From: A “Jim Bell & Commonsense” Commentary
The San Diego/Tijuana Region mostly imports food, water, and energy, costing an estimated $17 to $20 billion out of our region’s economy each year.
Energy Self-Sufficiency
Economic Benefits:
Aside from the cost of importing energy, a major problem with not being energy self-sufficient is that the San Diego/Tijuana Region is highly susceptible to rapid energy cost changes from the volatile global markets. There are also military costs to keep other countries that have the resources we want open to us. Protecting and maintaining shipping channels for oil and increasing liquefied natural gas adds additional costs.
Assuming that a kWh of electricity will average 10 cents per kWh over the next 40 years, just becoming electricity self-sufficient on the San Diego County side of our region will generate a $24 billion surplus. This benefit would be greatly enhanced if those self-sufficient efforts went toward promoting renewable energy. This is not as daunting of a challenge as it seems. With energy-use efficiency improvements, our region could become renewable energy self-sufficient by simply covering 39% of its roofs and parking lots with 15% efficient PV panels. In economics, there is always concern for cost-effectiveness of projects: by combining the quick pay back of efficiency improvements with the longer payback on PV installations, it will actually cost less to become renewable energy self-sufficient in our Region than to continue our current dependence on imported energy even if the cost of a kWh averages 10 cents over the next 40 years.
There is opportunity for a student interested in energy self-sustainability to explore other ideas for promoting self-sufficiency in energy. Possible projects could be:
*Cost-benefit analysis of energy improvement projects
* Case study of Sunrise Powerlink Project
* Analysis of recent energy policies
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