Alternative Energy Resources: Are They That Good?

According to the IEA, countries try investing in renewable sources as much as possible. For example, the USA allocated $300 billion to expand the stations with renewable sources in 2016. An organization in Paris will have created 60% of electricity using only wind or solar powers by 2025.

However, most of the countries that launch campaigns with the immediate return of money or other pros, have faced eventually the decreasing renewable resources’ cost. Consequently, there is a competition in making the investment in them.

Meanwhile Francis O’Sullivan’s, the research director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Energy Initiative, says that solar and wind powers are now the most effective and economical energy source due to the cost reduction and the best solar panels providers avow that.

Renewable resources vs. Non-renewable resources

It was reported that the Asian companies based on producing solar panels are living their best. But most of the establishments, which are making energy with traditional sources, are in need of equipment. According to the chief technology officer of renewable energy sources, Danielle Merfeld, the renewable power is the choice of a certain country – it can be cheap in one places, but expensive in other ones.

The support in Europe increased the interest in manufacturing renewable energy, but there is an opponent. China invested in the solar-producing business, making a bunch of cheap solar panels. Also, they made up longer wind turbines that helped them in creating sophisticated equipment for generating more power.

Also, factories that use traditional powers, face a lot of problems, such as being accused of influencing the climate or technical issues. But these difficulties don’t concern plants with alternative sources. Pros for them are rising. For instance, pension funds invest in these manufactures by providing financial support and getting constant returns.

The report from the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management states that 12% of electricity is produced by renewable sources. These numbers are twice higher now than in the last decade.

However, a problem occurred in the USA because of the increasing number of alternative power sources and solar projects. The administration of Trump recognizes that nuclear and coal stations need to be financially supported because of a new competitor. If this statement is fulfilled, it will be a challenge to plants with renewable sources. But American Petroleum Institute doubts that any support is needed.

Statistics states that 18% of the USA’s electricity was produced by the renewable powers. The authorities said that more than a half of power generating stations used alternative powers last year.

Xcel Energy Inc. has made a plan that would exchange 700 megawatts of energy from coal with 2000 megawatts of solar and wind generated energy.  A chief executive of this company assures that you can get now 40% of renewable energy whereas it seemed to be only 20%.

Alternative energy, as it was said before, is an opponent to coal and gas generation almost everywhere. Low prices of this energy and the capitals of counties are the main incentives in developing renewable energy stations.

“Congratulations! You won an opportunity to build a power station”

There were a lot of auctions, which helped companies from all over the globe build power stations by using renewable power sources only.

Italian company EneJ SpA won an offer to establish a power plant in Chile. This firm decided to go with wind, geothermal and solar energy. Consequently, their plant will get $33 per one megawatt, which is lower than the price of gas, for instance.  The organization in Saudi Arabia, also, won an offer to build a solar plant, which will produce 300 megawatts. In their case, one megawatt will cost $18.

Other examples of winning bids for power stations are Mexico, Canada. Mexican organization built a plant and its price for a megawatt is $20. Canada’s auction in Alberta has given an opportunity to establish 400 megawatts station but it has increased to 600 due to the low prices of renewable energy.

Rahul Tongia says that India has a plan to build more stations with clean energy sources and because of available investments in solar powers.

Conclusion

Renewable powers as you can imagine now are worth it. Almost every country can benefit from having this type of stations. However, there are some hidden cons, such as differences in climate and general weather.

But Tom Heggarty, an analyst with energy consultant Wood Mackenzie, says that we can see different problems in markets now but after producing the renewable energy we will see another story in 10-20 years.

Read now to learn how the President’s tariff influenced the solar power industry.