The Ways Renewable Energy Have Been Implemented in Specific Context - Essay Example

Wind and solar energy Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Introduction Energy reliability is very essential for any sector of economy to conduct its operations effectively. All industries require sustainable source of energy in order to succeed in their operations. Traditional sources of energy such as installing generators are very expensive to maintain, noisy and pollutes the environment (Marteena, 2006, p 1). From the research which has been conducted in Australia, it is clear that renewable energy is needed to sustain the industries and also the cost of using non renewable energy. From this research which has been conducted, it is clear that renewable sources of energy in Australia are not sustainable. The main sources of energy that will be discussed in this paper are the solar and wind energy in Australia. This essay will compare and contrast wind and solar energy use in Australia and their sustainability. It will also discuss the economic benefits of using wind and solar energy as well as the effects of using wind and solar energy. The good thing about the solar energy and the reason that make it more useful in Australia is that it is less costly. The cost of installing the production of wind energy is not too high and can be afforded by many energy users. Solar energy is the most efficient source of energy. From the research which has been conducted, it is expected that in the year 2050, solar energy is expected to contribute about 6% of the total energy generated globally. This is because technology is growing rapidly and the likelihood is that the solar energy will be the most effective source of energy (Georgia & Harry 2010, p. 2). Due to the less cost of producing energy from solar, many households in Australia have adopted the use of the solar energy. On the other hand, wind energy is another source of renewable energy. Wind energy has the advantage of less cost of transmitting the energy. Wind energy is also less costly when compared to solar energy making it affordable to many energy users. In the year 2008, the wind energy contributed about 0.2% of the global energy. This is an indication that there is great use of wind energy and due to increasing technological advancements, it is expected that the wind energy consumption will grow to about 4%. The alternatives of the wind energy are the fossil fuelled stations which provide alternative energy sources to meet the demand (Georgia & Harry 2010, p. 3). On the other hand, both solar and wind energy have their own drawbacks despite them having the above discussed benefits. To start with, wind energy is costly to install and maintain it (Richard & Catherine 2008, p. 9). When compared to solar energy, wind energy can be costly because of the expenses incurred like buying the turbines. Due to these expenses of producing the wind energy, not many households and other energy users can afford to produce adequate amount of the energy from wind. Therefore despite wind energy being used abundantly in Australia, it is produced in small quantities and the likelihood is that it may not sustain the growing demand for the energy (Lakatos 2011, P. 8). The drawback of solar energy is that it is not reliable because of the changing climatic conditions. It is more often than note that solar energy depends on the sun for its production (Georgia & Harry 2010, p. 4). When the sun is not strong, the production of the solar energy will be low and high when its summer. In this regard, solar production will not be sufficient to serve all the sectors with adequate energy. Sustainability of the wind and solar energy is also influenced by market factor. Due to high cost of installing the production of energy from renewable sources, it has been hard to fund the renewable sources of energy (Marteena et al 2006, p. 5). Funding the production of the wind and solar energy is among the challenges facing the energy industry in Australia. In addition, there is the institutional factor. Production of wind energy in the remote areas is more complex. There is difficult in terms of dissemination of information, clashes of interests and lack of appropriate regulatory frameworks (Marteena et al 2006, p. 6). These make it difficult to sort impediments to renewable energy hence it is difficult to implement it. There are some barriers to effective application of wind and solar energy in remote areas. The first barrier is the market factors. Market factors such as lack of competition and high transaction costs are among the barriers which have affected the application of this energy in remote areas. To some extent, it is expensive to transport energy because of the subsidization by the government (Marteena et al 2006, p. 4). The sustainability of the wind and solar energy sources is also affected by various impediments. The first impendent that affects the production of solar and wind energy is the economic impediment. Despite solar and wind energy providing greater benefits in the energy sector, there are many costs which are associated with installation on the renewable sources of energy (Benjamin 2009, P. 8). There are both environment and social costs which are associated with the solar and wind energy. In this regard, the wind and solar sources of energy do have some extra costs. For instance, sources of renewable energy should be well maintained so that it does not affect the social lives of people hence this calls for extra costs. Another impediment which influences the sustainability of the wind and solar energy sources is the political one. Various governments play a great role in the management of the energy globally. For instance, fossil fuel prices fell in the year 1980s and this greatly affected the management of energy globally because people abandon the production of energy wind and solar energy due to low prices of oil. The impact of this situation is that people relied more on non renewable sources of energy which were exploited. Later, the demand for energy went high hence the wind and solar sources of energy could not meet the energy demands (Scott 2009, p. 6). Therefore changes in the political systems have greatly impacted on the renewable sources of energy. The use of renewable sources of energy in Australia has had big impacts on the economy of the country. The reason why Australia adopted the use of renewable sources of energy such as wind and solar to produce electricity is that the cost of electricity went high and with the changing global economic demands there was need to develop alternative sources of energy. The government of Australia wants to cut down the prices of the electricity so that they can improve the wellbeing of the people. The production of energy from wind and solar will supplement other energy sources and this will help to lower the cost of energy which will enable investors to invest