Minute Musings #13: The problem with Renewable Energy

Renewable energy has been widely accepted to be the solution to our climate change and sustainability concerns although the main concern with most renewable sources of energy i.e., solar, wind, tidal etc. has always been its intermittency. Others appear to be basically foolproof (geothermal, hydroelectricity, biomass etc.) although the availability of these sources are very much geographically dependent.

To solve the problem of intermittency, energy storage (at every possible scale) needs to be implemented. Whether it is batteries, hydrogen, compressed air or pumped hydro, there is probably no one method that will prevail over the others in all applications and contexts. Locality is a big factor in deciding the method of choice, for example, you cannot possibly have pumped hydro energy storage in a desert. Thus, all these methods will need to be worked on and optimized to whichever circumstance that they are most suited for.

The other, less talked about problem with renewable energy concerns the beginning- and end-of-life of these technologies. In our desperation are we allocating all our lithium reserves for Li-ion batteries and all our rare earth magnets for wind turbine motors? How polluting is the process of extracting these materials? This creates an issue both with sustainability and energy security. Furthermore, what happens when your solar panels or wind turbines need to be decommissioned? Is it 100% recyclable, or repurpose-able? As we see fields and arrays of these technologies being deployed globally, it is also important to close the life cycle loop as sustainably as possible.

These concerns need to be addressed in advance, lest we make the same mistake that we did with oil. Economically, there is potentially a huge industry waiting in the wings to perform sustainable decommissioning for renewable energy technologies. It is vital to think ahead.