Matt Sommer Source 4

Thesis: What framework is needed for the development of renewable energies and how can policies for renewable energy instead of fossil-fuel be adopted by the government.



Summary:

 For my last source I chose the book "Scenarios for a Future Electricity Supply" by Gregor Czisch. In his book he has chapters over all of the different types of renewable energy and goes into great detail how they can be implemented to supply Europe with renewable energy. The chapter I chose to focus on is titled "Electricity supply scenarios in various technical  and political contexts" where he plays out several different scenarios dealing with renewable energy and fossil-fuel programs along with the amount of consumption. Some of his key findings in these scenarios were that renewable energy can be produced at a low cost and in the long term cheaper than electricity today, also renewable energy allows for more planning and more configuration leeway. He also states that with non weather dependent sources such as hydro power it allows for demand-oriented electricity supply. Czisch goes in to conclude that he believes that in his research there is sufficient evidence to say that it is entirely possible to create a supply system based on renewable energies. Furthermore that over time as fossil-fuels become more expensive renewable energy will only get cheaper.

Think:

 Going in to reading these chapters I had the idea that in order to achieve a sufficient renewable energy supply it would be very complex and take a very long time to achieve. However, after reading this source it has changed my view to agreeing with Czisch in that renewable energy is an affordable and achievable advancement that will not only solve the problem of a depleting fossil-fuel supply but also keeping the environment cleaner. The only barrier preventing this is politicians pushing through pro fossil-fuel policies.

Synthesize:

 As compared to my other sources this one argues that renewable energy can be achieved faster than many think. In my last source Lilliestam & Patt say that in order to build this renewable energy system there is a significant amount of framework needed before we can even begin to produce it. On the other hand Czisch argues that there is not that much framework needed as a lot of current electricity technology can still be utilized and re purposed with renewable energy. Another one of my sources, written by Elham Naeimi, states that there are many positive effects that renewable energy brings with the environment and economy. In this book Czisch would agree with Naeimi, he argues that even though in the beginning renewable energy will be slightly more expensive over time it will drop below current electricity prices.

Question and Plan:

 This source has not altered my thinking in a major way as did with some of my previous sources. However it has backed up a lot of what I have already found and gave a broader look at the integration of renewable energy into our current system. This being said I believe this book has answered my thesis for this blog. I wanted to know what framework was needed and how the government could move in the right direction to implement this framework. After reading I have realized that most of the framework is actually already there with our current use of HVDC or high voltage direct currents.