Locking thoughts, not horns

Sunday, Aug. 31, 2008 | 2:06 a.m.

To paraphrase the late science fiction author Robert Heinlein, the sun is a harsh mistress.

It radiates all of the energy we could ever want, but it tantalizingly taxes our ingenuity as we contemplate how to efficiently capture that energy. And just as we are finally learning ways to do that, we are confronted with another problem.

How do we economically get that energy to where it is needed, and get it there without scarring open spaces that are often recreational areas for us and prime habitat for wildlife, including endangered species?

These questions are framing the debate on renewable energy, whether it is from the sun, wind or subterranean hot water. In a front-page story last week, The New York Times described the problem this way: “The dirty secret of clean energy is that while generating it is getting easier, moving it to market is not.” Las Vegas Sun reporter Phoebe Sweet delved into this issue in a Thursday story that focused on Nevada’s dilemma. There are few places on Earth with more potential for solar energy than Southern Nevada. Just 10 percent of the federal land here, if covered with solar panels, could provide enough power to supply the entire country, experts say.

And if wind energy could be developed here, and the state’s geothermal industry expanded, even more power could be sold elsewhere.

But before it can realize its renewable potential, Nevada must face harsh questions: Can land-gobbling solar panels and wind turbines and transmission lines be economically installed, and with minimal harm to the environment?

What came out of Sweet’s story was encouraging. Environmental groups and developers of renewable energy said they are willing to work with each other. Such cooperation could result in agreement on ideal locations, reducing the cost and time of obtaining approvals for projects proposed to government agencies.

After so many decades of feuding between environmental groups and fossil fuel companies, it is nice to envision an energy future characterized by cooperation.