Renewable Energy: Reasons To Be Bullish

We occasionally encounter people who are steadfast in their belief that, because solar and wind are variable resources, renewable energy cannot power the world. But these folks miss some important points:

No one with any education in the subject is suggesting that the entire energy needs of the world should be met with solar and wind. Those who study the subject see a transition that includes nuclear, natural gas, the other myriad flavors of renewables, as well as smart-grid, efficiency, energy storage, electric transportation, and all the other peripheral technologies.  Will the world eventually evolve to the point that only renewable resources are required?  I believe so.  Is that a huge imperative.  Not really.

Note that every single one of these technologies is improving in cost-effectiveness every month. It’s clear that our civilization will experience significant economies of scale, and all of this will, at some point, be so inexpensive so as to obsolete the fossil fuel empire. One can argue about exactly when this will occur, but it’s clearly inevitable.

Ironically, all this will happen regardless of our attitude towards carbon emissions. I know there are people who don’t care about the environment, human health, empowering terrorism, etc. I don’t know a soul who is indifferent to how much he’s spending for energy.

Note also that Bill Gates and a few other fellow gazillionaires came back from Paris fully determined to make a difference here, in terms of investment dollars in clean energy.  That, btw, is one of the chapters of my most recent book (Bullish on Renewable Energy), i.e., that it’s extremely unlikely that people/groups like Gates, Zuckerberg, Apple, Google, etc. are going to sit around and watch our civilization destroy itself.