A Vision for Post-Fire Rebuilding

October 10, 2017

As I write this, Sonoma County is entering into day 3 of what must be described as a horrific fire storm. Wind-driven flames are racing through neighborhoods, destroying thousands of structures including homes and businesses. We are in a living hell right now.

I am moved to think about how firestorms like this come about (this is not the first I assure you, and it won't be the last.) Having lived through the Cedar Fire in San Diego County in 2003, and many others including the 1964 Hanley fire right here in Santa Rosa -- I have learned that electricity and wind do not mix. Nearly all catastrophic fires (I know, I know, the Cedar Fire was sparked by a lost hunter who started a 'signal fire' in Cedar Creek) are started when high velocity winds tangle with high voltage power lines, causing electrical arcs and igniting vegetation.

(photo: Downed power pole on Parker Hill Road, Fountaingrove neighborhood, Santa Rosa.  Mercury News)

In fact, one of the first 911 calls to come in related to the Sunday October 8 high-wind event, was for a tree on fire caused by a power line, just two blocks from my home in downtown Santa Rosa's Junior College Neighborhood. Many, many more reports of electrical line fires soon followed, leaving us with the nightmare we are currently experiencing.

What to do? What to do?

As our severely wounded community rebuilds, it's time we re-think a number of things. First on the list should be the centralized power and gas grid model that was adopted in the 19th century. Centralized electricity generation requires substantial transmission and distribution networks. These power lines are highly vulnerable to compromise by natural events and human actions. Natural gas needs to be transmitted through high-pressure pipes, which can and do rupture. Have you noticed all of the broken gas lines that are burning in the videos of the now-destroyed neighborhoods that are a fixture on the news media?

The energy solutions are simple in concept, but complex in bureaucracy and cost. Here's a short list to get us started:

1) Place all distribution power lines UNDERGROUND where they will be unaffected by wind

2) ELIMINATE all centralized energy production facilities such as coal, oil, hydro and nuclear power plants, and their associated transmission lines

3) Yes, ELIMINATE all utility scale wind and solar facilities in remote locations, typically public lands and former agricultural lands, and their associated transmission lines. This is a ‘vision’, after all!

4) FUEL SWITCH our heating, cooling and transportation systems from fossil fuel (natural gas, gasoline, diesel) to electricity

5) PRODUCE all of our electricity from LOCAL, DISTRIBUTED solar on parking lots, rooftops, railroad corridors -- produce the energy local to where it is used. No transmission lines needed

6) CONSERVE electricity through behavior modification, and technology such as the 'internet of things'

7) STORE our locally produced energy using battery storage, centrifugal, gravitational, and other means

Let’s also talk about community design, and how and where we build our communities to be fire-safe. But that is a topic for another blog.

Let's begin again. Here comes the sun.

Geoffrey Smith