1.0 Introduction
‘I would like if everything would be renewable, however I believe it’s hardly possible’
(Said by a young European scholar during a chat with a friend, March 2016)
1.1 Research problem and aims of the research
The above quote of a young European scholar is unfortunately the position Europe has found herself recently in her quest for a renewable Europe, though some countries have exceeded the temporary targets of the RES directive 2009/28/EC but Corinna Klessmann, Anne Held, Max Rathmann and Mario Ragwitz wrote in their article on EU’s energy policy that ‘Europe will need additional policy effort to reach the 2020 target. Critical success factors include implementing effective and efficient policies that attract sufficient investments, reducing administrative and grid related barriers, especially in currently less advanced countries, upgrading the power grid infrastructure, dismantling financial barriers in the heat sector, realizing sustainability standards for biomass, and lowering energy demand through increased energy efficiency efforts’ . However, these are not the only problems impeding European Union from depending on renewable energy, other factors such as climate, protectionism, etc also makes this desirability looks infeasible for Europe to depend on renewable energy only.
Thus, this paper argues that European Union to rely exclusively on the use of renewable energy in the nearest future is not desirable and feasible.
1.2 Object of research: European Union and renewable energy
1.3 Objective of the research: to analyze the possibility of European Union becoming a zero-emission continent
1.4 Thesis Statement: The European Union to rely exclusively on the use of renewable energy in the nearest future is not desirable and feasible.
2.0 Background Information
Renewable energy policy has evolved differently in national and regional settings in the past decades. Interest in renewable energy began with increased environmental awareness in the 1960s and in debates concerning the relative merits of nuclear power versus fossil fuels. In the mid-1970s and 1980s, interest in renewable energy surged as a result of the ‘energy crisis’, caused by the disruption of oil supplies and the rising prices of oil and other fossil fuels. From early 1990s, interest continued to grow because of widespread interest in sustainable development following the publication of the report ‘Our Common Future’ (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987). In the 1990s, extra stimuli came from international environmental treaties, such as the UN Framework on Climate Change in Rio (1992) and the Kyoto Protocol (1997). Concerns for greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation, energy security and local environmental impacts continue to motivate political debate and policy reform (OECD 1998), as illustrated by the European Union’s Directive on renewable energy sources (the ‘RES Directive’) the need for renewable energy was also more stressed out in the Paris climate summit held this year. Despite this, fossil fuel still represent roughly three quarters of the EU energy mix, with oil having the highest share (37%), gas (24%), coal (16%), nuclear energy (14%) and renewable energy (9%) in 2009.
This paper would argue that fossil fuel still plays an important and would continue to play an important role in the nearest future until it almost runs out completely.
3.0
This chapter is divided into three sub-chapters. Each sub-chapter would contain an argument against renewable energy as source of energy in the nearest future of Europe.
3.1 Argument no 1
Liquid fuel and electricity: problem of production (large quantities) and storage
There two vital problem for renewable energy, the provision for liquid fuel and electricity. Renewable could be useful in many areas, such as heating and cooling space ‘via ‘solar passive’ designs whereby the structure captures and stores solar energy’ . But renewable energy face challenges with respect the two most consumed forms of energy which is liquid fuel and electricity. The major issue with renewable energy regarding these two forms of energy (liquid and electric) is reliability i.e quantity of energy that can be delivered at the exact time needed. According to Trainer, liquid fuel can only be obtained in two ways from renewable, biomass and hydrogen. However in 2009 alone the EU gross energy consumption was 1703 Mtoe (Million tons) of oil, even wild optimism about potential land and energy yield cannot produce such amount of liquid fuel. Also, in the case of electricity, the problem here would be about storage has the lecturer said in class ‘electricity cannot be stored in large quantity’ how do we store the excess electricity produced from renewable sources? The solution to this is it has to be transformed into something that can be stored such as, pumped water or hydrogen, and then transformed back into electricity when required. However this procedure involves a lot of techniques and cost.
To summarize, in the above argument I am concerned with the problem of quantities of energy that can be produced from renewable most especially in terms of ‘liquid fuel and electricity generation’. Also a great concern about electricity storage was mentioned, though a solution was provided in the argument the problems of technicality and cost still remains.
