Renewable
energies such as wind and solar energy has been around for decades. Many predicted that it would supply most of
the nation’s energy by now. However,
renewable energy only accounts for approximately 10% of the nation’s energy
consumption. This is a far cry from a
majority. Fossil fuels still accounted
for over 80% of US consumption in 2014 according to U.S. Energy Information
Administration. There are several
reasons renewable energy has yet to take a bigger piece of the U.S. energy pie. Political opposition and costs are certainly
factors that have hampered expanded usage of renewable energy sources. However, there is another reason that many
people might not even know is a problem that requires a solution. That problem is, when renewable sources are
not producing, such as when the sun doesn’t shine for solar energy and when the
wind isn’t blowing for wind energy, where do you get the energy from?
Many
think the simple solution is to store it with a battery. However, for years battery technology simply
lacked the capacity to store the required energy needed to supply energy on a
large scale. In 2003, the city of
Fairbanks, Alaska plugged in a battery that is larger than a football
field. But even a battery that size only
stores enough power to supply the town of 12,000 people electricity for seven
minutes. There is hope that solid state
lithium ion batteries will eventually be able to meet this demand. Companies such as Tesla are on the forefront
of these technologies.
Another
potential solution is to use the excess energy from renewables to make hydrogen
fuel cells. In this process, the excess
energy is used to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. The molecules
are then combined in a fuel cell that creates an electro-chemical reaction
resulting in electricity. This is a
potentially good solution because there is no limit to the amount of hydrogen
that can be stored.
There
are many other potential solutions as well and hopefully one day soon at least
one of these solutions will become economically viable as a way to store the
massive amounts of energy this country needs.
Until one of these solutions does become viable, don’t look for the U.S.
energy pie chart to change very much.
-Sean
Combs, Legal Intern
