Economic Superiority of Renewable Energy

Sustainability is defined by the EPA as "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." The dictionary defines sustainable as "capable of being continued with minimal long-term effect on the environment." However, we are currently in a boom and bust cycle, which is characterized by heavy exploitation of resources and exponential growth of the population, economy, and environmental degradation. The population and economy will eventually peak and the environment will have been degraded to the point where it cannot sustain the increasing population and exploitation of resources, then crash with catastrophic effects on the population and economy. When the earth starts to return to a stable state and recycle its resources, the human population (if not extinct by this time) will start to increase and economies will start to reestablish, and the same process will occur again, if the human population neglects the factors that caused the major crash. This cycle is not sustainable by the dictionary and EPA definitions of sustainability. One way to make the human lifestyle more sustainable and help remove us from the economically devastating boom and bust cycle is by switching from fossil fuels to renewable energy such as wind power, solar power, and fuel cells. If we continue to use fossil fuels, we will eventually run out of the resources that generate our electricity, clean our water, grow our food, and many other necessities that maintain our standard of life and increase our life expectancy.

Fossil fuels are heavily subsidized by the government, which helps make fossil fuels affordable for the average American than renewable energy. If the same amount of subsidies were gradually switched to fund renewable energy projects instead of funding coal power plants and oil drilling, the renewable energy would end up less expensive for the average American. One reason the energy companies do not heavily invest in renewable energy right now is because the average consumer would not be able to pay for the massive hike in energy costs by making that transition.

 

Figure 1. This is the cost of solar energy per Kilowatt Hour compared to the most common forms of energy, those that are heavily subsidized.

If the government gradually switches the subsidies, however, consumers that do not have the means to switch to a renewable energy system, buy a more fuel efficient car, or afford the sudden spike in energy prices will not be caught in a financial mess. The greatest argument against investing in renewable energy is the initial cost of installation. Once again, if the subsidies switched from fossil fuels to renewable energy, the initial cost would be much lower. The advantage to buying a photovoltaic system or a personal wind turbine for one's home is that the person's energy bill will disappear, granted that the sun is shining long enough or wind is blowing hard enough and long enough to provide enough energy to sustain the home's energy consumption while off the grid. In the long run, the consumer will save enough money to recover what he / she spent in that initial investment and with subsidies; the money will be recovered faster.

Renewable energy will be most economical when it's more diverse and regionally specific. For example, it would be more economical to install solar panels in desert areas where there is more sunshine than in places where it rains often. It would also make sense to construct a wind farm where convection occurs most often and is the strongest.

 

Figure 2. This is a map of where the most solar radiation reaches the earth's surface.

 

 

Figure 3. The darker areas show the areas that have the strongest wind, and thus have the largest wind power potential.

On the coast, it would make the most sense to install tidal generators, which are floatation devices that turn a generator as waves pass by and move them up and down. With generators in the proper environments, the greatest energy yield for that specific system will be closer to being achieved.

Many of the specific prices of renewable energy systems depend on how heavily the government subsidizes them in the future. If subsidies are continually given to the coal and oil industry, the world will be more likely to stay in the unsustainable practices of burning oil and coal to generate electricity and transport us from place to place. This results in a greater degree of climate change, and after total exploitation, a devastating crash that will result in an economic meltdown, a heavily degraded environment, and the near-extinction of humanity.

 

Jacob P. Kaiser

 

Works Cited

Environmental Protection Agency. What is Sustainability? [updated 24 August 2009; cited 9 December 2009]. Available from http://www.epa.gov/Sustainability/basicinfo.htm#sustainability.

Dictionary. Available from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sustainable.

"Understanding the Cost of Solar Energy." In Greeneconometrics forum [updated 17 August 2007; cited 9 December 2009]. Available from http://greenecon.net/understanding-the-cost-of-solar-energy/energy_economics.html

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