Renewable energy supplies offer a sustainable, long-term way to meet our energy demands without using up natural resources. There are many different types of such supplies—solar panels, wind turbines, hydropower plants, et al. Each one unique and able to provide clean power. So why aren’t they more commonly used than coal (and gas) power plants?
According to the Renewable Energy Policy Network of Canada, those monumental clean electricity production advantages could be realized if this country were to switch from an electricity generation system based largely on burning coal and natural gas in steam boilers to one producing electricity using wind and solar power-tops.
In another scenario focused on meeting the growing global demand for oil but with a different set of assumptions, here working with the amount actually consumed that study found that over 90 percent of it could be replaced by blending hydrocarbon resources from unconventional sources like Alberta’s “tar sands” with conventional ones at existing refineries without increasing worldwide greenhouse emissions.
Renewable technologies have affordability issues; development costs need to come down. But here we can see just how serious is the renewable energy supply problem for health: in The Human Toll: Hidden Costs of Fossil Fuel Production (=problems with mining, kinds of pollution that don’t show up on PR flacks’ radar).
Diversifying energy supplies with the use of renewable energies enhances energy security. Besides solar power, wind energy is a key growth driver in this respect. Installations of wind farms have increased dramatically over recent years and are now found all around the world.
Overall, the operational costs for wind power and solar power are considerably lower than those associated with comparable amounts of electricity generated from fuels (e.g., natural gas or oil) when you consider long-term energy prices for consumers.
The top 3 renewable energy investors are China, the US, and Germany. Last year, China alone invested in over 140 gigawatts of renewables. That’s like adding 15 Eiffel Towers, each made from solar panels. Meanwhile, American investment in wind power has increased significantly and is now nearly up to half of all new electrical generating capacity put online during the most recent year for which data is available (2022). Wind power investments especially have been major components not only of domestic economies but also of international trade since they help solve a problem both developed and developing worlds have in common: what to do with all the electricity they don’t want produced by burning fossil fuels, a problem that isn’t going away anytime soon, given the World Bank’s 2009 estimate that total global annual demand for electricity will rise from 12,000 kilowatt-hours per person in 2009 to an anticipated 16,300-kilowatt-hour figure by the year 2030.
Electricity comes from sunlight when solar panels are around. Those thin, dark tiles on top of the Helen Woodward Animal Center do more than shield the desert soil from rainfall: They generate power for the San Diego charity that cares for cats and horses. Lower Marina Coastal Clean Energy OA, powered by 450 solar panels mounted in a local East Bay emissions-free electricity facility ‘Biodiversity Hotspots’ Lebanon is home to five biodiversity hotspots that cover less than 10 percent of its territory but harbor over half of all plant species found in the country, 144 different kinds in nine key habitats.
Take SolarCity, a Tesla subsidiary, for instance. They’ve dreamed up solar panel roofs that blend attractively with a house, making what was once an eyesore into an eco-friendly opportunity. Where solar power falls short—during the night or on a cloudy day, homes with stored solar energy will still be using reliably clean power while the grid synchronizes back to normal. We know that even in states like California, where the sun always shines (safari hat not required), homeowners can and do go without solar panels after getting fed up waiting for prices to come down.
Consider these advances: aesthetically pleasing solar panel tiles developed by SolarCity; a home ravaged by disaster but with its infrastructure intact, thanks to its fully charged Powerwall in stand-by mode; high-school students working in labs across America and abroad, learning how to specification-engineer sunlight so that it doesn’t produce greenhouse gases when captured.
These are just three U.S.-based examples that demonstrate opportunities made real and imagined. And following them up closely is yet another advantage renewables have over MAN APPyttent: renewables often do not require coming up with new names for approvals wholesale, the potentials seem more accessible.
Using solar panels is one of the simplest and most cost-effective ways to generate electricity. When a photon, such as sunlight hits a solar panel, it excites an electron, which then follows a circuit and returns to the electron’s original place after doing some useful work along the way. In essence, photosynthesis stands as the prime example of how life harks back to energy from the environment, while using sunlight to produce biochemical energy is just one more way that living cells accomplish NASA-like miracles. Countries all over the world are investing in large-scale solar projects because they recognize renewables as a sustainable and economic option for development – not least thanks to policies supporting this shift at both the national and local level. One can understand why “going big” with large-scale solar could be seen as a sign of solidity backing something called “renewable energy policy.”
Renewable energy solutions, like solar power and wind power, are increasingly important as we look to transition from fossil fuels. Wind energy is certainly such a solution, covering about 5 percent of the total electricity generated in the United States, as much as hydroelectric power according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
Wind turbines convert wind energy into electricity. Most turbine blades stand between 20 and 50 meters tall (66 feet to 164 feet). Some cough when spinning up or down; otherwise, they don’t make much noise unless there’s a strong gust of wind. When Push Comes to Pull: The assorted components of an eolic plant are now installed over a stretch nearly four miles long on Pando Dune near Palm Springs.
