Shining a Light on Renewables
I’ve been seeing solar panel commercials recently on TV. The jingles go something like — “Saving the planet one roof at a time.” Other ads position renewables like solar panels and wind farms as “green” and “sustainable.” Governments, corporations, and individuals are all investing in renewables like never before. As the reality of climate change becomes more visceral, there has been a surge in emission reduction targets being set by countries and corporates alike. Renewables are part of the plan to reach these targets. But do renewables live up to their hype?
Renewable basics
“Renewable” means that something occurs naturally and is constantly replenished. Solar, wind, and water energy are renewable. However, the infrastructure used to harness these energies is NOT renewable. It takes energy to get energy. Let’s look at a product lifecycle for renewable energy infrastructure. It starts with extracting raw materials.
- Raw Material Extraction: Renewable energy infrastructures require many raw materials, such as metals, which are extracted from the Earth in a process that often comes with negative environmental and social impacts. The extraction process also uses machines are often powered by fossil fuels such as oil and gas.
- Manufacturing, Transport, Use and Maintenance: Renewable energy infrastructure (i.e., solar panels, blades for wind farms, etc.) uses fossil fuels for manufacturing, transport, installation and maintenance.
- End of life: Once renewable energy infrastructure is no longer operational, it must be disposed. This ultimately adds more waste to the overloaded stream of electronic trash and results in more negative impacts such as toxic pollution, especially in locations that do not have robust e-trash waste disposal systems. While there are initiatives to recycle renewable infrastructure, these are the exception to the rule. It is estimated that wind turbines last for about 20 years, and solar panels for about 25 to 40 years. To replace the nonoperational infrastructure, new renewable energy infrastructure needs built, which is done using fossil fuels.
Fossil fuels are used at almost every stage of the product lifecycle for renewable energy infrastructure. Fossil fuels are not renewable and contribute to climate change. We can see that just because the source of energy is renewable doesn’t mean the system created to use this energy is renewable. This isn’t to say that all renewable energies have the same degree of negative impacts as non-renewable energy (fossil fuels). The impacts may be lesser and different, but nonetheless unsustainable from the perspective that they cause harm. For these reasons, thought leaders like Nate Hagens argue that renewable energy infrastructure is, in its current state, “…just one more thing we do with fossil energy, along with racetracks, Disneyland, high-definition TV, disposable forks, etc.” Hagens proposes that a more accurate term for renewables is “rebuildables.”
Impacts by type of renewable
How “green” are renewable energy projects? “Green” or “sustainable” in this context means that a project does very little harm to people and the planet. At face value, no harm seems like a reasonable ask but the reality is much more complex.
Here is an adapted version of what the EPA identifies as the least to most beneficial sources of electricity. Let’s look at some of the not so beneficial aspects of some of the major renewable energy types.
- Water: Hydropower makes up the largest proportion of renewables in the global energy mix. This power often comes at the cost submerging entire villages and arable land, biodiversity loss, forced displacement, food insecurity, etc. A study found that hydropower presents the greatest risks out of the three major types of renewables — hydro, solar and wind power. Two of the largest dams in the world — Three Gorges and Belo Monte — are both poster children for how NOT to do hydropower in terms of negative impacts.
- Sun: While impacts on the climate from solar energy are much lower than those of the fossil fuels they may replace, solar energy still implies costs to the environment and society. Solar farms, like normal farms, take up space — often displacing natural species and people from the land. This can cause significant losses in terms of social cohesion, community, and local economies.
- Wind: Wind farms kill thousands of birds and bats every year. These farms can affect bird migrations and trigger population declines. Wind turbines also increase ambient temperature and create noise pollution, harming some native species. For example, the Kipeto wind farm in Kenya is located on a flight path for a bird species that is threatened. A biologist who has worked on wind projects across Africa commented, “It’s one of the three worst sites for a wind farm that I’ve seen in Africa in terms of its potential to kill threatened birds.” Even in Norway, a country with a pretty solid reputation for sustainability, wind farms have wreaked havoc to local livelihoods.
