Alternatives to Trump’s Wall – Climate Change

The verdict is in on whether or not Donald Trump was serious about building a wall. Turns out he wasn’t bluffing. Since his inauguration on 20^th January, Trump has already signed orders to begin constructing his wall between Mexico and the US. It’s not so clear, however, how much it will set him back.

His lowball estimates of $10 billion have been dismissed by experts, who suggest it will more likely reach $31 billion all in. The question is – is it worth it? Or might there be better places to invest such a hefty figure?

Feeling the breeze

After comments that climate change is a myth, we’re not quite sure whether Trump will be first in the queue to invest in renewable energy. If he did, however, open his mind to the idea, his wall money could be used for quite an impressive wind farm.

With commercial scale 2MW wind turbines costing up to $4 million, Trump would be able to swap his wall for 7,750 wind turbines with a capacity 15,500 MW. For comparison, the largest onshore wind farm in the world has a total capacity of 1,500 MW.

Burning money

Another option for Trump is to go solar with his wall money. Typically, US solar farms cost around $500,000 per acre, with five acres needed for 1 MW. For $31 billion, Trump could make a solar farm totalling 62,000 acres. For scale, Washington DC is just less than 44,000 acres and the largest solar farm in the world, Quaid-e-Azam Solar Park in Pakistan, is around 6,500 acres in size.

But actually, one of the most cost-effective sources of renewable energy is hydro-electricity. Costing approximately $0.85/kWh to produce in the US, this renewable method is yet another way Trump could invest his money. Using the $0.85/kwh average, Trump’s wall money would produce 36 billion kWh of energy.

Also important in the fight against coal reliance are biogenic materials. Used to produce alternative fuels and combustibles, these raw materials often contain harmful substances that – when released – have a negative effect on the processing procedure and eventual performance. ’Biogenic Fuels and Renewable Energies – A Challenge for Elemental Analysis?’ looks at how a precise inspection of raw materials, intermediate stages and end products is essential to minimise the detrimental effect.