Can EU become totally renewable by 2050?

Some respected European politicians and energy experts have recently stated that EU could by 2050 completely satisfy its total energy demand from renewable energy sources. In order to do so, all EU countries would have to work together and make huge investments in further development of renewable energy technologies, especially renewable energy storage technologies. Is such scenario really possible?

To some this may (rightly) seem like some sort of "green utopia" while there are some that are really convinced how this is very much possible, on both economic as well as technological level. This optimism is mostly based on some recent estimates, according to which Europe, together with North Africa has excellent renewable energy potential to produce approximately 140,000 terawatt hours of energy, which is around 20 times the amount of current energy consumption in Europe.

Current EU's renewable energy goal is 20 % of energy coming from renewable energy sources by 2020, which many energy experts believe will be achieved with relative ease, especially since the recent data shows that 60% of all investments in energy sector were transferred towards renewable energy projects.

What some energy experts keep forgetting is the fact that EU is still not united body when it comes to energy policy. You have countries like Germany and Spain that are making huge investments in renewable energy sector, France meanwhile continues to further invest in new nuclear power plants, while central European countries still invest in thermal power plants based on fossil fuels and look reluctant to drastically reduce CO2 emissions.

The other important part in this story is the fact that many countries are still not ready to give Brussels all the power in making joint energy decisions because this could put in jeopardy some bilateral energy agreements that these countries have with countries like U.S. and China, which enable these countries to get certain energy resources under privileged conditions.

Some energy experts even dream about Pan-European renewable energy network that would reach entire EU by connecting Spain's solar and wind power projects with geothermal power plants in Italy, offshore wind farms in Britain and Denmark, and hydropower projects in Scandinavia.

Renewable energy projects of this magnitude look highly unlikely in EU because differences among countries still look like a too big obstacle in making such important decisions. Thus totally renewable EU by 2050 is just a nice dream that has more to do with the science fiction than actually being possible in real life.

Fossil fuels vs renewable energy in United States

Fossil fuels are still dominant energy sources in United States, and their dominance doesn't look like being decently challenged by renewables in years to come. But this doesn't mean that everything looks negative for renewable energy sector in United States, on the contrary, the latest data shows that Americans used significantly more renewable energy resources in 2009 compared to previous years (especially wind energy).

According to the US Department of Energy Americans were in general using less energy in 2009 compared to previous years. There are two factors mainly responsible for this: recession and improved efficiency. Recession is connected with lower economic activity and thus decreased demand for energy, and higher efficiency appliances and vehicles were able to reduce energy demand even further.

Coal and petroleum are still heavily used in United States but recent data shows that United States used significantly less coal and petroleum in 2009 than in 2008. Wind energy was the most popular renewable energy source in 2009, and Americans were using significantly more wind power in 2009 compared to 2008.

Other renewable energy sources such as solar, geothermal, and hydropower also experienced increase in use though this increase is significantly smaller compared to wind energy.

The estimated U.S. energy use in 2009 was 94.6 quadrillion BTUs, down from 99.2 quadrillion BTUs in 2008, and domestic energy use experienced decline in all important sectors (residential, commercial, industrial and transportation).

The significant increase of totally installed US wind power capacity in 2009 was mostly due to the more than acceptable incentives, and technological advancement of wind power technologies. To put it in other words, in 2009, the wind power technology got better and the incentives remained relatively stable (despite the financial crisis).

This has resulted in less CO2 emissions compared to previous years because Americans were burning less fossil fuels. It will be very interesting to see whether this trend will continue once energy demand starts to grow again, or will coal and petroleum, once again, grow in popularity.

Why should renewable energy replace fossil fuels?

Renewable energy is touted by many energy experts as the best possible option to replace fossil fuels, and here are the reasons why.

Fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, and coal) are currently dominant sources of energy that have long tradition and powerful lobbies behind them. Though our industry and economy is still heavily dependent on fossil fuels there are several reasons why we should start reducing this dependence as soon as possible. Two the most important reasons are huge environmental damage fossil fuels do and the fact that fossil fuels are limited energy resources meaning that they will be eventually depleted.

