The Wicked Problem Of Renewable Energy

Wicked Problem

Discuss about the Renewable Energy Wicked Problem.

We live and interact with one another in a particular environment which we call society. Over time we have seen many radical and pervasive changes in our society and social structure. In these changes, we have observed some perceived gap between the actual state and desired state. These turn out to have several solutions which may vary according to the availability of resources. But sometimes these are complicated and impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory requirements these are called wicked problem.

Over time we have seen an industrial revolution taking place in our society to replace human labor with machines which are powered by electricity.  Today, these innovations have changed our meanings of luxuries (Iychettira, Hakvoort & Linares, 2017). Early society relied on fire for the luxuries of heat, light, and cooking but today at the flick of a switch, or button we can have instant power. Electricity plays an important part in our everyday lives, in another word we need electricity to function. Our modern life, industry, transportation, communication all need electricity. But one question that comes to our mind is that from where we generate this electricity, what its costs are.

These are generated at power plants which convert some energy to electricity. According to origin energy, around 86% of electricity is generated from fossil fuels whereas only 14% of electricity is produced from renewable energy.  Burning fossil fuels have negative effects on our environment as they release carbon dioxide and other gasses which may trap into the earth atmosphere and is a reason to global warming or climate change. Carbon dioxide is responsible for nearly half of the earth greenhouse gasses. In this essay, we will outline this problem of energy production through renewable sources and will discuss why this is a wicked problem.

Today living in a society there is a need for us to understand that our quality to living to back the long run balance ecologically by being harmless to  surroundings or by exhausting resources (natural). A great proportion of energy generated in Australian is done centrally and depends on traditional energy sources, called fossil fuels in some studies. About 86% of the electricity is produced from such fuels types with 73% from coal and 13% from natural gas.

Globally, this is replicated with fossil fuels being utilized for the electricity, powering vehicles as well as heating. The globe depends substantially on coal-fired electricity production since it is usually the cheapest type of generation. It is further reliable and sufficient. This is what makes it hard for renewable alternatives like wind and solar, to compete solely financial term. The renewable sources comprise remaining 14% of Australia’s electricity mix.2

The generation of energy from renewable sources is a wicked problem. It remains effortless to acknowledge environmental merits of utilizing alternative along with renewable energy forms. However, it is only appropriate that people become increasingly aware of the demerits. The renewable energy has the demerit because it is quite challenging to produce amounts of voltage which remain as huge as the ones generated by ancient fossil fuel generations. That could imply people need to decrease the quantity of energy that is used or merely build additional facilities for energy. It further designates that best answer to the wicked problem of energy could be to come up with a balance of several diverse sources of power.

Challenges of Renewable Energy

The other projected demerit of the renewable sources of energy relates to dependability of its supplies. Renewable energy usually depends on condition of weather for its power source. The hydro-generators require rainfall for dams to be filled to supply the steaming water. Turbines of wind require wind to rotate corresponding blades while solar gatherings require skies that are clear and sunshine for gathering heat as well as generate electricity. Where such assets are not available together with capability to generate enough energy from such sources.  This is generally capricious as well as changeable. The present renewable energy technologies’ cost remains far huge than ancient fossil fuel generations. This is as a result of renewable source being a new technology and subsequently, has a huge capital cost.

Clean energy challenge is meticulously connected to matters of changes in climate, despite being unequal. The change in climate challenge is often perceived to imply that, provided that global warming has happened and shall endure lest greenhouse gases emission remain significantly decreased either geoengineering, as well as dramatic alterations to the production of energy techniques, remain urgently required. The clean energy has taken an assumption that dramatic alterations to energy generation techniques remain instantly required to undue human-made climate alteration besides additional restraints as well as supplies.

The problem of energy further encompasses the call for an ongoing supplies of energy for lifespan of humanoid race besides acquiring obtaining energy to developing countries. That is even when coal might be made clean, via sequestration of carbon and similar, energy problem would never be resolved by burning coal because it is limited supply. People may dissent about the quantity of supply.

Nevertheless, they will not disagree in regards to its finitude. The security of supply has to be integrated as well. Where oil was clean besides in near-immeasurable supplies, but solely sourced by aggressive administrations, the energy generation system design need to provide accommodations such a restraint. Phrases such as green, renewable, sustainable as well as alternative remain too nebulous, overloaded as well as ideological. This is because clean energy does not mean renewable.

