with 32 of 36 claims (this is pretty good!). Problem is, it is a near shore device that is visible, so nobody would consider it because it devalued their expensive beach front property. Also, during that time, wind and solar came down in cost to the point that there is really no need or interest in large scale wave energy even though it provides a more continuous source of power when the sun is not shining or wind not blowing (ocean waves can form thousands of miles away and still hit the shore on sunny or nighttime windless days). Oh, well.
Then I realized the achilles heel of renewable energy is storage of that clean power for those days when there is less sun or wind. The ugly secret is batteries can smooth renewable energy sources but for gigawatt power to keep large populations going for long periods or days, one needs utility scale base power systems that can come on line quickly like gas turbines or hydro if you have enough water capacity in reservoirs. (BTW, there are a number of other ways to store power but none at scale significant enough other than nuclear which has its own problems, not the least of which is that it takes 20 yrs to build a plant these days and that’s fast tracking the project through the nightmare of regulatory approvals.)
So then I went back to research alternatives and landed on synthetic methane (CH4) that can be generated by cracking water (H2O) with clean wind or solar energy and then combined with CO2 captured from the exhaust of said gas turbines at 99.5% efficiency so the CO2 gets re-used (this is called the Sabatier process that produces a molecule of CH4 and 2 molecules of H20 as a waste product) and does not contribute to greenhouse gas significantly. The good news is we can re-use the existing fossil based gas delivery and storage systems saving billions plus existing gas turbine energy generating facilities, saving more billions. The bad news is it would increase the cost of electricity by 50% which is politically unpalatable and no self respecting government bureaucrat would be re-elected so it is politically dead on arrival. I might add that increasing the cost of power is much cheaper than dealing with the impact of Climate Change and it might even encourage a bit more conservation!
At this point, several years ago, I realized we have seen the enemy and he is us. Hence CASA and it will be up to us to find ways to get through until either we stop emitting greenhouse gases or enough members of humanity are impacted as mother nature culls the herd, so to speak.
Having hit a number of dead ends but not wanting to give up quite yet, I then starting thinking about how best to get through the coming challenges. I guess you could move to the Alaska wilderness like Life Below Zero, but you would need hundreds of square miles to support a single person or family and oh by the way, it is warming up there at 2-4x the rate of the lower latitudes. If you were rich enough, you could buy an island if one were available or reserve a condo in an old Titan missile complex (of course you might run out food eventually). All of this depends on what level of financial resources you have and how far you might want to go to hedge against things getting ugly.
My personal compromise is to invest in a family farm that can grow and sell farm to table goods to be self sustaining economically and if things got sketchy, be able to keep the family going all by itself. So this then creates a list of questions such as: How many people do you want to support sustainably? In my case, it is up to 25 and at 1-2 acres per person that means around 50 acres of farmable land. What temperature ranges make sense? Well, if you go to NOAA and look at the projections for a given area, they can tell you what the climate models predict and for the Washington project it is currently averaging 72 – 74 degs in the summer but is expected to go up to 80 deg in the next 20yrs. How about rain and available water aquifers? While California bakes, burns and has droughts, this area is expected to see not too much change in overall rainfall but it might come in heavier storms and the aquifer is basically untouched, so plenty of water. How is the land? Sandy loam soil, reasonably level, good southern sun exposure for solar, enough wind, far enough from metro areas but still accessible for an evening out. Many things to consider that fit into one’s lifestyle now and in the future. Not to be a broken record, but this is what CASA is about, helping you define what would work best and getting it done.
Once I had defined what would work best, it took a year of looking to find the property. It is approximately 50 acres (47.5 to be exact) with good soil, plenty of water and not more than 3-4 percent slope for irrigation purposes. If you have seen the picture on the Who We Are page, you can see it also has a great view of Mt. Rainier and we were very fortunate to get it. Now we are starting the architectural phase with an owner’s residence, ranch house and large barn. The property will be fully self sustainable for energy and food capable of supporting 25 people indefinitely if needed, but in the meantime, selling farm to table goods plus providing a working demonstration in sustainability to those interested in developing a similar situation is part of the plan.
None of this means we all shouldn’t be doing everything to reduce our carbon footprint right now. This is a big project and not everyone has the means to go and do it. That said, there are lots of places where an existing family farm could be purchased or where a collaborative community situation could be developed. Starting by putting a plan in place and working towards it does not need to be expensive. For us, this is a 5yr plan and we are 2 yrs in. However, I think by 2030, there is a greater than zero risk that we will know much better how bad it is going to get (or not – I hope) and choices may be harder to realize. Stay tuned!!
SZ