Transition from Fossil Fuels to Renewables

“The Times They Are a-Changin'”– Bob Dylan, 1964

Throughout man’s history, there have been periods when fundamental shifts or transitions have occurred that marked a change in the way we think, live, and work.  There was the Industrial age of the mid-1800’s when much of human existence moved from primarily an agricultural society to a more urban one.  More recently, we’ve experienced the Age of Technology culminating in fiber optics and the microchip and the Information Age ushered in by the Internet, PC’s, and cell phones.

Fundamental changes that affect entire societies are called paradigm shifts.  And we are undergoing another such shift in the world of energy.  It’s the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. While this change started a couple of decades ago, the worldwide momentum to embrace renewables has accelerated in the last three years. 

Governments around the world are realizing renewables are, in fact, cheaper than all forms of fossil fuels.  They see renewable energy sources have real advantages; namely, a stable cost structure that can last for decades combined with the benefits of no pollution, no huge resultant cleanup costs and few, if any, health-related costs. A recent article in Renewable Energy World discussed this paradigm shift in thought regarding how we get our energy.

Whether the change is the result of concerns about climate change or not, the article highlights the timely confluence of a desire to transition to renewable energy at the exact time it is facing the greatest threat mankind has ever experienced – global warming.

Renewable technologies currently exist to provide the power we need through solar, wind and biomass all working together.  And, these renewables are resistant to disruption (storms, terrorism), are more flexible, and have proven reliability.