Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
1
Economic and legal principles in
Many renewable energy enthusiasts have fantasized about a distant future
day when our entire planet becomes fully energy-sustainable. In that utopian
world, rooftops will be covered with photovoltaic (PV) solar shingles, wind
turbines will grace the landscape like wildflowers, and all cars will run on
batteries powered by the wind and sun. Coal smokestacks will no longer
mar the skyline, and the air and water will be clean and clear.
In reality, the earth has a very long way to go before it approaches anything
close to true energy sustainability and getting there will require countless
trade-offs. Wind turbines can kill birds and alter pristine viewsheds. Solar
panel installations can trigger neighbor disputes over shading and disrupt
neighborhood aesthetics. And many sustainable energy strategies can
complicate the management and funding of electric grids.
In other words, renewable energy projects do more than just generate
clean, sustainable energy; they can also impose real costs on the commu-
nities that host them. Ineffective handling of these costs can spell the demise
of a proposed renewable energy project, even if its aggregate benefits to
society would easily outweigh its costs.
Savvy renewable energy developers are skilled at anticipating the costs
that their projects might impose on third parties. They have strategies
for mitigating these costs and for preventing them from unnecessarily
thwarting a project's success. The policymakers that most effectively serve
their electorates' interests in the context of renewable energy development
are similarly adept at recognizing its potential costs and benefits and at
structuring laws accordingly.
Humankind can only achieve a fully sustainable global energy system
if the countless stakeholders involved in renewable energy development
work together to resolve the myriad property conflicts associated with it.
What principles should guide developers and policymakers in their ongoing
efforts to prevent these inevitable conflicts from impeding the growth of
efficient, equitable renewable energy development across the world? Serving
as a foundation for the other chapters of this topic, this chapter highlights
some general concepts that can aid developers, policymakers, and other
interested parties as they strive to manage the complex web of competing
interests that often underlies modern renewable energy projects.
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