Renewable Energy Wars: Who Will Be The Winners?

Gas prices are down. Credit is drying up. Government subsidies for alternative energy projects are subject to continual reevaluation. The realities of renewable energy are becoming clearer, with big wind projects showing far lower efficiencies than had been hoped for, and it becomes clearer every day that nothing is free.

This situation holds throughout America and Europe. Everywhere, the low price of oil has been a bright spot in an economically gloomy time. With the lowering of gas prices comes the perceived lowering of the value of alternative energy projects which could never compete with cheap oil.

Is everyone taking the same short-term approach of wait-and-see-then-react, or are some looking beyond the time when (not if) oil prices triple again?
The answer of course is no, and two countries exemplify the wisdom of longer-term planning.

• Germany, already far ahead of much of the developed world, is not slackening investment in solar and wind. Their primary emphasis is on solar systems both large and small, and their approach of many small community generating points is far-sighted to the extreme. When oil again gets expensive and credit resources return, Germany will be so far ahead of the rest of Europe that they could find themselves completely independent of the fluctuations of oil and energy prices and supplies.
• Spain has been investing both in-country and in the U.S. and has become in some cases a majority shareholder in municipal and regional power companies throughout the U.S. At home, renewable energy research and production continues at a very high level, and when fossil prices and the economies they drive return to more normal levels, Spain could be a net exporter of power and the technology to generate it.

While the rest of the world seems to be waiting for some sign to tell them what to do next, Germany and Spain are showing that they’ve already seen the signs, in the form of $150/barrel oil and global economic dependence on supplies of cheap petroleum coming from unreliable sources. By not letting short-term money and supply fluctuations drive their planning, these two countries will emerge as big winners when the pressures for renewable energy become even more acute than they have been.

What can we do? Well, without trying to be trite about it, the first thing is to contact your representatives at federal, state and local levels, to keep this issue on the front page of their agenda. We need to show that we are not falling for the short-term immediate gratification of cheap oil, and we won’t tolerate a representative who does. If the economy takes the pressure off for renewable energy subsidies, we ourselves must then keep the pressure on.
We’ll be vindicated when all returns to ‘normal’ and our investments in money and research begin again to pay huge dividends. After all, pay now and reap benefits later is how investments work.