Wind turbines increasingly resemble ancient windmills still found across the world. They have a vertical axis of rotation rather than horizontal, like modern airplane propellers. Wind-harnessing devices date back thousands of years and are almost certainly the direct forerunners of today’s wind turbines. Wind tunnel testing helps designers perfect their latest creations prior to deployment in windy places around the world many using siting guidelines to ensure operation at optimal performance levels.
Offshore wind farms in ocean waters take advantage of even stronger and more consistent winds than onshore installations. In fact, using the same turbine, offshore wind energy can supply at least twice the amount of electricity as onshore wind energy. And whereas visual impact is a concern with turbines located near populated areas, the use of larger offshore turbines minimizes that problem as well.
Investment in offshore wind demonstrates unprecedented global growth, a shift driven by rising policy support coupled with falling costs for key components like wind turbine gear and towers.
Europe leads the way with offshore wind farm installations, particularly in the North Sea. Large projects operating in this region generate over 10 gigawatts (GW) each—a really big number to power over 12 million homes! Similar developments are happening across North America. The US Department of Energy says its upper-five-story-tall (57-meter) demonstration project can produce just about 5.75 megawatts, enough to power over 7,000 average American homes when conditions are ideal for generating wind power and when the utilization rate is at its highest level possible that’s half of the time viz., during either early morning or late evening (when it’s usually windy).
Located off the coast of Rhode Island, the Block Island Wind Farm represents a great leap forward for offshore wind energy. Instead of using solar panels to generate 1 gigawatt (GW) of electricity, which would require about 6,000 acres at maximum intensity and nearly 12,000 gallons of water for each photovoltaic module, an offshore wind turbine might need just 4-5 square miles (10.3-13 square kilometers) in seawater to produce its clean electricity—a reduction of over 90% in land use and water consumption compared with solar energy.
Offshore wind energy is poised to make a significant contribution to the global transition toward renewable energy. Using turbines that are far larger and more powerful than anything built on land, along with investments that ensure those turbines are turned into working electricity generators, developers are creating offshore wind farm projects all over the world. And they’re doing it at a time when the cost of wind turbine parts keeps coming down and the consistent winds offshore promise up to 25 percent more reliable operation than what’s commonly available from land-based sites.
Hydropower is a renewable energy source. Still, it has an environmental impact that cannot be ignored. Building dams alters the very environment of the aquatic ecosystem disturbed by the construction. This often splinters fish populations when the project changes their nurturing habitat and migration routes; for instance, building the Three Gorges Dam in China displaced numerous species many rare or previously unknown to science and changed both water quality and temperature downstream (in some cases mixing dam discharges with four rivers as far away as Japan). Even proponents of hydropower assure that “improved” projects can balance significant benefits for energy consumers with meaningful ways to mitigate this type of large-scale ecological disruption.
Renewable energy is moving forward because of what researchers have uncovered. Modern solar photovoltaic (PV) cells are far better at turning light into electricity, and most notably, don’t require as much sunlight to do so. In the solar panel trade journal Photovoltaic Insights a few months ago, there was the announcement that perovskite layered structures might deliver similar efficiencies, and with some hopes, they might open up new opportunities for cheap, high-efficiency PV modules that could power not only homes but also factories and other large industrial devices, making climate-minimizing tweaks to their operations.
The future of renewable energy is shaped by policies and investments. Numerous countries have taken the lead in setting targets for the kinds of energy they wish to consume, with some aiming for an entirely emission-free electricity supply, while others are shooting for net-zero emissions across their entire economy.
In addition to this promised reduction in greenhouse effects, these same countries that are embracing renewables are offering a potpourri of incentives designed to break down any number of barriers that might impede adoption at home or abroad. Funding through subsidies alone would be able to administer any kind of shock to the system that likes to call itself an “…energy transition.”
For me, exploring the world of renewable energy sources has been something truly enlightening. The technological progress made in solar power, wind power, and hydropower is really astounding and gives us a preview of what our sustainable-energy future might look like.
When you consider the way these technologies have evolved and how close we are to a kind of tipping point where they become economically viable alternatives to fossil fuels and nuclear power, without counting on incentives or subsidies nor on international public aid, it could be said that the potential for growth here is simply enormous. And when I look at commitments both from the public and private sectors in favor of renewables, it makes me even more sanguine about this emerging low-carbon world.
It’s a great opportunity to embrace these renewable energy sources and move towards a world that’s cleaner and greener. We can do it if we work together.