13 Reasons Why the World Won't Fully Run On Renewable Energy

There's a reason why we depended on fossil fuels in the first place

Seeing the smog and the destruction nature has endured during the industrial revolution, environmentalists started stepping up and demand that corporate America take better care of nature. The videos and images of ice glaciers melting make us worried for the animals living there. Walking down the streets of LA, the smell of smog from cars makes the walk unpleasant. At least the LA smog isn’t as bad as the smog in many Chinese cities.

The negative effects of fossil fuel dependence have created a need to find technologies that aren’t polluting the environment and that won’t run out, especially since fossil fuels are a very limited resource. As renewable energy gained notoriety for providing clean energy to communities, more and more investment continues to be poured into the renewable energy industry. While many believe that renewable energy can replace fossil fuels, in reality, that may not be the case.

Problems with Solar Energy

With the sun shining on most days, many find solar energy to be one of the best sources of renewable energy. Because technology has allowed solar panels have been effective in harnessing power from the sun into electricity, it’s much easier for homeowners to become energy independent, reducing their dependence on the utility company. If ever they generate more electricity than they need, they can have that extra energy stored in a battery and use that energy when the sun isn’t shining.

It sounds great and all but the fact that people need the sun to shine in order to get electricity can be a gamble considering that weather patterns have been changing. Also, solar panels require some rare elements for production and according to a study, there might not be enough of those rare elements to produce enough solar panels to make the world independent of fossil fuels.

Altogether, relying on solar energy alone to provide energy wouldn’t help.

Problems with Wind Energy

Air is everywhere. As temperatures on Earth differ in many places, according to physics, air goes from an area of high pressure to an area of low pressure. There doesn’t seem to be anything that can stop the wind from existing as long as temperatures aren’t uniform on Earth.

But here’s the problem: the wind isn’t predictable. We don’t know when the wind will blow, the speed, and direction. At least we do know which places have more wind than others. Because wind isn’t predictable, we can’t entirely depend on it. Wind farms generate different amounts of power at different times, depending on when the wind is blowing. That makes it harder for wind farms to provide more power at times when there’s higher demand. Since the coastal areas and offshore are windier than inland, it’s more ideal to place wind farms there but at the end of the day, the wind will continue to be unpredictable.

Overall, relying on wind power alone is a giant gamble.

Problems with Geothermal Energy

The Earth’s core is hot and will continue to stay hot. Since geothermal energy harnesses the heat of the Earth to produce power, people would think that you can build geothermal plants anywhere and as long as the Earth’s core remains hot, it can continue to provide energy to the world.

Wrong. Engineers can’t place a geothermal plant just anywhere, they have to place them in specific locations. These locations have to be in areas that are a lot hotter underground, and those areas happen to be on top of the tectonic plates. And if you aren’t familiar with tectonic plates, those are places where volcanoes are usually found.

Finding the perfect location isn’t enough when relying on a geothermal plant for energy. As long as the reservoirs at the plant are managed properly, then the plant can continue to provide electricity. If the reservoirs are mismanaged, bad things can happen and the communities that rely on the plant for energy will be receiving little to no power.

In short, geothermal energy is a lot more limited and a lot higher maintenance than other renewable energy sources.

Problems with Hydropower

As long as the rivers continue to flow, hydroelectric dams will continue to produce energy. Because of that thinking, there are cities that rely solely on hydroelectric power and nothing else. So far, many of those cities are doing well.

But, what if the water stops flowing? If anything stops the water from flowing, then the plant can’t produce electricity. Also, hydroelectric dams depend on precipitation levels. The more precipitation, the more energy it can create. Unfortunately, because global warming has made droughts more prevalent, hydroelectric dams will receive less water than before, reducing the amount of energy it creates.

Moreover, there are only a few locations in the world that are suitable locations for a hydroelectric dam and so far, most of those locations already have a hydroelectric dam. Hydroelectric power has limited growth. Smaller hydroelectric dams might be suitable but because there are so many resources and disruptions in nature that come along with construction, it’s much better if we focused on building larger dams.

In short, with limited growth and the prevalence of droughts, the world can’t solely rely on hydroelectric power.

Problems with other sources of renewable energy

Two of the other well-known sources of renewable energy are biomass and tidal power. While both are smaller than the other sources of renewable energy, they both come with their pros and cons.

For tidal power, since tides continue to occur in the oceans, harnessing power from the tides might be dependable. Plus, since the Moon’s influence on Earth creates tides, as long as the Moon is safe, the world will continue to have tides. On the flip side, because of the way tidal power devices are made, they can hinder the tidal level of the surrounding area. Plus, they can even disrupt the regular tide cycles, which can also harm marine life.

For biomass, as long as there is organic life that can fuel the fire, electricity can continue to be created. Since plants continue to grow every year, biomass plants have a renewable source of fuel. Unfortunately, biomass doesn’t solve the emissions issue of the environment as it’s only replacing fossil fuels with organic matter. Also, the prevalence of biomass energy will encourage people to grow crops and cut down trees for the sake of power. This will cause food and lumber prices to increase.

To sum it up, both biomass and tidal power are also sources of energy that we can’t solely rely on.

But by leveraging every renewable energy source’s strengths and weaknesses, we can allow the world to run solely on clean and renewable energy

The biggest issue with renewable energy isn’t the production, it’s the storage and distribution of it. Many of the best places for solar farms, wind farms, tidal farms, geothermal plants, and hydroelectric plants are in places that are far from cities. As we continue to focus more on the production of renewable energy, all the extra energy generated but can’t be stored goes to waste and unavailable for use when those plants aren’t producing energy. Plus, since many of those renewable energy plants are far from cities, there will be energy lost as it travels to the electrical grid.

With fossil fuels, it doesn’t matter if droughts are occurring, if the sun isn’t shining, or if the wind isn’t blowing. At any time, fossil fuels are there to provide energy for us.

While electric vehicles have made it easier for us to move around the world in a sustainable fashion, electric vehicles themselves have their own cons like how the batteries lose charge whether you’re using it or not, and perform worse in cooler climates.

There is also the issue of meeting energy demand. Overall, as innovation continues to happen and the world becomes wealthier, demand for energy will continue to increase. If the world ran solely on renewable energy, then the world would be more affected by changing weather patterns. Also, since renewable energy plants have their limitations on the amount of energy they can produce, with limited resources, it would be much harder to meet the growing and insatiable demand for energy.

So overall, we can’t operate in a world that would only run on renewable energy.

In the meantime, please share this post and comment below on your thoughts on renewable energy.