The Renewable Energy Revolution

There will come a time when we view fossil fuels as archaic.

Burning fossil fuels is cheap and easy, but it is also dirty. It brought us into the Industrial Revolution, but burning fossil fuels also has had a severe impact on health and the environment, killing millions of people worldwide and impacting global climate. How much damage will we cause before finding more sustainable alternatives?

China, for one, has already had enough.

In the midst of a health and environmental crisis that has led to 1.6 million deaths a year tied directly to fossil fuel pollution, China has recently decided to scrap plans for 85 new coal power plants.

Instead, China will be investing $361 billion—which is 3.3 percent of the country’s entire GDP—in renewable technology that is estimated to account for 50 percent of new energy production by 2020 and also create 13 million jobs. Assuming they use a trio of hydroelectric, wind and solar power, that investment could account for 14 percent of China’s total energy capacity.

By comparison, if the U.S. made a similar investment—3.3 percent of its GDP—it could account for 44 percent of its total energy capacity and allow the U.S. to be completely energy independent, if desired.

How the U.S. Compares to the Rest of the World
Photo: Barcroft Images/Getty
China is not alone in its mission to reduce fossil fuel consumption. Many forward-thinking countries realize that fossil fuels are finite and that limited global reserves guarantee they are not the energy of the future.

Take Costa Rica, for instance. Last year, 98.1 percent of Costa Rica’s electricity needs were met by renewable technologies, thanks to hydroelectric, geothermal and wind power. In the U.S., less than 15 percent of energy needs were fulfilled by renewable energy. It is important to note that Costa Rica’s electricity needs do not include the transportation sector, which is still very reliant on oil. Nonetheless, it is still an impressive example of renewable energy use.

The U.S. is also falling behind many other countries, such as those in Europe and South America. Today, Sweden generates more than 50 percent of its energy needs using renewables, and—like many other European nations, particularly Latvia, Finland and Denmark—it has its eyes set to reduce or completely eliminate its dependence on fossil fuels by 2050.

The Potential for Renewable Energy
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Despite a heavy reliance on fossil fuels, America has great potential for renewable technologies.

A recent study by Oak Ridge National Laboratory concluded that the U.S. has 65 gigawatts (GW) of untapped potential across the nation’s rivers and streams, which would roughly double the current hydroelectric power capacity.