Monday 15.11 Sustainable energy technologies

Hi,

I was absent from the lecture on Monday because of another class, but I read the lecture material and write my blog according to that. The lecture was held by Jukka Paatero. The lecture slides don't tell who he is, but I assume he makes research on environmentally friendly energy sources. It was good that in the beginning of the lecture, the definition of sustainable energy is told: Sustainability means that the energy is economically, environmentally and socially sustainable.
I have actually thought about this a lot in recent years. For example in Finland half of the investment money for building wind energy is tax money. Otherwise it wouldn't be economical to build any wind energy. In addition, when there is no wind, the energy has to be compensated somehow. In Denmark for example there is a lot of wind energy, so normally extra wind power is sold to international markets. When there is not enough wind, extra energy has to be bought from somewhere else. This isn't very economical. What about social sustainability in the production of renewable energy? The so called green power is much more expensive for consumers, because it is more expensive to produce. The energy prices for example here in Finland are already high, would it be fair for poorer people to pay more for this necessarity? An option would be to pay the gap with tax money, but the money has to be taken from somewhere. Government allowances to one energy resource twist energy markets to favour that energy resource, even if it woudn't be the most environmentally friendly.
The truth is, environmentally technology already exists. Biofuels can be made from reastaurant grease, or even slaughter waste. Instead, it is made of palm oil, maybe destroying rain forests. The limit in using sustainable energy is purely economical. It is more expensive and someone has to pay for the higher price. In the end it is the consumers, directly or indirectly as higher taxes. I am positive, that when the oil price rises high enough in the following 20-50 years, more environmentally friendly options will gain power. Also if sustainable enrgy is installed in larger scale, the costs will go down.
It was an interesting option in the lecture slides, oceanic energy. The technology is not developed enough but I hope in the future it will be possible to use for example tide energy.
I think the current energy politics conversation is stuck with battle between idealist and conservative ideas. Some people don't want to change anything from where they are, some will change everything in a blink of an eye without real knowledge of realistic options. Instead, both sides could concentrate on gaining knowlegde how renewable energy use could be increased, in a socially, economically and environmentally sustainable way.