For example, if coal were infinite as well as clean, coal would suffice, in the same manner, it would blend if it occurred. Moreover, several sources of energy presently named renewable; the reality is that they may never be adequately clean for the indefinite utilization because their corresponding energy generation densities remain extremely squat to supply a substantial part of international demand deprived of main modification to earth.

Based on the properties of a wicked problems vis-à-vis energy problem as provided in the preceding summary, it is evident that clean energy is a wicked problem. No available conclusive formulation-solving the problem is undistinguishable to fathoming its nature. The comprehension of renewable energy nature, as well as global climate change, remains highly autonomous for resolving.

There is a need to manage the inter-connected challenges of agriculture, energy, and water in the changing climate.  The global energy utilization is projected to rise near over 50% by 2040 based on the International Energy Agency (IEA) 2016 Global Energy Forecast, with energy-linked Carbon dioxide emission increasing by 34% from levels of 2020. The evolving economies such as China as well as India will drive a great proportion of such growth because they continue to depend heavily on fossil fuels for meeting demands from their corresponding enlarging cities and industry. India, for example, will require quadrupling its current installed capacity of almost of 270GW by 2040, thereby creating another US on the utilization of energy.

Limitations of Renewable Energy

Topmost of this is the urgent need for additional energy access for the poorer and rural populace. Presently, over three billion individuals in developing nations still depend on ancient ‘biomass’ for heating as well as cooking. About 1.5 billion lack the accessibility to electricity. India independently has 240 million, most of which are rural, individual without accessibility as well as appropriately seeks to move them out of energy poverty as well as fast as possible.

India submitted a bold projection of accomplishing a forty percent share of non-fossil fuels in Indian energy portfolio by 2030 to the previous year’s climate bargaining in Paris.  Nevertheless, it further schemes to enlarge its coal capacity to 400GW of the coal-fired electricity, more than forty percent of the mix, by 2035. Indian greenhouse gas emission is expected to grow fast to about five gigatonnes by 2030, around as huge as the ones in the US today.

Based on the above information, a wicked problem emerges in protecting the global commons: how to get millions of individuals out of energy poverty without a substantial increase in greenhouse gas emissions. Production of energy can astonishingly thirst.  A single megawatt hour of electricity produced from the sub-critical coal-fired power plant can need over 2,000 liters of water. The United States Geological Survey approximate that to generate and subsequently burn about 900m tons of coal, the US utilizes around 34% of its electricity per year, about 55 to 75tn gallons of water is required; which is almost equivalent to the amount which pours in 5 months over Niagara.  

As emerging economies urbanize as well as industrialize, utilizing fossil fuel power, additional of its water will be allotted to energy. Over 76 percent rise in water demand for energy as well as industry shall be needed crossways Asia by 2030. Seventy percent of continent’s river, as well as groundwater, is already being utilized for agriculture on average.

A wicked number two is on protecting the global commons: how to compete for requirements of water for agriculture, as well as fossil-fuel energy, be squared.  Unless there are radical alterations in agricultural or energy generation, it is unclear how well future water requirements for coal sector of India are going down with the India’s farmers. The third wicked problem is how coal-fired power stations of India will have to be built somewhere (Erickson, & Jennings, 2017).

Conclusion

The interrelated challenges of energy, water, agriculture and climate alterations remain what is called a ‘systems’ challenge. The US and India remain by no means solely in facing it. There is a need to examine who is working with power sector to put their investment programs into the context of basin broad hydrological risk maps that assess who will require what water alongside environment. There is also need to assess who is agreeing on adjustments to cost-benefit analysis of appraising investment to correct account of risk.

There is also need to overly such investment examinations with diverse climate scenarios for the scarcity of water. Unless all the above the three things are done soonest, the wicked problems shall come home to roost, and shall never effectively speak to competing challenges of global common management and ensure required economic development. It will be the poorest to lose if it is not resolved. 

References

Erickson, L. E., & Jennings, M. (2017). Energy, Transportation, Air Quality, Climate Change, Health Nexus: Sustainable Energy is Good for Our Health.

Iychettira, K. K., Hakvoort, R. A., & Linares, P. (2017). Towards a comprehensive policy for electricity from renewable energy: An approach for policy design. Energy Policy, 106, 169-182.