- Biomass: Biomass, such as corn and soy, are used to make biofuel. The two most common are ethanol and biodiesel. Some of the potential negative impacts from biofuels include: deforestation, food insecurity, water pollution, and depleted aquifers. In some locations, vast areas of natural vegetation and forests have been cleared to grow crops for biodiesel. This land could’ve been used to grow food for human consumption or conserved to capture carbon dioxide.
These are just a few examples of the potential harms caused by renewable energy infrastructure. In some of the examples above, colonialist practices were reenacted. Land was essentially taken away from indigenous peoples, local cultures were all but destroyed, practices were extractive, and the energy generated did not go to the communities impacted, but to faraway cities. This has been termed green colonialism. Just Transition is a framework and movement that aims at decolonizing renewables by shifting from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy in a way that addresses past harms and creates new relationships of power.
Just Transition
Most talk of inequalities by companies tends to focus on targets to have more minorities in leadership. And that is great. The problem is the conversation and action usually stop there, when the perhaps more uncomfortable and difficult truth is that EVERY sustainability issue has questions of privilege and exclusion at play. Renewables are no different. The scaling of renewables needs to be done in a way that is inclusive of all people and does not further entrench the status quo of inequalities. The transition to a low-carbon economy (which includes renewables) comes with the creation of new jobs, and job losses. Communities that have been built around carbon intensive products (fossil fuels, precious metals, etc.), will look very different without those industries and will need support to transition.
If the transition is done under current business as usual (which is mostly what I’ve observed), we will have missed a real opportunity to leverage the momentum built up around the climate crisis and will still face the same issues of institutionalized inequalities. The section above highlighted some examples a just transition isn’t happening in countries such as Kenya, Brazil, and China. Here are a just few ways a Just Transition isn’t happening in the US:
- Minorities have unequal access to new jobs in clean energy (replication of the current status quo in the workplace)
- To install residential rooftop solar panels, a consumer must be a homeowner (in most cases) and pay upfront costs or have access to capital. Both requirements exclude low-income groups. While there are community solar projects, these are the exception.
- A lack of diversity around the table at many organizations leads to a lack of diversity in solutions. “There’s not a pipeline issue. There never was. It’s a relationship issue,” — Taj Eldridge, senior director of investment at Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator. “It amazes me when people say they can’t find people to interview or to have these conversations with, because I see them in the room all the time.”
Renewables as a Bridge
The transition from fossil fuels to a low-carbon economy is happening. As this shift occurs, it’s important to understand that harm to life on earth is REDUCED but NOT ELIMINATED. Renewable energy systems do LESS damage than fossil fuels, but they still do damage. We may benefit by asking ourselves: Is this a real renewable energy transition OR simply an expansion of extractive activities that are material and energy intensive?
I would like to see renewables as a bridge to get us to a world where no damage is caused by energy production. While society figures out ways to produce energy that is truly sustainable, renewables (done right) have an important role to play in the transition to a low-carbon future.
Takeaways
Renewable energy is a huge technological advancement and has provided energy to people that didn’t previously have it. However, renewable energy is not THE solution to meet our energy needs since it isn’t fossil fuel free and causes harm in many cases. It’s important to raise awareness about the shortcomings of renewables because it’s unlikely significant resources will be dedicated to R&D and government interventions otherwise. We also can’t rely on silver bullet solutions from technology at the scale and speed necessary to truly address the climate crisis. Our actions must come from a place of equity, from a place of leveraging renewables to provide us not only with energy, but with fair wages, decent jobs, and resilient communities.
Steps forward include:
- Investing heavily in R&D for fossil fuel free solutions
- Continuing to install renewable energy, ensuring the highest standards of no harm are upheld
- Following principles of a Just Transition
- Reducing overall energy usage in developed nations — a project that will require not just innovation, but also commitment and sacrifice.
We all have a role to play in understanding how our energy is generated and where it comes from. Looking forward, we can advocate for energy systems that have the lowest impacts over time and positively contribute to the world we want to create. For those of us in energy rich circumstances, we may also begin to ask ourselves to what extent the energy we’re using is put towards activities that are fulfilling. It’s time to renew our perspective!
Interested in further resources? This TED talk on “Why Renewables Can’t Save the Planet” goes into more details. Enjoy!
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