Oil based energy production might in the future see its fall. No, matter how long it will take, one day our oil reservoirs will be depleted. We are already adding renewable energy sources to compliment fossil fuel production of energy. But will it be enough?
The optimistic perspective of a “renewable economy” might be quite far from reality. The dependency on the traditional fossil fuel sources are dominating the industry of energy supply, and will properly not be superseded within the near future.
The energy consumption in the US has crawled down a bit and many citizens would associate it with the recession. However, the contrary can be equally accountable, the expensive energy prices has squeezed out too much money from the population. This resulted in lower credit abilities to purchase gas, oil and coal, so their demand decreased.
There have been widespread effort to subsidize energy provided by renewable sources such as wind and solar, yet according to U.S Energy Information Administration, they do hardly show contribution to total supply of energy.
Source: Energy Information Administration (EIA); This graph represents, US energy Consumption, and its yearly estimates for 2009 based on data through November.
In the chart, Ethanol is too insignificant to be given a separate representation. It has been associated with other biomass sources such as wood. The binding of both wood and ethanol together does only merely thicken the line.
Renewable Sources Depended on Fossil Fuels
Most of the renewable sources like solar photovoltaic (PV), wind, geothermal and ethanol connoted as renewable sources need fossil fuel to work properly. In this sense, we can consider fossil fuel as extenders. The renewable sources are heavily dependent on our current system especially when referring to biomass. For instance, the production of corn, which is thereafter, converted into ethanol needs tractors, fueled by diesel to work to be grown. Moreover, coal and natural gas is also used to support the production of an ethanol plant. The fertilizers used to fertilize corns are usually imported and uses an oil-based insecticide.
Moreover, wind turbines need to be maintained regularly, requiring some steady sources such as fossil fuel to support the electric system with constant supply. It is also true that solar energy is a onetime cost investment but energy is ethereal; it is absent during the evenings. It is thus, in that case dependent on other more stable sources, which again can be fossil fuel. Otherwise, backup batteries could be used to store energy but these batteries would need to be replaced after a few years.
Fossil fuel is not the most popular term used today but the most reliable and constant technology available to provide energy. In the future, when oil reserves are depleted, the consistency of renewable sources will be challenged at real ground. Yet, there are still many years until such a radical change will occur and new technology might be able to compromise for fossil fuel by then.
Source: The Oil Drum and EIA
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