"Subsidizing renewables"

Issue : Renewable Energy

 

This house believes that subsidising renewable energy is a good way to wean the world off fossil fuels.

Pin-Point SUMMARY

          

Prop.

 

1.    We must reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% by 2050 in order to avoid dangerous risks to the environment and ourselves..

2.    Carbon capture and storage (CCS) systems cannot do the job.

A.     They may reduce direct emissions from coal and gas plants by nearly 90%, but other steps in the supply chain would increase these emissions several-fold. For example, large amounts of methane are released whenever coal is mined or natural-gas wells are finished. On a life-cycle basis, most of our coal and gas consumption will need to be replaced by something else.

3.    What about nuclear power?

A.    Fukushima Daiichi disaster

B.    If nuclear plants provided half of the world's electricity in the scenario outlined above (nearly eight times more than they produce now), known reserves of uranium would last only 12 years. All the undiscovered conventional uranium in the world might last another 30 years beyond that.

4.    Alternative – Wind and solar power are commercially proven, with life-cycle emissions 90-98% lower than today's fossil-fuel plants. Wind power is available on the same scale as our electricity demand, and solar power could meet our demand nearly 1,000 times over.

5.    Wind and solar power are intermittent, but that poses no insurmountable obstacles.

A.    Intermittency can be reduced by combining both wind and solar power, and by pooling resources across large regions.

B.    Power systems will also need conventional plants for the rare periods when neither wind nor sun are available, but most of these have already been built, and they would be needed whether we use renewables or not.

C.    In power systems with large shares of renewable energy, the most difficult challenge will be overproduction of power at certain times. But this can become a virtue: electric vehicles charged with night-time wind or morning sun can simultaneously ease integration of renewable energy.

6.    Renewables do, however, remain more expensive than digging up coal and burning it, so we will not get the power system we need without some sorts of external incentives.

A.    One option would be a carbon-focused policy, such as a carbon tax or emission-trading system. However, carbon prices would have to be very high to mobilise the needed investments, which could have major impacts on social equity and economic competitiveness

B.    The ideal incentive would crystallise our willingness to pay for renewable energy in a form that project developers can literally "take to the bank".

                        i.          feed-in tariffs

7.    Renewable power is poised to become the next new trillion-dollar industry, and the countries that grow strong in this area will gain the most in employment and GDP.

A.    creates more jobs than fossil fuels

B.    Environment - friendly

 

Opp.

 

 

1.    Governments should end subsidies to renewable energies

A.     let consumers determine winners and losers. Wind and solar, in particular, cannot power a modern society and require fossil-fuel blending to play even a limited role.

B.    Additionally, the alleged market failure of fossil fuels should be revisited in the light of the economic failure and government failure associated with coercive energy planning.

2.    Background
The renewable energy era came to a close with the advent of mineral energy just a few centuries ago. .

3.    Coal, petroleum and natural gas-and now the frontier hydrocarbons of tar sands, orimulsion, shale oil and shale gas-define our energy age.

4.    Fossil fuels, in fact, are required for (intermittent) wind and solar to operate as industrial, modern energy.

A.    Windgas, not wind, is what typically goes to homes, businesses and factories, for example. This is because of the prohibitive cost of storage capability at wind farms and in most on-grid solar installations.

5.    Hinderances

A.    Wind power: not industrial-grade energy

B.    Wind power: land-constrained

C.    Biomass: land limited

                        i.         "We cannot revert to timber fuel, for 'nearly the entire surface of our island would be required to grow timber sufficient for the consumption of the iron manufacture alone”

D.   Hydropower: unreliable

                        i.         everything depends upon local circumstances. Many streams and rivers only contain sufficient water half the year round and costly reservoirs alone could keep up the summer supply.

6.    Conclusion
The future belongs to the efficient. Efficient energies are those naturally chosen by consumers who know their needs better than an intelligentsia and/or central planners.

7.    **Let the market decide for itself!!!