Sustaining Renewable Energy
By Dr Arvind Kumar
The success, thus far, of fossil fuels in meeting energy demand any time required has led to a belief that whatever we want we can always have whenever we want it. This of course is leading to problems as it patently can no longer be maintained. It also has lead to the development of quite unrealistic expectations as to how far renewables can replace fossil fuels. Renewable energy is being tagged on to a massive existing demand led fossil fuelled energy system that has historically recorded tremendous growth. Efforts at demand reduction and increased efficiency have seemingly resulted in slight savings and these are often deferred by people opting for higher comfort levels.
Viewed in a broad spectrum, almost all the renewable technology presently installed has only made us 96% fossil fuel dependent rather than 100%! This is a cause of worry as to the very extreme degree of energy descent that may be experienced as we move further into post-peak oil. Given the present snail-paced development, attaining any really significant percentage of renewable energy contribution to current consumption levels appears to be impossible. Current efforts to try and achieve this impossible target require ever more massive and complex machinery and higher and higher inputs of, increasingly scarcer materials and fossil energy to achieve. An enormous amount of fossil energy is required to manufacture, install and operate all forms of renewable energy systems. So sustaining renewable energy calls for more innovative technologies to be developed
