All energy could be renewable by 2030
By: Ryan Fleming
Hopefully this news isn’t a big shock to anyone, but fossil fuels–which currently make up 80-percent of all the world’s energy supply—are running out, and at the current rate of consumption, the world will hit a cataclysmic energy crisis within most
of our lifetimes. When that happens, the world will quickly fall apart, wars
will be fought over the smallest surpluses, our technology will be pushed back
centuries, dogs and cats will live together, etc., etc. In short, it would be
bad. Very very bad.
But that doesn’t
mean we should all begin stocking up on our ammo and sharpening our knives just
yet. The grim future predicted by many, where even starting a gas guzzling V8
car would be ruinous to all but the richest people in the world, can be
avoided, or at the very least slowed significantly.
A new study
published in the Energy Policy Journal and recounted by Physorg.com, claims that with a
concerted global effort, all energy could come from affordable and 100-percent
renewable energy sources by the year 2030. We would also be able to continue to
provide renewable and low pollution energy indefinitely.
So why aren’t the
governments of the world lining up to be the first to stamp an “Energy Saver”
sticker on their charters? The sad answer is, of course, money.
The study in
question was written by Mark Delucchi from the Institute for Transportation
Studies at the University of California, and Mark Jacobson from the Department
of Civil Environmental Engineering at Stanford University. The duo created a
mathematical formula that calculated the decline in costs associated with
renewable energy, and proceeded to find an equation that would show how long it
would take for those technologies to become cost effective to the point that
they would be able to practically and affordably replace all forms of energy
production in the world.
The study itself
focused on wind, solar, wave and geothermal sources only, then determined how
long it would take to replace the current sources of energy, including the
80-percent of the world’s energy that is reliant on fossil fuel, the 6-percent
that uses nuclear energy, and the much smaller percentage that relies on
biomass, which is currently the world’s most widely used renewable energy
source—biomass was excluded from the study due to the pollution it causes.
Anumakonda Jagadeesh comments:
These are all tall
projections. At best Renewables can supplement conventional energy sources like
coal, petroleum etc. Enormous energy is wasted in lighting, irrigation pump
sets etc. in developing countries. Energy saving and energy efficiency should
be given top priority in developing countries.
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