Is Renewable Energy the Answer to Energy Security Issues?
Renewable energy is lively topic in many parts of the world, but despite its recent popularity renewable energy still doesn’t have what it takes to compete with fossil fuels industry. This is not only because oil, coal and natural gas have long history of use, and powerful lobbies behind them, but also because science still hasn’t developed efficient and economically acceptable methods to harness renewable energy sources.
The scientists are still seeking for cheap and highly efficient solar cells, they search for cheap energy storage methods to solve the intermittency issue of solar and wind energy, they still discuss whether biomass is the right answer to replace fossil fuels or not, and so on. And in the meantime fossil fuels are still the ones that dominate global energy demand.
Oil lobbies are still controlling the global politics, coal is still world’s major source of electricity, and natural gas is becoming more and more popular, especially after the shale gas discovery.
And what about renewable energy? The efforts are there, but are these efforts enough? Is it realistic to expect that by the end of this century renewable energy sources will become dominant energy sources. Yes, it is but we do not have so much time to wait because energy security is not only thing we should worry about, there’s also this well known issue of climate change.
If fossil fuels remain dominant energy sources for the next few decades climate change will pass the point of no return. Once this happens very few people will talk about energy security.
