Can countries get 100% of their energy from renewable sources?
A group of scientists believe so and have hit back at their sceptical counterparts., describing recent research discounting this as “problematic.”
The multinational team of researchers from the CSIR, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Lappeenranta University of Technology, Delft University of Technology and Aalborg University analysed hundreds of studies across scientific literature, demonstrating there are no roadblocks to a 100% renewable future.
The scientists had written a response to a 2017 review paper by University of Adelaide researcher Benjamin Heard and his colleagues.
Heard and his colleagues had presented their case against 100% renewable electricity systems, questioning the feasibility of whether renewables-based systems could survive extreme weather events with low sun and low wind, to the ability to keep the grid stable with so much variable generation. Heard and his colleagues argued that:
“An effective response to climate change demands rapid replacement of fossil carbon energy sources. This must occur concurrently with an ongoing rise in total global energy consumption. While many modelled scenarios have been published claiming to show that a 100% renewable electricity system is achievable, there is no empirical or historical evidence that demonstrates that such systems are in fact feasible.”
However, Aalborg University’s Professor Brian Vad Mathiesen, responded: “There are some persistent myths that 100% renewable systems are not possible. Our contribution deals with these myths one-by-one, using all the latest research.
“Now let’s get back to the business of modelling low-cost scenarios to eliminate fossil fuels from our energy system, so we can tackle the climate and health challenges they pose.”
Their paper, Response to Burden of Proof: A Comprehensive Review of the Feasibility of 100% Renewable-Electricity Systems has now appeared in the same journal as the original article published by Heard and his colleagues - Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews.
“While several of the issues raised by the Heard paper are important, you have to realise that there are technical solutions to all the points they raised, using today’s technology,” remarked lead author Dr Tom Brown of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.
“Furthermore, these solutions are absolutely affordable, especially given the sinking costs of wind and solar power,” pointed out Professor Christian Breyer of Lappeenranta University of Technology, who co-authored the response.
The authors note how nuclear power faces genuine feasibility problems, such as the “finiteness of uranium resources and a reliance on unproven technologies.
“Energy systems based on renewables, on the other hand, are not only feasible, but already economically viable and decreasing in cost every year.”
Another co-author, former CSIR employee Dr Tobias Bischof-Niemz, said it was beyond any scientific doubt that a renewables-led energy system was technically feasible.
Recent technology cost developments for solar and wind had now made it economically viable too.
“Good news indeed for sun- and wind-rich countries like South Africa.”
The scientists collected examples of best practice by grid operators from across the world - from Denmark to Tasmania. The researchers conclude that renewable systems that meet the energy needs of all citizens at all times are cost competitive with fossil fuel based systems, even before externalities such as global warming, water usage and environmental pollution are taken into account.
The detractors claim a 100% renewable world will require a reinvention of the power system. “We have shown here this claim is exaggerated: only a directed evolution of the current system is required to guarantee affordability, reliability and sustainability.”