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This is more complicated than it seems because to build the renewable energy sources, you have to use energy. Until the turn of the century, it took more energy to make a solar panel than you got back from it in its operational life. Now that figure is down to several years depending on where and how it is used.
However the conventional energy production sector has 100+ years of R&D behind it which is why the cost per Joule or KWHr is so low. And much of the capacity has been amortised as well so they are on the cash cow end of the investment curve. Much of this development attracted R&D subsidies, grants and public funding. We need to give the alternatives the same degree of assistance so they can get to the same level of maturity. Accepted renewable candidates are:- solar electric in silicon
- solar themal
- wind
- wave
- geothermal – will we damage the rock structure?
- solar electric using organics
- biofuels – some need more energy to create than we get back from them
- algae and other sources
- fuel cells – this is still not clearly a winner for being energy positive
- hydrogen – the hardest of all fuels to store
- nuclear fission – not renewable as the fuel is consumed, and then there is waste, risk…
- nuclear fusion – still 20 years away according to most experts. We had a first successful laboratory trial
- energy harvesting – uses the local environment to charge batteries / capacitors. This is demonstrated but still too expensive.
- using cleaner fuels – eg. gas instead of brown coal
- eating less meat. Livestock = 55% of all greenhouse gas emmissions
- reducing power consumption through better design
- reducing power consumption through education and change of protocols
- plug pack power supplies that shut down when not charging anything
- nuclear fission – it does reduce emissions. Is this enough to justify the risk?
Engineer’s Perspective is a column written by Ray Keefe, who has been developing high quality and market leading electronics products in Australia for nearly 30 years. For more information go to his LinkedIn profile. This post was written for Electronics News but is copyright Successful Endeavours Pty Ltd.