3.2 Argument no 2
Climatic factor
Climate is a very important factor in achieving a sustainable renewable Europe why? The simple answer is most sources of renewable energy get their power from climate, wind mills from wind; solar power from sun; even hydro power is most favorable in the wet season has it need a lot of water to produce electricity. Europe’s climate can be broadly categorized into two categories winter and summer. Wind mills and hydro power would be favorable to use during winter period has more winds and rains are synonymous to this period. According to Eurostat, ‘in 2013, hydropower was Europe’s largest renewable energy resource accounting for 16.6% of total primary energy production renewable energy in the EU-28 . This statistic shows that hydropower which is regarded has the most cheap and efficient in the renewable sector still lack much behind in replacing fossil fuels. There are three main ways of producing electricity from hydropower (1) run-of-river hydro power plant (2) reservoir hydropower plant (3) pumped storage plants.
However, the problem here is that hydropower plants requires a lot of water which would be scares in summer and can cause disruption to power supply, Where there is reservoir storage of water, hydropower can be generated when needed to meet rapid or unexpected fluctuations in demand. But, there are limited possibilities for sites and potentially high environmental impacts through land use and conversion.
Same climatic problem logic goes for solar power in this case solar power is more favorable in the summer as sunlight is the main source of power supply for solar power. In other words the biggest difficulties for solar power are set by its variability, especially occurrence of nigh time and winter which makes it almost useless right through the winter.
In summary, the basis of the argument is that energy is too precious and important to hang our faith on climate. To crown it all weather an uncertainty element, though it could be predicted but it could also be unpredicted at times.
3.3 Argument no 3
The availability of fossil fuel
Fossil fuel still plays a crucial role in the world energy market. ‘The world’s energy market worth around 1.5 trillion dollars is still dominated by fossil fuels’ (Goldemberg, 2006.) The World Energy Outlook (WEO) 2007 claims that energy generated from fossil fuels will remain the major source and is still expected to meet about 84% of energy demand in 2030.
Trend of world proven reserve and consumption from fossil fuel, data collected from EIA and BP.
Fig 1.1
Fig 1.2
Fig 1.3
The fact is despite the outcry for reduction of GHG emission fossil fuel cannot be easily replaced by renewable energy. Fossil fuel is cheap, the infrastructures are already in place, it is reliable for now, can be produced in large quantities and can be stored in large quantities as well. Another fact is it easier for smaller countries to rely on renewable than big countries which are also industrialized countries because of the amount of energy needed to be consumed therefore, fossil fuel would still continue to play an important role in the production of energy in the nearest future in Europe.
4.0 Conclusion
In conclusion, this paper has shown that fossil fuel cannot be radically wipe out in the energy sector as it still represent at large the main source of energy supply to the world’s consumer. For sure renewable is the longtime solution to energy security however its time is not near and still needs a lot of research and development for it to become a reliable and efficient to use.
In the far future, without any doubt renewable would become the primary source of energy has fossil fuel would be rare or out of existence, much money are still invested in the fossil fuel field. However I do not think this is a right step I advice for more research and development and investment to be done in the field of renewable as it still need larger attention for it to be sufficient enough for the future.
Reference
Corinna Klessmann, Anne Held, Max Rathmann, Mario Ragwitz; Status and perspectives of renewable energy policy and deployment in the European Union’what is needed to reach the 2020 targets? Found at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421511006355.
http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/environmental-data-centre-on-natural-resources/natural-resources/energy-resources/hydropower
J. Goldemberg; The promise of clean energy. Energy Policy, 34 (2006), pp. 2185’2190
Lin Gan, Gunnar S. Eskeland, Hans H. Kolshus; Green electricity market development: Lessons from Europe and the US. Found at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421505002867.
Ted Trainer; Renewable cannot sustain a consumer society.
Shahriar Shafiee, Erkan Topal; When will fossil fuel reserves be diminished? Found at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421508004126.
Other sources
- British Petroleum (BP)
- Energy Information Administration (EIA)