Some once thought maybe earthlings had found an answer to the world’s insatiable demand for electrical power.  Nuclear energy, using reactors to produce steam to drive turbines and turn generators, could provide an all but inexhaustible source of cheap nonpolluting power.  Or so we/they thought, until we understood we did not yet have have an acceptable answer for how to handle the highly radioactive waste produced. Harnessing the power of the sun isn’t so simple.

Recently, concern has shifted to atmospheric carbon, a waste product of conventional power plants burning carbon- emitting fuels.  They generate roughly 68 percent of U.S. electricity. Focus has shifted to minimizing carbon generated by reducing consumption, burning cleaner fuels and maximizing power from renewable sources that produce relatively little carbon.  Most prominent among these are, hydro, wind turbines and solar cell arrays.  Hydro accounts for about 7.5 percent and the other two combined contribute about 8.5 percent to the power produced in the U.S. Just about all of our most promising hydro sites have been developed, and neither of the other two, as currently configured, is likely to be able to replace conventional sources in the foreseeable future.

Discouraging? Maybe, but we have relied on the industrial use of fossil fuels for at least a century and a half and hopefully it will not take us that long to find a substitute.  We are making some progress.  The floating wind towers in deep water being studied by the University of Maine and others are not the breakthrough that a solution to nuclear waste would be, but they address the aesthetic objections to wind turbine visibility close to shore and may help focus attention on looking seaward for more meaningful solutions.

To effectively contribute to one of the most important discussions on campus, all business leaders need to stay current—and this may be a step in the right direction.