session 9 blog post

Session 9 minutes

For lesson 9, the first major issue that stood out was how Germany was utilizing solar power usage. Despite being a country not blessed with ample sunshine, it has invested heavily into solar power, with large open fields and stretches of grassland alongside the autobahn covered with solar panels. However, this scheme was successful since its inception due to the large subsidies that the federal government provided. For example, households or companies that sold one kilowatt-hour (kwh) of power to the grid received 50 cents when it took only 20 cents to produce one kwh. This encouraged the Germans to participate in the scheme, since there were profits to be made by investing in solar panels. The high fixed costs of the panels could then pay itself off over the course of 3-5 years. We then discussed about the possibility of implementing this in sunnier Singapore. Despite Singapore being a more favourable location for solar power exploitation, space constraints mean that we cannot exploit this to the fullest. However, with advances in solar energy technology, thin-film and malleable solar panels are available in the market, and these can be placed on windows of corporate buildings or even HDB buildings. The future for solar panels is indeed exciting, and all there is left is for governments around the world to gather the political will to implement renewable energy policies. If countries around the world heavily invest in solar technology, the economies of scales that can be exploited will be immense, and the subsequent cost savings can then be passed on to the consumer in the form of lower prices.


We then talked about the sustainability of using fossil fuels in the future. Fossil fuels are finite, and it is unsustainable to deplete these resources without preparation for life without them. Also, there are consequences for burning fossil fuels, such as the emission of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases, so there is an immediate need to divest away from oil and coal and invest in new power generation technologies. We watched a video on the usage of renewable resources in the USA. The use of renewable energy was 100% until the 1850s when the use of coal was introduced. Since then, the percentage has steadily decreased until now. One reason was because of the abundance of fossil fuels till now, second reason was because the effects of burning fossil fuels were not well known until recently, and thirdly because of the high energy density of fossil fuels as well as the ease of transporting it.

The class discussed about the possibility of the entire world returning to 100% renewable energy usage by 2050, and we concurred that it is almost impossible, for economic, political and social reasons. Some members of the class thought that 75% was a reasonable margin, but I think that a 30% would have been a great achievement already. I have a few reasons for thinking this way:
1. The rate of investment in green technology is too low to reach such a high target as of yet. Even though China has invested much in green tech, the percentage of investment with GDP is miniscule.
2. The rate of energy usage is expected to increase exponentially as more people live in cities and as India and China, two huge countries representing almost 3 billion people, develop and grow rich. Not only will green tech have to replace existing grids and meet current demand, they will have to meet future demand in 2050 which is almost triple of what we are using now.
3. Unless future technologies reduce energy consumption for gadgets, energy demand will continue to rise exponentially and strain the grid.
4. Mindsets have to be changed. People have to accept the fact that fossil fuels consumption is unsustainable and push the government to implement national policies to ensure a gradual shift to green tech. however, this is easier said than done. For example, recently, the Australian parliament passed a law imposing a carbon tax, with the aim of reducing consumption of fossil fuels, but this has met huge resistance from the population who are unhappy with the resultant higher prices that will be paid for their energy consumption.
5. Air travel will be more and more common, but there is no technology right now allowing for mass air travel on airplanes that are NOT run on jet fuel. Hence, fossil fuels will still be consumed in 2050 by aeroplanes at least, and possibly used by the military since it is hard to conceal and camouflage vehicles run on solar power.