Road Blocks- Liam Guthrie

 


This week after reviewing and posting about lots of neat and innovative forms of clean and renewable energy.  Thought  I would review the road blocks that are present keeping them from being more widely accepted and available.


I found 2 articles that I found interesting.  The most interesting thing about them is there is nearly 4 years difference in their publication but the barriers albeit worded differently are nearly the same.  The top barriers seem to be cost and politics.  I honestly expected the cost to be at the top.  It seems as if cost is the barrier to a lot of things that are new.  I wanted to know more why the cost was a barrier.  The article specifically emphasized the most widely used sources of renewable clean energy  wind and solar power.  First there is the cost of siting and transmission.  Siting, which involves finding the location of placing the turbines or panels, is often difficult due to time contranstrints and negotiations that are often riddled with costly items.  Transmission is another costly item as the energy has to leave the source through wiring and most are developed for fossil fuel and nuclear energy.  Another aspect of cost is that companies don't want to put out the upfront infrastructure costs required for panels or turbines.  They would rather use the established fossils that they extend price fluctuations onto the consumer.  They are not looking at the lifespan of energy cost when constructing.


Politics was not one I really expected to see but I suppose I was being naive as it seems almost everything has a political undertow anymore. Fossil fuel companies and their management provide support to legislators in turn hoping or probably expecting them to support them for tax breaks, incentives and subsidies.  In the 1970s there was scientific consensus that climate change was happening and we needed to find ways to mitigate it.  Unfortunately as I have learned energy is all about money and the fossil fuel industries of oil and coal want to stay the forerunners of energy supply in the US even though their sources are limited.


Barriers to Renewable Energy Technologies


(PDF) Barriers to Renewable Energy Technologies Development





    

Comments

  1. Julien DupontOctober 23, 2021 at 5:18 PM

    Hey, your blog is pretty nice as you put more of your own opinion into your blog rather than just some random facts about your topic. Keep it going.
    Also a very informative blog.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mitchell WeitkampOctober 25, 2021 at 1:29 PM

    Hey Liam, your viewpoint on your topic of clean and renewable energy is clear. You clearly find this to be a big issue in the world and you can tell that based on how you worded your post. I’m glad I got to read this, it really opened my eyes to this topic.

    ReplyDelete

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