Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
blots on the landscape and dangerous to birds who get caught in the blades. They
also produce noise that is irritating, if not dangerous, to residents located close by,
although this can be solved by having turbines placed at greater distances from
existing houses.
Finally there has been criticism of the often rapid
changes in policies
. In Ger-
many the high feed-in tariffs provided to initial solar power installations proved
popular and led to a surge in demand. In recent years this has been scaled back for
new customers, which has reduced the number of new adopters. Other countries
who have experimented with similar generous feed-in tariffs, such as Japan and
Spain, also found consumers were willing to adopt the solar option. But confusion
over changing tariffs and recent reductions in subsidies, given the costs to the gov-
ernment in the recent recession, has delayed the potential increase in solar power in
many countries. Even in Denmark it has been argued that progress is being compro-
mised by less political commitment in recent years, such as in Maegaard's (
2010
)
critique of conservative government policies in Denmark in the previous decade.
The limitations apply primarily to existing sources of renewable energy. In ad-
dition, each particular source has its own drawbacks, as shown in Table
5.3
. The
restrictions of renewable energy sources and the specific problems of individual
renewable types do mean there are still daunting challenges if they are to provide
similar proportions to those of the main fossil energy sources. Among their many
difficulties the question of costs looms large. There is no doubt that most of these
renewable sources are still more expensive than fossil-fuels and require subsidies
or long term contracts, although costs have plunged dramatically in recent years,
holding out the hope for comparable generating costs to fossil fuel sources in some
areas, especially wind sources, in the near future. Of course critics argue that the
various subsidies provided to renewable producers are uneconomic and wasteful.
Yet it must be stressed that the fossil fuel industries and users are directly and indi-
rectly subsidized by governments in a range of measures, from tax breaks to subsi-
Table 5.3
Proble
ms of specific renewable energy sources
Source
Specific problems to be overcome
Hydro-Electric
High construction costs. Need mountainous/hilly sites for the fall of water
and extensive land requirements for reservoirs. There are problems of long-
term silting of reservoirs. Sites are often far from population centres and
require long transmission lines. Most developed countries have already used
the most suitable river basins for this power source, while there is increas-
ing opposition to new plants along some rivers, either from down stream
countries fearful of losing water supply, or from environmentalists critical of
the potential destruction of habitat by reservoirs, and having negative effects
on downstream water supplies, fishing and riparian vegetation.
Tidal
Good long term prospects once new turbine technologies using two-way tidal
flows are developed. But they have limitations because they are restricted to
coastal sites and can be hazardous for shipping and fisheries.
Geothermal
Uses heat from the earth's core to drive turbines. High construction costs for
large-scale generation. Still site-limited, because it is only feasible in areas
close to a thin crust, in volcanic areas, or places with underground reservoirs.
