The energy of our world

Renewable energy.

This controversial topic has always created the biggest ruckus, but with the most minimal efforts supporting its causes. It is said that renewable energy can actually provide us with all the energy we need, with plenty to spare. But yet why wasn't it being utilized to its fullest potential?

My immediate reaction would be technological limitations. Renewable energy sources such as solar power was technologically-intensive. But apparently, technology wasn't an issue. Talk about the technological advancements and Brazil would probably be listed as one of the least mentioned countries in the world, when compared to developed countries such as the U.S. or Europe. Yet it was the most efficient grower of biomass for energy consumption. Furthermore, it was shown that a sheep farmer in Germany actually undertook the task of converting many acres of his farm into a “solar energy” farm, erecting thousands of solar panels within the green pastures. This shows that it is technologically possible to be renewable and sustainable, it is just a matter of whether we want to do so or not. 

So why not move to renewable technology if there are so many advantages obtained, and so many disadvantages inherent in fossil fuels? This was where the socio-political reason of energy security was raised, bringing into perspective the underlying issues against a move towards renewable energy sources. Energy security refers to the situation where we will always have the energy to meet our needs, where energy supply meets the energy demands. This means that one big determining factor of energy security lies in meeting the consumer wants and demands. That is where society's role comes into play - what society values to be important would lay the foundation for business behaviors. Unfortunately, society values the monetary value which is currently pegged to inaccurate market information. Hence, there is no way that society would accept an abrupt change from the comforts that fossil fuels can bring us.

Another reason would be that it makes no economic sense to do so. Inflexible systems in managing demand-supply interactions mean that price is the determining factor. Hence the misallocation of costs based off the traditional mindset disregarding sustainability, is driving market forces in the favor of fossil fuels, encouraging businesses to stay on the same destructive course of the past. It is more profitable to continue burning fossil fuels versus trying to utilize renewable energy, so why should corporations diverge from traditional business models? With no incentives to innovate, the potential of renewable energy will never be realized, and the advantages of renewable energy will never outweigh that of fossil fuels. 

Putting everything to perspective, I got a huge wake-up call when it was said that Singapore was comparable to U.S. in terms of energy consumption. Us being such a small country, how can our consumption compare to the vast territories of the U.S.? We automatically assume our inability to carry out activities on a large scale means that we do not have a say in the course of things. We have totally disregarded our efforts towards a sustainable cause without even making a reasonable attempt. Even though we might not have the largest land mass to boast of, the concentration of sunlight on our small island would be more than enough to power our nation many times over. On top of that, we could always share our technological knowledge and monetary resources to help with the development of renewable resources in less developed countries. However small our efforts might be, it would still definitely help in our environmental struggle today.

                                                                                                            

If we are unable to value going renewable over fossil fuels, this will not bode well for the future of the world. We need to start valuing sustainability, and appropriately attach the cost of sustainability to everything we do as our very first step to sustainability. From here on out if the problem is left to its own devices, it will only become exponentially harder to solve the problem at hand. What I would have liked to see today would be a focus on carbon trading. From what we know now, carbon trading actually features tradable units that actually mildly regulates fossil fueled energy, but does nothing to initiate a move towards renewable energy.

Overall I would rate this session an 8.5/10.