Wk 8 - Urban Renewable Energy - A paradox

Sustainable Energy is often 1 of the hottest topic within the sustainable development topic of the 21st century. What is Sustainable Energy ? So Sustainable Energy is the efficient use of renewable energy sources that are ecologically sustainable. In short, a combination of demand reduction as well as renewable energy.  Among the sustainable energy production in Australia includes, Bio-energy in Rocky Point Queensland, Wind in Albany Western Australia, Solar Efficient Homes, Adelaide and so on. (Diesendort, 2015) 

Given its potential and growth in the industry, renewable energy is labelled as the mainstream technology in replacing the traditional fossil fuel powered energy in the recent years. Just almost a week ago (16th May 2016), Bloomberg announced that Clean power supplied  almost all of Germany's power demand, a policy to boost renewable energy while phasing out nuclear and fossil fuels. (Shankleman, 2016). Generating a surplus of 45.8 gigawatts to meet the demand of 45.5 gigawatts that turned the prices of electricity negative. Truly, a significant milestone that should set an exemplary to other counties. 

Let's assume that the advantages far out weight the disadvantages of using renewable energy and the path to sustainable development are a complex issue that has to deal from multiple perspectives. Somewhat, I find it  ironic that land resources have to be sacrificed in order to obtain renewable energy, for example, solar takes a huge amount of open unobstructed land to obtain direct solar when the goal of renewable energy is to sustain and retain natural resources to begin with. 

Source :http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02597/solar-panels_2597461b.jpg 

With the increase of population in urban city, almost 430,000 hectares of agricultural land surrounding Melbourne and Sydney will be taken up by housing without taking into account land usage by renewable energy. With the saying of " There are always 2 sides of a coin" had lead me to further look at the environmental impact done by renewable energy, specifically in solar. 

Without understanding the bigger picture, many ... including myself would find it interesting that although the sun provides a tremendous resource for generating clean energy, the environmental impact that is associated with solar includes land use, habitat loss, water use as well as hazardous materials in manufacturing (if the total LCA is taken into consideration). While there are no direct global warming emissions and environmental impact associated with generating electricity from soalar, there are emissions with the other stages of the solar life-cycle such as manufacturing, transporation, installation, materials usage as well as landuse.


In summary, I would like to keep an nuetral stand point upon renewable energy such as solar due to my insufficient knowledge and expertise within the field. Although there are certain environmental drawbacks upon the implmentation of renewable energy, as well as I believe that there must be a reason that allow governments and policy makers to stand firm in pushing renewable energy as the alternative. Probably, it is because the environmental benefits outweight the negatives from using solar as well as traditional fossil fuel.

Resources:

Disendort, M, 2015, Sustainable Energy Solutions for climate change. 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-16/germany-just-got-almost-all-of-its-power-from-renewable-energy

http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/our-energy-choices/renewable-energy/environmental-impacts-solar-power.html#.V0AfJ_l95D8