In “The Long Slow Rise Of Solar And Wind”, the author explains the intensely long period of time it would take our society to convert from fossil fuel energy to renewable energy, mainly because of the size of demand of energy today and the lack of technology to supply USA with enough energy to meet this demand.
Will solar and wind energy facilities be enough to provide the consistently growing energy demand of America?
And if this transition to renewable energy would take as long as it took to switch from wood and coal, what kind of environmental damage can we expect by the time we fully convert from fossil fuels?
I think that one of the main ideas the author is trying to point out, in “The Long Slow Rise Of Solar And Wind,” is that solar and wind energy facilities will never be enough to satisfy and support America’s energy demand if we don’t take serious measures to try and reduce, or at least slow down, our rapidly increasing rate of demand. It seems that the author is arguing, first and foremost, that all countries should begin by working on their energy consumption levels, especially since the author points out, “recent studies have shown that there are no insurmountable technical problems to reducing energy use by a third…”
The other key problem which may further prolong and complicate our transition to renewable energy is the fact that it involves a “fundamental reshaping of our modern energy infrastructure.” The author stresses how economically and financially difficult this adoption of renewable energy will be for many countries who have made tremendous investments in fossil-fuel systems across the globe. The way I see it, the real challenge boils down to finding a way to encourage countries to reconsider these investments and view them as short-term solutions to a problem, which should eventually be replaced by renewable energy which provides a long-term solution.
According to “The Long Slow Rise of Solar and Wind”, solar and wind energy facilities will be able to provide the consistently growing energy demand of America. They say that this will be able to get done through putting multiple facilities across The United States and connecting them through wires so if one facilities does not get enough wind to power the turbines or enough sun for the solar panels, it will be given enough assistance.
However somehow this seems almost counterproductive. Wouldn’t we be making these machines so that they make enough energy for us to use? Why do we need machines that might need to borrow energy from other facilities that possibly may be just scraping by because they can’t make enough? Of course, it would be helpful, as the article commented, if homeowners also installed their own solar panels to help themselves.
I believe that the environment will take on much more damage before any sort of transition takes place. There is still the possibility of more oil spills and exhaust buildup in the atmosphere.