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| Fri, 4th Oct 2019 12:38:00 |
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Can We Overcome The Last Few Hurdles For Renewable Energy? |
The challenges facing the renewable energy industry today are complex and deeply seated in society, including political pressures, corporate influence, and antiquated infrastructure. Despite these barriers, however, renewable technology is quickly becoming a viable alternative to fossil fuels, and significant global adoption could help to mitigate the more drastic and immediate effects of climate change.
Storing renewable energy at a large scale is one of the most pressing tasks for the renewable energy industry. While recent advances in battery capacity and longevity (as well as battery chemistry itself) are encouraging, cost is always the most significant factor that limits the adoption of new technology—despite the drastic consequences of the lack of change in this particular case.
The fossil fuel industry receives around $370 billion in subsidies, compared to $100 billion for renewable energy. In fact, there are signs that renewable energy may not need subsidizing for much longer, which would remove this government expenditure and put more emphasis on the need to end fossil fuel subsidies. But even in a scenario whereby neither industry is subsidized—and neither engages in lobbying to squash unfavorable policies—fossil fuels are sewn into the fabric of the economy.
While many governments around the world have committed to reducing their negative impact on the environment to some extent, there remain many obstacles to achieving the goals set out in the Paris Agreement (which no industrialized country is currently on track to meet).
Countries like Australia, the U.S., Saudi Arabia and the Russian Federation are all hindering global climate action—Australia is the world’s largest exporter of coal, the U.S. and Saudi Arabia are the largest exporters of oil, and Russia is the largest exporter of natural gas and oil combined.
While there remain challenges and growing pains for the renewable energy industry, it is abundantly clear that certain countries are dragging their feet where others are facing these challenges head-on. Moving away from fossil fuels will mean rejuvenating huge tracts of energy infrastructure, and there will undoubtedly be tough times ahead for fossil fuel employment as the job market shifts to new jobs. But these costs and hardships are nothing compared to the costs of doing nothing.
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