25 ways you can go green

The future

Not everything will be easy when it comes to alternative energy. Here's a quick list of some other emerging technologies and issues that will likely become more prominent in the future.

• 20. Consider clean coal. Black lung disease, mining accidents, environmental poisoning: these are just some of the associations Americans have with coal. Several companies, however, say they have come up ways to burn coal more cleanly in power plants or even make a liquid car fuel out of coal. Scientists at MIT, meanwhile, say carbon dioxide from clean coal production can be sequestered in underground reservoirs.
  
  Coal may never be as clean as solar power, but advocates point out the infrastructure already exists to adopt it. In any event, phasing out coal will take years, so cleaner coal-burning technologies may as well be adopted. And the U.S. has lots of coal: recoverable estimates are close to 267 billion tons, according to Dave Edwards, a senior research analyst who covers the alternative-energy business for ThinkEquity Partners.
• 21. Second--and third--thoughts on genetically modified crops. Corn, soy, sugar, and other crops that now get converted to ethanol or biodiesel have one thing in common: they were originally bred for food. To boost fuel production, these crops will likely need to be genetically enhanced. Farmers and fuel producers will also likely need to experiment with growing switchgrass and other plants that currently don't get raised as crops. Polls show that the public is often uncomfortable with how experiments such as these might affect existing agriculture.
  
  Several companies also are genetically enhancing microorganisms or reproducing biological processes in the lab through synthetic biology to help convert vegetable matter into fuel.
• 22. Give up some open space. Nevada Solar One, a solar power plant outside of Las Vegas, takes up 300 acres and provides 64 megawatts of power, enough for about 15,000 homes. While impressive, that's less than 1 percent of the city's population. Providing solar power on a broad scale will require dedicating lots of land to power generation. Similarly, wind power often means placing large fields of turbines in the ocean. Expect nasty land disputes.
• 23. Going nuclear. "I believe the majority of environmental activists, including those at Greenpeace, have now become so blinded by their extremism that they fail to consider the enormous and obvious benefits of harnessing nuclear power to meet and secure America's growing energy needs." Who said that? Patrick Moore, a Greenpeace founder. Moore also founded Greenspirit, an environmental group that supports nuclear power. Like it or not, the nuclear issue is back on the table and will be one of many topics that governments will address when it comes to energy security.
• 24. Recycled water on tap. Water shortages will likely be the first major impact humans feel when it comes to global warming. China, Australia, and India already face significant challenges.
  
  To alleviate the problem, several countries are increasing investments in desalination technologies and purification systems for turning sewage water into drinking water. Singapore's NEWater project uses filtration, reverse-osmosis and ultraviolet technologies to produce potable water from recovered sewage water.
• 25. High taxes. For the next decade and beyond, developing green technologies and getting them into the market will require billions of dollars in grants, subsidies, and tax cuts that will often go to green-tech companies--many of them backed and run by wealthy businessmen--and to upper-middle-class consumers who can afford their products. Voters often view these programs skeptically. But Herman Scheer, a member of the German parliament who was instrumental in putting together that country's massive solar program, says you have to take an organic view of expenses. Clean energy might require direct subsidies, but health care costs and the need for often-costly toxic-waste cleanups will decline.

CNET.com's associate editor Elsa Wenzel contributed to this feature.

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