in Australia because the cost of energy is low (Asif & Muneer 2005, P. 7). However, the production of solar energy depends on the location and the climate of a country. In most of the days in the year, Australia is sunny and this produces adequate source of solar for production of energy. In Australia, the climate if favorable and at some times it is winter and summer. During summer, the energy from the solar is harvested and preserved for use during winter. This indicates solar energy is widely used in Australia (Marteena, 2006, p 14). Mostly, it is used in the households for generating electricity and also used for generating heat fro the households. Solar energy in Australia can be produced in large scale and is widely used. The government of Australia came to find out that fossil fuels could be the most efficient source of energy to replace renewable sources of energy and this will help to improve the economy of the country. However, the government also found out that there was a lot of carbon dioxide which was emitted to the atmosphere and this could affect the performance of others sectors of economy. For instance, between the years of 1990 and 2009, the greenhouse gas emission in Australia increased by 28% which is a very big margin. The main source of this greenhouse gases is the production of the electricity. This makes the country ranked among the highest pollutants of the environment. In this regard, there have been debate to change the production of energy and use the renewable sources of energy so as to reduce the production of the greenhouse gases which pollute the environment. The electricity sector is the leading in the production of greenhouse gases (Greg 2009, p 8). This led to the advocating for use of wind and solar energy so that the cost of energy will go down and also lower the pollution of the environment. The production of wind energy in Australia has led to various benefits to the economy of Australia. Some of the benefits of producing energy from solar wind include creation of job opportunities, reduced emission of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere which could otherwise affect the other sectors of economy (Richard & Catherine 2008, p. 9). In this regard therefore, use wind and solar energy in Australia has helped to improve the economy of the country by promoting use of low cost energy sources which are wind and solar energy. Wind and Solar sources of energy are very essential in preserving the environment (Ingrid 2012, P. 6). Through renewing the sources of energy, the rate of emitting carbon dioxide to the air is reduced. This helps to preserve the environment (Lakatos 2011, P. 3). For instance, wind does not Emmitt any carbon dioxide to the environment thus it protects the climate. Another advantage is that it helps to increase safety of the supply of energy. These sources help to reduce the use of fossil fuels which pollute the environment. Another advantage is that it helps to reduce the cost of using energy. Renewable sources of energy are cheap to afford than the non renewable sources of energy. In this regard, they help to supplement other sources of energy. The use of wind and solar as sources of energy has been the most commonly adopted sources of energy since civilization began. These sources of energy are abundant globally but have not been fully exploited. The renewable energy sources account for about 13.5% of the global energy sources. Despite the mass production of energy from the renewable sources and the benefits reaped, there are some challenges which face the use of wind and solar energy (Richard & Catherine 2008, p. 9). These challenges include the following. The first one is the exploitation of the fossil fuels. Many companies have opted to using renewable sources of energy and this has led to exploitation of the fossil fuels. For instance, the use of wind energy has led to exploitation of the resources hence there is limited production of wind energy. Another challenge facing the renewable sources of energy is the global warming. The global climate has changed and the temperatures have gone very and this has led to destruction of the renewable sources of Energy. For instance the fossil fuels have been affected by the global warming effect. There is a limited source of the fossil fuels (Richard & Catherine 2008, p. 10). Conclusion This essay discussed the comparison between wind and solar energy, their sustainability and economic benefits in Australia. Despite renewable sources of energy being utilized effectively in Australia, the strategies put by the government are not sufficient to sustain the growing demand for the energy. In this regard, the renewable sources of energy are not sustainable. The cost of producing wind and solar energy depends on the economic stability of the country. This is because; it is costly to produce renewable sources of energy. The main sources of renewable energy in Australia are solar and wind energy. Wind and solar sources of energy are less costly as compared to non renewable sources of energy. The wind and solar energy help to protect the environment as they do not pollute the environment. However, they are costly to install and they can only be produced in small quantities. In Australia, the production of renewable sources of energy does not meet the demand for the energy by the industries and domestic use. In this regard, the production of renewable sources of energy in Australia is not sustainable to meet the demand for the energy by various sectors of economy. References Asif, M. & Muneer,T. (2005). Energy supply, its demand and security issues for developed and emerging economies. London: Elsevier Ltd. Benjamin, K. S. (2009). Rejecting renewable: The socio-technical impediments to renewable electricity in the United States. New York: Elsevier Ltd. Ingrid, M. (2012). Australia’s climate change, wind farming, coal industry and the‘big carbon plan’: Mine coal, sell coal, repeat until rich, Rural society, 21(3), 231-249. Georgia, D. & Harry F. (2010). Renewable Energy. London: Springer. Greg, B. (2009). Weaknesses and reform of Australia’s renewable electricity Support. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Lakatos , L. Hevessy, G. & Kovács, J. (2011). Advantages and Disadvantages of Solar Energy and Wind-Power Utilization, World Futures: The Journal of New Paradigm Research, Vol. 67, No. 6, pp. 395-408 Marteena M. & Michael, H. (2006). Remote Renewable Energy in Australia: Barriers to Uptake and the Community Engagement Imperative. Griffith University: Brisbane Richard, H. & Catherine, M. (2008). Deliberative Speak at the Turbine Face: Community Engagement, Wind Farms, and Renewable Energy Transitions, in Australia, Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, 10(3), 217-232 Scott V. (2009). Braking wind in Australia: A critical evaluation of the renewable energy Target. National University of Singapore. Read More