When Can Renewable Energy Take Over?

[IroNik]

I just finished watching a video made by the power workers union of Ontario. It's a well put together slick video as one would expect. It talks about renewable energy and takes the stance that right now renewables on their own are not enough.

It states that we must still supplement with various other sources such as bio-mass, nuclear, and coal. My question is, because I think they are right for the moment, how long will it take until renewable energy technology hits the tipping point, where it can take over and end our dependence on dirty power?

Check out the video below, and share your opinion.
http://abetterenergyplan.ca/#/home/renewables-conservation/video-renewables

[AnzeL]

Wind and Solar may never take over, but that does not put a dent to their value.

It's a fact that solar may not always be effective, especially in the winter. Just as you have an option to turn on the light switch when needed, one should have the ability to tap into solar, or wind power whenever it was available.

What I'm saying is: every home should be equipped with solar panels. When the sun is shinning bright, they turn to solar, if not, then turn to traditional means.

Solar and wind may never take over, I truly doubt they ever will, but if they could be called upon 40-50% of the time, it would be extraordinary.

[IroNik]

Wind and Solar may never take over, but that does not put a dent to their value.

It's a fact that solar may not always be effective, especially in the winter. Just as you have an option to turn on the light switch when needed, one should have the ability to tap into solar, or wind power whenever it was available.

What I'm saying is: every home should be equipped with solar panels. When the sun is shinning bright, they turn to solar, if not, then turn to traditional means.

Solar and wind may never take over, I truly doubt they ever will, but if they could be called upon 40-50% of the time, it would be extraordinary.

One of the major problems with wind energy is that it's notoriously unreliable. Most of the time it doesn't run at full power, so what can you expect from it? Extra energy enters the grid regardless as to whether it's needed or not, so simply build a ton of them isn't a solution. In any case, I do agree that we need to balance any sort of green energy with proven sources of power like nuclear, which doesn't even contribute to global warming.

Even hydro electricity.

[AnzeL]

What we have now should be taken advantage of. Solar technology should be implemented, as I said before, it should become standard. If an entire country built homes with atleast 4 solar panels, how much energy do you think would be saved?? A lot:cool:

The power is there, so a why not begin with this?

[GoSolar]

The world needs hydroelectric or solar energy, not nuclear energy, coal or gas! Wind energy is great too but it is harder to utilize than solar and generates less power.

[thepatrickblack]

I just read an article predicting that renewable energy would outproduce nuclear by the end of 2011. I can't link to it b/c i'm new :/ but you can find it on Envirogy.

[goGreenEnergy]

If wind and solar were to take over they would have to be done by the power plant rather than each individual person and in that case it wouldn't matter if they were unreliable, some days have to much sun and some not enough but the power company would save up so much stored energy that the downtime wouldnt matter. Overall the sun puts out more energy in an hour than all of humanity could use in a century I don't understand how thats unreliable.

[SnellExperts]

If wind and solar were to take over they would have to be done by the power plant rather than each individual person and in that case it wouldn't matter if they were unreliable, some days have to much sun and some not enough but the power company would save up so much stored energy that the downtime wouldnt matter. Overall the sun puts out more energy in an hour than all of humanity could use in a century I don't understand how thats unreliable.

What about places like Antarctica that have entire months with no sun? Some places would still have to rely on Electricity, but even with a few places still using conventional electricity it would be phenomenally better than what it is now.