Will Renewable Energy Come of Age in the 21st Century?

Will Renewable Energy Come of Age in the 21st Century

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Taking a train ride across Denmark, a small, tidy country with lots of rich farmland, is a unique visual experience these days. At almost any point on the journey, you can spot at least one or two giant, three-bladed wind turbines turning slowly in the breeze, quietly and cleanly converting currents of air into currents of electricity. These gleaming white machines now produce a full 7 percent of Denmark's electricity.

Unlike conventional power plants, which are owned by large private or public companies, Denmark's wind turbines are often owned by the farmers on whose land they stand, or by farmers' cooperatives. The revenue produced by the wind turbines typically flows directly into the local community, and to the manufacturers and service firms that maintain them. Denmark also draws on a form of renewable energy known as biomass (biological materials derived from plants). Small, locally based power plants burn straw and other agricultural waste to produce electricity as well as hot water for local heating.

The rapid transformation of Denmark's energy system during the last ten years may turn out to be the leading wave of something much larger. Around the world, new energy technologies that do not rely on fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum, and natural gas are moving from the experimental stage to commercial reality. Sunlight, wind, and other renewable resources are increasingly converted into useful forms of energy with ever-greater efficiency. The new technologies still provide less than 1 percent of the world's energy supply, but they appear to be advancing rapidly.

The timing of these advances could be of critical importance to the future of modern civilization. Most experts believe that an energy system based on fossil fuels cannot be sustained for another century. According to several recent estimates based on currently known oil reserves, oil production will peak within the first 10 to 20 years of the 21st century.

Even if additional reserves are discovered, many scientists say that continued reliance on fossil fuels as a primary energy source over the coming decades could release into the atmosphere billions of metric tons of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases. International efforts, including the December 1997 Kyto Protocol, are already underway to cap emissions of these gases, which many scientists have linked to global warming (an increase in the earth's surface temperature). But the efforts of fossil fuel-dependent companies to thwart emissions caps may delay ratification and implementation of the protocol.

Many experts believe a transition toward renewable, carbon-free energy technologies would go a long way toward addressing the problems of dwindling oil reserves and the potentially ruinous environmental impacts linked to the burning of fossil fuels. Such a transition could make the 21st century the age of renewable energy.

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