The Problem with Renewables
"It's too expensive."
“The payback isn’t there.”
“It doesn’t make economic sense.”
These are some of the complaints I’ve heard from homeowners and those trying to sell distributed generation solutions alike. The complaints seem to become even louder when energy storage, arguably the linchpin for distributed generation, becomes involved. As one of my colleagues told me over lunch: “the incentives just aren’t there for homeowners to buy it”.
This seems counter-intuitive, especially when my LinkedIn feed is consistently filled with proclamations of “renewable energy does it again!”:
- “Solar prices fall to record lows making them cheaper than fossil fuels”[1]
- “'Spectacular' drop in renewable energy costs leads to record global boost”[2]
- “Renewables now cheapest, but how to enable faster renewable energy growth?”[3]
So, where is the disconnect?
Why is it that renewable energy records are being broken across the globe, and yet the main complaint is still one of cost, and the product being too expensive for homeowners? Scale is important, but isn’t the main adage of renewable and distributed generation one of “the democratization of power”?
If we’re focusing on the utility and commercial scale side of things, doesn’t this just bring us back to another version of the central generation model? A step in the right direction, yes, but certainly not the utopia of “democratization” I keep hearing about. To truly achieve this vision, we need more residential renewables and storage, but there seems to be a roadblock – why?
One reason, I believe, stems from the core theme of all of complaints and articles above: a focus on price and the functional benefits of solar, with only a simple tie being made to going green.
Mechanical Engineer | Clean Energy
6yGreat article! Residential scale renewable energy definitely needs to find a way to be more “sexy” to get more widely adopted. I think energy independence and cutting off reliance on the big utilities is another emotional trigger that people respond to, but there is definitely a long way to go until renewable energy has the same cult following as, say Tesla or Apple. Once we figure that out, we need to do the same to make energy conservation “sexy” too, which I think is even harder sometimes!
Engineering Design|Project Development & Management|Operations Management| Quality Management
6yWell said. And kudos to all the comments I have gone through because we all has made justice to it in one way or the other. #IhavejustlearntKnewthings.
Associate Director, Head of the Professional Development and Experiential Education Office | Chair of the Board at Venture 2 Impact | Instructor
6yGreat article Mike! I think the developers should get some incentives so that the houses are built with solar/wind, like this it will be easier for the user. What do you think?
Registered Nurse at York Region (The Regional Municipality of York)
6yVery interesting and detailed for my understanding of the choices we make
Deploying electric fleet infrastructure at scale
6yThank you all for the overwhelming response - I appreciate the time taken for all of these comments! I've been reading each and every one of them with great interest, and hope that I have the opportunity to individually reply to all! Looking forward to further engaging discussions!