Most renewable energy devices
– equipment that generates electricity from the wind, waves or sun, or which heats water directly using energy from the sun – have been around for decades, in some cases for centuries. But they have not caught on till now, and they are still seen as mostly peripheral ways of contributing energy to the total required.” I argue that three facts will very soon result in everybody clamouring for whatever renewable energy they can get, peripheral or not, the alternative being that they either won’t be able to get enough of it, or to afford it, as conventional fuels, (gas and oil), run out and prices continue to soar. After all, whatever the cost of renewable energy sources, after what is already an acceptable payback period they produce free energy for the life of the system used – normally at least 25 years. People don’t have to think about climate change to justify them – they do that on energy cost savings alone. The three facts are: Oil and gas are running out, whilst the world demand for them is increasing. And we are at the end of the pipeline. The amount of energy from the sun falling on each square metre of the earth’s surface is equivalent to 1,000kWh annually – so that alone is enough to meet the entire global demand for energy many times over. Even without wind, water and nuclear power we can manage easily without oil and gas. If we get our act together in time. In real terms fuel prices have at least doubled in the last year, and they are likely to double again every couple of years or even faster than that. As a result, a system with a payback period of 10 years now will, in practice, pay for itself in less than half that time.
We must proceed with renewable energy.
Jay Draiman
Northridge, CA. 91325
