The Phoenix Project: Shifting from Oil to Hydrogen

Because of the exponential nature of the global energy and environmental problems, The Phoenix Project calls for the U.S. to shift from fossil and nuclear fuels to wind-powered electrolytic systems with wartime speed. Approximately 12 million one-megawatt wind machines would be needed to generate all of the U.S. current energy requirements (i.e. 100 quadrillion Btus). Given that wind machines are similar to an automobile from a manufacturing perspective, and given that 17 million vehicles are manufactured each year in the U.S., the 12 million wind systems could be mass-produced and installed in less than 24 months once the tooling is in place. As such, it is possible for the U.S. to be energy independent, with a pollution-free and inexhaustible energy resource within 5 or 10 years. That would include the deployment of a an interstate superconducting hydrogen pipeline system that would carry both electricity as well as hydrogen, as well as the modification of all of the automotive vehicles and power plants in the U.S. Such a transition of substance will have profound implications for the economy, the environment, and U.S. foreign policy.