The concept of renewable energy has been talked about recently, but it is an idea Kyle Forinash, professor of physics, has been looking at for years.
Forinash has written a new book, “Foundations of Environmental Physics: Understanding Energy Use and Human Impacts,” highlighting the topics of renewable energy, global warming and world population levels. It is used in the junior-level applied physics course he teaches every other year.
Forinash has also worked in other fields of study. In 1994, along with two other colleagues, Bill Rumsey, professor of philosophy, and Ray Wisman, associate professor of computer science, helped to install the first servers on campus and used existing phone lines to make IU Southeast the first IU regional campus to have a web presence.
“[Forinash is] a very wise and likable guy,” Wisman said. “He has a way of attracting others for a lot of different reasons. I’ve learned a lot from him. He has a talent for explaining complicated ideas in a simple way. That’s what people can expect from his book.”
Forinash said his interest in global warming and renewable energy began 30 years ago during his travels to Africa with the Peace Corp.
“It completely changed the way I saw the world,” Forinash said. “Other cultures have different ways of doing things. Sometimes, it’s better. Sometimes, it’s worse.
“Americans use about three times as much energy [per person] as Europeans,” Forinash said.
Until recently, the high energy use of our nation was attributed to the by-products of industrialization, but since half the world is currently industrialized, the explanation no longer fits.
“It’s mostly due to the [recent surge of] home and mobile electronic use,” Forinash said.
Forinash spent a year of sabbatical on a Fulbright Scholarship in Argentina teaching and giving lectures in Spanish.
“People down there have a different attitude,” Forinash said. “The average Argentinian uses 10 times less energy than the average American, and they don’t live in grass huts or anything. They live relatively well. They cherish others and family more than money and material things.”
Forinash said he believes our nation’s energy problems are deep-rooted socially and within our infrastructure. However, he said he is hopeful of current technologies coupled with economic investment.
“Wind is the fastest growing renewable energy as far as electrical output and economic competitiveness,” Forinash said. “It is our closest and cleanest alternative to coal.”
This is opposed to solar energy, which is four to five times as expensive as coal and natural gas.
Advances in technology will be needed to raise its competitiveness and enhance its efficiency, which Forinash said he believes will happen in the near future.
Obama called for one million electric cars on the road by 2015 in his State of the Union address, but Forinash said he sees some problems with this.
“If all cars, currently on the road, were to switch to ethanol — which is made from corn or soy beans for example — there would not be enough farmable land in the country to produce the crops needed for the demand,” Forinash said.
Forinash said, however, a switch to electric cars may be a possible
outcome.
“A gasoline car is about 15-percent efficient,” he said. “That’s because when you burn something, it’s a process that’s inherently inefficient. The electric-motor car is 95 percent efficient.”
However, to meet the demand of switching all cars to electric, the United States would need about 450 new 1,000 mega-watt power plants, using some type of fuel. Currently, the United States has about 900 of these power plants nation-wide, and no renewable technology exists, which could power them.
“China is building 30 [nuclear plants] right now, basically building them as fast as they can, and 85 percent of France’s electricity comes from nuclear,” Forinash said.
His main concern about using the nuclear option — which many other first world countries have adopted — is it’s applications for mass destruction.
“The reason we’ve never had a terrorist detonate a nuclear weapon is because the fuel for the bomb is so hard to get,” Forinash said. “The biggest fear is the more technology we have available for making nuclear fuel, the more chances there will be for people to use it in a bad way.”
Forinash said there are many ways — on a grass-roots level — society can reduce energy use and save money on a daily basis.
“Digital thermostats use timers that lower energy use while you are away,” Forinash said. “Plug home electronics into a power strip, and turn off the power strip when not in use. ‘Hyper-miling,’ is a driving technique of coasting at efficient speeds and can save you at the pump.”
Forinash said professors are secondary to the text.
“They can show you where the information is and help you understand it, but they can’t pour it in your head,” Forinash said. “What a student really needs is the will to learn and a good library.”
By SAM WEBER
Staff
samweber@ius.edu