Life without energy would mean life without lights, refrigerators, TVs or even traffic lights. Few things would operate as normal.
As concern grows about the future of traditional energy supplies like coal and natural gas, Madison sits blessed with a variety of renewable energy sources such as strong winds and fast-growing crops. Every barrel of oil replaced with these renewable resources reduces the pollution contributed to the environment.
Madison's first alternative, wind power, is already being implemented, thanks to a local power company, but biomass-derived energy has yet to be tapped. Biomass-derived energy uses trees, grasses, agricultural and food processing wastes, and even manure as the functional equivalent of coal and fossil fuels.
In a process called photosynthesis, plants use sunlight for growth. In this process, the plant combines carbon dioxide from the air and water from the ground to produce oxygen and energy. That energy is then stored in the plant in the form of carbohydrates is released when the plant is burned or converted into a fuel.
In some areas, such as the Southwest, sunlight is harvested for energy directly in a system much like solar power, called photovoltaics. In Madison, too many gloomy days make direct sunlight harvesting implausible. Biomass harvesting allows the plants to get the sun's energy and then convert it to usable energy.
\Biomass is a good use of solar energy in Wisconsin because the lack of sunshine in this climate makes photovoltaics quite expensive,"" said Richard Shaten, faculty associate at the UW-Madison Institute for Environmental Studies. ""Biomass is not as environmentally dangerous as traditional electricity sources like coal and nuclear fuels. Even hydroelectric energy has negative environmental impacts, including dramatic changes to surrounding ecosystems.""
There is a broad spectrum of materials that can be used in biomass-derived energy. Wood chips and other woody material can be burned to produce heat, steam or electricity.
""Shredded chips with coal and recycled rubber pellets can also be burned to produce both low pressure steam for heating houses and high pressure steam for generation of electricity,"" Shaten said.
Farm products, such as corn, can be treated with chemicals to produce liquid fuels such as methanol, ethanol and biomass-based diesel substitutes for automobiles and other vehicles. Brazil operates about 40 percent of its vehicles on ethanol. Gases formed by waste materials and decaying biomass can be collected and used as fuel to generate electricity and heat.
Biomass serves as an important fuel for wood and paper product industries as well as for farm power and food processing facilities. Power plants in some states, such as Maine and New York, use biomass as a fuel source. Unfortunately this is only financially feasible on a small scale right now.
From May through October, Madison has a suitable climate in which biomass grows rapidly and continuously. In the off-season perennial trees and bushes can generate biomass derived fuels.
Often, the biomass that could be used to produce energy ends up in landfills. Biomass derived fuels save the waste products from this environmentally hazardous fate. In addition, the waste actually becomes a commodity, providing another source of income to farmers.
With so many benefits, according to Shaten, it is only a matter of time until people are driving around town in their biomass- powered cars.
