By now, most people are familiar with the terms alternative energy, biofuels, hybrid and greenhouse gases. But familiarity can be as far from understanding as real solutions are from mere suggestions.

Thomas Mason, director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and president and CEO of UT-Battelle, spoke on Friday to a room full of science professors and others interested in the "Science for the Energy Challenge" forum.

Mason was born in Nova Scotia and obtained his first degree in physics. Upon becoming Director of Oak Ridge Laboratory in 1997, he already held the titles of PhD, post-doc, senior scientist, professor, and associate lab director.

In his presentation, Mason took the modern-day vocabulary terms listed above and dissected them, pinpointing the challenges associated with many common suggestions and instead offered feasible solutions based on the findings of ORNL.  

According to Mason, from 2005-2030, the world energy consumption is supposed to double. Two factors drive this: population growth and increased prosperity/rising standards of living.

Carbon dioxide, a major component of greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere, is rising at around 2.2 ppm a year. Mason said there are three main reasons: 1) growth in world economy 2) increase in carbon intensity and 3) decline in efficiency of CO₂ sinks on land and in oceans.

He said, "Not only are we putting more [carbon dioxide] up, but there seems to be some kind of saturation system."

America uses a quarter of the world's energy and therefore contributes significantly to the large amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Each person emits twenty tons of carbon dioxide a year.

Mason had formerly explained that rising standards of living will increase world energy consumption-but most of the energy comes from dirty sources.

He said, "As countries get richer, and their GDP goes up... they use more energy per capita, and because that energy primarily comes from fossil fuels, there is more CO₂ associated with it."

In fact, 22% of American energy comes from coal-fired plants, which have significant environmental disadvantages.

What can be done to decrease the CO₂ footprint? New technology is one of the natural answers. But Mason explained that technology improvement "isn't good enough. It helps, but it's incremental."   

How can America have energy assurance- meeting our needs in an economically and environmentally responsible way? Carbon capture technologies, according to Mason's presentation, help to meet the growing power needs of the U.S. and can be multi-national. But he said research is still needed to make the technologies cost-effective, have a firmer understanding of CO₂ sequestration in geological formations, and explore advanced chemical, biological, and decarbonization concepts.

Besides carbon capture technologies, there are other "essential" energy technologies available. Nuclear power, wind, solar, and biofuels are just four of the many that he listed.

The problem with nuclear power, Mason said, is that there is still not a "long term solution to spent fuel." He believes, though, that Tennessee can lead the nation's nuclear renaissance.

Renewables such as wind, he said, "have the advantage that they don't really have a carbon footprint." Currently more cost effective than solar, there is great potential for wind farms from the Texas panhandle to North Dakota. In Tennessee, this option is less viable. Even on the top of Buffalo Mountain, the location of TVA's wind power plant, there is less than 20% capacity power.

Solar energy relies on space and time distribution, which Mason said are both intermittent. "We currently do not have a good method for storing electrical energy in large quantities." 

For now, energy efficiency and renewable energy sources will help calm the rising energy crisis. Green architecture, hybrid and electric vehicles, smart grid technologies, and weatherization of existing buildings are some ways to improve energy efficiency. But for the future, goals for carbon management and electrification of transportation should be realized.

Mason said that energy and climate will remain at the top of the policy agenda, as world energy demands continue to increase and oil demand rises. He also pointed out that the ORNL has "an extraordinary set of assets for tackling the energy challenge."

"There is no single solution here... You can't be 100% certain that you're going to find the solution in every case," said Mason. "But we sure got to try."