Am I missing something? Have I slept through the current energy debates? Or has Thayer come up with a mechanism to accumulate and store large quantities of electricity until it is needed sometime later?

Cathy Zoi is quoted as saying, “You could fill up a 94-mile by 94-mile parcel in the southwest with curved mirrors and generate enough electricity for America.” Even the desert southwest has its occasional rainy day, sometimes several in a row, as well as a sun-blocking dust storm now and then. It is also subject to a daily occurrence called “night”, during which, if logic serves, the solar driver is not available. How many of the 8836 square miles, then, will be devoted to charging enough batteries or producing enough hydrogen for enough fuel cells to power America’s night-time load? And that load could be heavy if the millions of plug-in electric vehicles are plugged in for charging at home overnight. Obviously, solar is not the cure-all many of its advocates may hope it to be, nor will it eliminate reliance on fossil fuel though it certainly will reduce the demand.

Incidentally, anyone interested in seeing a practical application of solar power–though on a very small scale–should visit Quartzite, AZ when thousands of snowbirds park their RVs on the desert for the winter. Many have generators up to 10-kw for their super-luxury motor homes, but there also is a strongly committed contingent of solar devotees whose rigs are covered with panels maintaining a bank of heavy-duty golf-cart batteries which feed large inverters to power air-conditioners, microwave ovens, plasma TVs, coffee makers, etc.–all the comforts of home because, for many, the RV is home. Of course, they run the cook-top, refrigerator, water heater and catalytic space heaters on propane, but, hey!, no one is perfect. And they live very well, thank you.

As Professor Garmire points out, we need nuclear power, but unfortunately, the problem of spent-fuel disposal will continue to plague the industry as long as our intrepid Senate majority leader insists not in his constituents’ back yard. This despite the billions already spent on Yucca Mt. It seems absurd that some European countries can generate as much as 80% of their power with nuclear, but we can’t. Not only do we have to educate more engineers, but we also have to educate the public that still sees nuclear power from the perspective of Three Mile Island. And what if it does take seven to ten years from plan to fruition; if we don’t start now, ten years down the road we’ll look back and ask why didn’t we.

Reading all the varieties of problems “energy” provokes and the many solutions being proposed, studied, implemented, I was struck by a thought: I graduated from The Thayer School of Civil Engineering. In his investiture speech, Richard Couch pointed out,”…you don’t have an electrical or mechanical degree, you have an engineering degree from Dartmouth.” Perhaps it’s time to change the name to The Thayer School of Systems and Integration Engineering, for that is what they will be dealing with. If Thayer grads can manage the forest, the trees will do just fine. Carry on!

Hal Johnston ‘47