Save and Conserve

I'm often amazed when I think about massive, hundreds-of-miles-long pipelines that snake across the Earth, carrying crude oil from remote spots to civilization in order to be refined and distributed to consumers. The crude oil pipeline - more than just about anything else - conjures thoughts of the drug-addicted junkie. We'll do just about anything to make sure we get our next fix, including investing billions on pipeline infrastructure. Let's not even talk about the cost to maintain these crude veins over time.

Pipelines strung out like the tentacles of a jellyfish are - I suppose - a natural product of man's industrial progress, numerical growth and ever-expanding need for energy. Energy pipelines will only become more important in the future ... but they may not carry oil.

In the African desert country of Algeria, which is in the enviable position (like many Middle Eastern countries) of having abundant oil reserves as well as abundant sunshine, they are thinking long term about how to export solar energy to needy consumer nations. Specifically, they plan to run a solar cable from Algeria to Germany.

Tewfik Hasni, chief executive of New Energy Algeria (NEAL), said the 3,000 km (1,875 mile) cable would be laid from the Algerian town of Adrar to the German city of Aachen

They don't do things small in Algeria, do they? That is one helluva long cable, and it will run under the Mediterranean, over Italy and Switzerland and finally into Germany. Needless to say, this sounds like an incredibly complex challenge, but it is symptomatic of our energy situation. I've been thinking for a long time that the US should be thinking about long-distance energy transmission. We could build huge solar power generating plants in the West and pipe the power to the coasts, where most of the people live. It's bound to happen. No, it's got to happen.