Sustainability
As both population and energy use increase, the United States is approaching its limits to fossil fuel consumption. The immediate limits are set by the planet’s ability to adapt to a changing atmospheric composition.
Renewable energy is the key to helping sustain this country’s future: it is the nation’s developers and contractors who can play a huge role in shaping this shift away from carbon-based foreign energy sources. The technical, social, and economic benefit of renewable energy technologies to provide energy plays a critical part.
Renewable Energy electrical production is:
- Technologically feasible
- Economically viable
- Environmentally benign
- Sustainable
- Socially equitable
- Renewable (unlike current methods that produce most electrical energy)
- Politically, energy security is of strategic importance
Thus, renewable energy sources have the capacity to produce power indefinitely. It is the ideal solution to meet our future energy demands. Contrary to popular belief, with current panel efficiencies there is more than enough sunlight to easily provide global energy needs both now and in the future.
There is a commonly-held misconception that sustainable renewable energy comes at the price of large surface areas. This is simply untrue. Total solar radiation that falls upon the earth is roughly 10,000 times current world consumption. The United States has the largest wind resource of any country in the world.
It wouldn’t even be necessary to cover an appreciable area of the planet with PV to provide world power from current solar cells (which are generally 10%- 16% efficient). Even with cells of only 5% efficiency, PV could easily meet U.S. electrical needs without encroaching on arable land or building solar farms in the desert.
Ideally, renewable energy technologies can be located near consumers to eliminate transmission losses and limit support structure costs. This is accomplished by placing equipment on or near buildings; roofs, carports and other viable areas.
With all of this in mind, renewable energy has an important role in the future of power generation in America.
