Be it a complex machine like the latest Tesla producing 778 hp power or something as ordinary as the lightbulbs in your home, almost everything runs on energy. The quantum of our dependence on energy is only increasing and seems endless, while conventional energy resources remain finite. Further, as we drift towards a sustainable way of living, we also need to transition to cleaner and greener sources of energy.
While we took shelter in our homes during the pandemic lockdowns, the reduced industrial and travel activity corresponded to a drop in pollution, right from the epicentre in China’s Wuhan to any major city in the first world countries. A NASA research in November went on to confirm that the global emissions level for Nitrogen Dioxide, a greenhouse gas, had reduced by 20 per cent since February 2020.
Renewable energy: Presenting an efficient and low-cost energy solution
From being a mere concept two decades ago, renewable energy has now become a mainstream solution for power. The new age renewable offerings now compete with conventional sources of energy in terms of power cost and efficiency.
As compared to the past decade, renewable power is now cheaper than the energy from the fossil fuels in most places, a sheer contrast against the previous times. The renewable energy technologies have been following the learning curves as per which the levelised costs of energy (LCOE) halve down when the scale of the renewable power station is doubled and so on.
As per the EIA, the technological advancement in the solar PV modules has led the efficiency of commercially available photovoltaic cells to increase from 10 per cent in the 1980s to ~15 per cent by 2015 and approaching as high as 20 per cent now. The higher efficiency has resulted in a decrease in the unit cost of electricity to the extent that solar cells can compete with conventional sources of electricity. The rise in the efficiency of renewable sources is set to widen the price difference in favour of renewable power.
Mega opportunity for renewables
The international financial institutions and banks have begun to prefer investing in renewable and green energy projects over conventional fossil fuel projects. Also, several financial institutions and investors have begun to part ways with coal and thermal power projects.
In addition, governments across the globe have come forward in support of renewable energy in order to combat the climate change issue. As US tries to revive and rebuild itself post the pandemic, President-elect Joe Biden has plans to build a greener economy. The US is anticipated to re-join the Paris agreement and announce a US$2 trillion stimulus package with a special focus on renewable energy.
Australia has an existing federal program, the Renewable Energy Target (RET), to support the transition to sustainable and renewable sources of energy. The large-scale renewable energy target was aimed to generate 33,000 GWh of electricity from the renewable sources in 2020. As per the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), the renewable power sources could supply as much as 75 per cent of the electricity in the National Energy Market (NEM) by 2025.
The nation’s ambitious target and the international drive to minimise the climate change phenomenon will facilitate the transition to clean and green energy sources. New solar breakthroughs including solar thin-film skins and Perovskite solar cells are now focusing on offering efficient solution for domestic and industrial domains. The renewable projects require to be complemented with efficient and reliable energy storage solutions.
An Australian innovation, the Vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs), are finally being utilised as an appropriate utility scale renewable energy storage, reducing the overall power costs and emissions. The awareness among the pedestrian and the attractive subsidies will promote households to switch to renewable power.
The avenues for renewable energy development remain abundant but will require to be complemented with efficient government reforms, advancement in technology and the economics to decide the pace of transition globally. With increasing focus towards green and clean energy, renewables seem to be charting out a positive trajectory.
