Sustainable energy

The geopolitical tension in the Middle East and the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine remain the primary reasons why prices of gasoline and crude oil continue to rise.  Likewise, the attacks by Houthi militants against commercial vessels in the Red Sea only aggravated the situation. As oil tankers are forced to take the longer route, the transport cost doubled, thus, expensive. Moreover, economic sanctions on Russia and the constant bombing by Ukraine of its (Russia) fuel export terminals just made the situation worse.

Undoubtedly, global consumers are feeling the pinch of the ongoing disruption in deliveries. A solution should have been available. To recall, not long ago (when Covid-19 seemed uncontrollable), oil prices plummeted. Consequently, OPEC member countries (plus Russia) substantially cut their production output to raise prices. Therefore, the solution is crystal-clear, increase production output.

Today, as there is a drastic fall in the supply side, these OPEC member countries (that are not affected by the current turmoil) are so adamant and will never yield to the requests for the immediate output augmentation.

Obviously, money is the motivation. As oil price surges, the windfall is just so irresistible. Well, just plain deviousness. To think that the rest of the world are suffering from the ill effects of extreme weather that is caused largely by carbon dioxide emissions out of the production of fossil fuel and the use of it, this act (increasing output) could have been considered as a compensation.

To put it clearly, the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that in 2019, “global emissions of energy-related carbon dioxide totaled 33.1 billion metric tons.”  That’s how huge and dangerous global CO2 emission is.

Knowing fully well that, despite being guilty of destroying our environment, these fossil fuel producers aren’t helping us get over these current oil shortages, a greener alternative must be considered. And there are credible studies that will help us understand this. One of them is the report from Carbon Tracker, a London-based non-profit organization.

It revealed that “solar and wind have the potential to produce thousands of petawatt hours (PWh) of electricity a year, while the world’s current electricity demand stands at just 27 PWh.”  It further reported that “if humans chose to get all their energy from solar power alone, the land required would take up just 450,000 km2—just 0.3% of the world’s total land area, and less than the space currently taken up by fossil fuel industry operations.”

Yet right now, people are using only a fraction of the renewable energy available to them. The report notes that only “0.01% of the world’s solar potential is being utilized, and just 0.16% of wind potential is being exploited.” As Stanford University professor Mark Jacobson shows in his book (100% Clean, Renewable Energy and Storage for Everything), “global energy demand could be met by using 0.2% of available land area for solar, and 0.5% for spacing between onshore wind turbines.”

So that, Carbon Tracker stressed that “solar and wind energy have the potential to meet global electricity demand 100 times over, and the costs of these renewables are collapsing so rapidly that fossil fuels could be pushed out of electricity generation altogether by 2035.”

With such findings, Carbon Tracker claimed that “the fossil fuel era is over.” At current growth rates, it says, “solar and wind power could price fossil fuels out of the world’s electricity markets by the mid-2030s, and by 2050 could replace fossil fuels entirely.”

We are a tropical country, hence, in us, the use of solar energy is a no-brainer. Lest we forget, our easterlies and westerlies are also strong enough to turn onshore wind turbines.  Therefore, both are feasible.

Moreover, last year, Sec. Lotilla stressed that the Department of Energy remained “unrelenting in its efforts to push for the greater use of renewable energy in the country.”  More importantly, he said that the “government issued several enabling policies that open new opportunities for international investments. “

Agreeably, that the country now allows 100 percent foreign ownership for renewable energy