Fossil fuels burning creates harmful greenhouse gas emissions (carbon dioxide emissions) that have significantly contributed to global warming and climate change, and the science warns us that if we continue this path we will very soon see irreversible changes in our climate that will mean the end of our current way of life. Possible climate change scenarios include more frequent extreme weather events, severe food shortages, flooding and droughts, and even new diseases so serious climate change is definitely something we could live without.

We must also accept the fact that eventually world will run out of oil, natural gas and coal. This will not happen in the next few decades but is likely to happen in lets say 100 years from now. When this happens we must have another option ready and well prepared to jump in and replace the fossil fuels, and renewable energy is definitely the best available option we have at our disposal.

Why is renewable energy the best option to replace fossil fuels? First of all renewable energy doesn't harm our environment like fossil fuels do, and generally speaking compared to fossil fuels renewable energy sources are far more environmentally friendly.

Renewable energy sources cannot be depleted like fossil fuels can, sun will continue to shine and wind will continue to blow while oil, natural gas and coal will likely disappear in relatively near future.

There are also so many renewable energy resources to choose from: in some places solar power may be the best renewable energy option, in other wind, in some hydropower, geothermal energy, biomass, tidal power. All these renewable energy options are available, and it's up to each country to choose what is best for their residents.

Renewable energy technologies are still far from being fully developed meaning that fossil fuels still have edge in costs when compared to renewable energy sources. But the good news is that renewable energy sources are becoming more and more cost-competitive with fossil fuels (for instance the prices of wind turbines and solar panels have significantly decreased in the last few years), and this is definitely a good sign for the future of renewable energy.

The media should do much more to promote renewable energy by presenting people all the benefits these sources have over fossil fuels, but not only by showing the advantages of renewable energy sources but also by showing their drawbacks, and the possible solutions to fix these drawbacks.

The first thing each and every one of us must learn is that the "perfect energy source" doesn't exist, and thus we need to choose the best available option we have at our disposal. Renewable energy is not perfect and certainly has its flaws but it's still way better compared to fossil fuels. At least in my book, that is.

Does renewable energy guarantee energy security?

Renewable energy is not only an environmentally friendly option but using more renewable energy would also improve our energy security. Many energy experts would agree with the sentence above but not all of them. While all energy experts would agree that renewable energy is indeed much more environmentally friendly option compared to fossil fuels, not all would agree that using renewable energy would significantly improve our energy security, at least not given the current situation. Why is that?

Many renewable energy technologies require a lot of rare metals for their production, for instance several very rare metals are needed to make photovoltaic panels, while some rare earth magnets are needed to construct wind generators, fuel cells and high-capacity batteries for hybrid and electric vehicles.

Renewable energy still doesn't guarantee energy security.

United States, as well as many other industrialized nations are heavily dependent on foreign import for these rare metals. Gallium, indium, selenium, tellurium, and high purity silicon are all needed to make photovoltaic panels and they are all rare and expensive metals.

In the worst possible scenario this would mean that US would practically swap its dependence on foreign oil import with the foreign metal import in order to further develop its domestic renewable energy sector.

Such solution certainly wouldn't do much good in terms of improving domestic energy security because US, as well as most developed countries would depend upon importing these rare metals from China.

China is currently the dominant world supplier of those rare earth elements but since China has already started huge renewable energy expansion Chinese could soon have little or none of these metals to export which could even stop a further development of renewable energy technologies on global scale.

This is the main reason why global renewable energy sector desperately needs new sources of these precious but rare metals. Depending solely on China will soon not be enough, not with its rapid expansion of different renewable energy projects across the country.

Many countries will need to invest more in mining because this could soon become the only way to remain competitive on global renewable energy market. This means that domestic exploration and mining that are usually associated with fossil fuels could also become crucial part of renewable energy future for many countries of the world.