Research into renewable energy has been getting a lot of attention recently due to the confluence of a few factors. One is the unmistakable rise in global temperatures brought about man’s activities, mainly through the burning of fossil fuels. Second is the pollution caused that is harming both environment and human health. Last, a significant factor is economics and politics. No longer is the world willing to be beholden to a few states holding the key to most of the world’s reserves of oil. The ever-increasing price of oil makes the economic feasibility of renewables work.
There are a few types of renewable sources of energy that are under the process of development and commercialization.
These include:
- Solar
- Wind
- Hydropower
- Nuclear
- Tidal
- Geothermal
- Biomass
Although it is good to develop sources of renewables, the current trend is towards the “aesthetics of green” where solar panels and wind turbines carelessly applied onto a project and are labeled as green. This is not only self-congratulatory but also self-deluding.
The technology behind renewable energy is important, but the application of such technology is what is primarily missing right now. The application of renewable technology has to answer three basic questions:
- Does the technology require any special environmental condition or resource? Does the site possess such a condition for the technology to function to it’s designed intent?
- If so, can that condition or resource be provided ay little or no cost?
- Does the technology have scalability?
For example, geothermal would require regions with active volcanic activity. Without this condition, the technology will fail. This may look simple, but it’s often overlooked. This is especially the case for wind and tidal technologies. At some locations, there is simply not enough wind or differences between tidal conditions for the technology to be feasible, but people still go ahead by implementing them anyway.
The 2nd question is sounds like a no-brainer, but often it is also overlooked. Solar power is produced by the sun. Hence it can be considered free. But again, problems arise with regards to unstable sources like wind. To address that issue, some inventors have proposed placing wind turbines to tap the winds of passing cars or from the exhaust of air-conditioning units. They neglect the fact that the energy of the cars and to run the exhaust fans come from the burning of fossil fuels, and the cars and fans have to work so much more harder just to counter that extra air resistance and run the turbines. What they are doing is just vampirism. More energy would be spent creating that condition than is recovered.
The final question is with regards to applicability. Some renewables are more suited for large scales, but some have the flexibility of scale. Comparing a hydropower dam to solar panels, the differences are obvious. Hence, there is need to match the type of technology to the type of building.
