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Renewable energy is not just greener, it costs less

To the editor;
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To the editor;

Climate Action requires switching from fossil fuels to renewable energy. While switching has up-front capital costs, operating costs for renewable energy are lower.

Electricity from coal requires coal mining or removing overburden, recovering, crushing, washing, shipping, and burning coal. Then pollutants are scrubbed from the emissions.

Not all pollutants can be scrubbed so coal remains a major source of air-pollution illness and death. Switching to geothermal energy requires drilling a hole 4 km into the earth and installing a U-shaped pipe. Water flows down.

The earth’s natural geothermal gradient boils and returns the water to the surface as steam. Just as in coal-fired power plants, steam spins turbines attached to electric generators.

The need to mine coal and strip pollutants is eliminated. Boilers are replaced with holes in the ground. Simpler. Cheaper. Cleaner. More reliable. Zero carbon emissions.

Climate Action saves money.

Robert M. Macrae,

Environmental Technology Instructor, Selkirk College,

Castlegar, B.C.