By Camee Decknadel, CG News

Students, faculty and friends gathered to discuss Ohio University’s coal use and alternative energy options for the university during a Feb. 3 panel discussion organized by Beyond Coal, an on-campus group that is a subset of the student Sierra Club. The Beyond Coal coalition meets at schools across the country in an effort to help college campuses make the switch to alternative and renewable energy sources.

The panel included five experts in various forms of alternative energy. The first to speak was Ben Stuart, director of the Institute for Sustainable Energy and the Environment and president of the President’s Advisory Council for Sustainability Planning. Stuart asserted that OU students and staff need to make small but substantial changes in energy use before making drastic moves from burning coal to using something completely different.

“We are not going to get there until we stop consuming as much as we do,” Stuart said.

Stuart’s idea for alternative energy involves the use of algae, which can be transformed into a solid, liquid, or gaseous state. Each phase provides its own unique tool for energy. The technology for making these transformations exists, but finding the necessary funding remains an obstacle.

Gerardine “Gerri” Botte, a chemical engineering professor and director of the Electrochemical Engineering Research Laboratory, had a very different idea for future energy options. Her plans involve the continued use of coal but in different, more efficient, and environmentally safe ways. She suggested a process called coal electrolysis and unique ways of using human waste to obtain ammonia to use as a kind of fuel.

One popular idea for alternative energy is the use of wind energy. Carole Womeldorf, director of a wind energy and assessment laboratory team, had much to say about the possibility of harvesting wind energy in this part of Ohio.

“The amount of wind is not easy to characterize because it changes,” she said. “Weather does some unusual things here.” This creates a problem for the area because the amount of wind needs to be substantial enough to harvest and receive enough energy on the grid. Wind power would provide pollution and carbon reduction along with jobs for many of the people living in Southeast Ohio.

The idea of wind energy led the discussion to the concept of solar energy. Unlike wind, the issue is not the amount of solar energy but rather the cost and environmental impact. “For solar to be a major contributor, you need a solar farm,” said Matt Bennett, a worker for Dovetail, a local solar and wind installation company. A solar farm would be costly and would require the use of many acres of land. “A solar farm would be for electricity only; it would not replace the coal plant,” he said.

Although it would not solve the coal problem, solar energy would still be a great stride toward Stuart’s idea of taking steps to reduce energy consumption.

As a member of the Sierra Club National Coal Campaign, Nachy Kanfer stressed that people must “start from a perspective of transition.” Switching to an alternative energy source is a process and not something that can be done in a short period of time.

“The first place to start this transition is college campuses. They are the future and students are the next generation,” he said. To prove his point he discussed how the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Cornell University, as well as other universities, are working toward using alternative energy sources, though these changes may take years. Ball State University is even in the process of making the change from coal to geothermal energy.

The discussion ended in a positive manner. Stuart expressed his hopes for Ohio University and his enthusiasm for OU President Roderick McDavis’ acknowledgment that something must be done about finding alternative energy sources.

One thing that is certain, there is not a shortage of ideas. Now it’s just a matter of finding and picking the best solutions.