ENVS 2400 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Vaclav Smil, Hydroelectricity, Scientific American
19 Sep 2018
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Document Summary
The long slow rise of solar and wind. The main claim in the article by vaclav smil is that, there is no reason to believe that a change to renewable energy sources will be exceptionally fast. For instance, old renewables such as hydroelectricity are maxed out. Therefore, growth will have to come from new renewables such as wind, solar and biofuels. The author argues that certain policies could hasten the rise of renewables. Better and longer transmission lines are technically possible, but they are expensive to build and often face stiff local opposition. This reading was assigned to understand the real question, which is how to get there as effectively as possible. Instead of short-term trends promoted by wishful thinking, there"s a need for long-term policies based on realistic expectations. These include funding research into many technologies, ending unneeded subsidies, making sure prices reflect the environmental and health costs imposed by energy sources, and improving energy efficiency worldwide.
