• Question: Do you think renewable energy sources will be used more widely in the future or will they use non-renewable until they run out?

    Asked by 12345abcde to Jackie, Michele, Oliver, Vicky, Yelong on 13 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Oliver Brown

      Oliver Brown answered on 13 Mar 2015:

      Hmm, I’d hope that we will certainly use *more* renewable energy, although it’s unclear whether renewable alone could ever be enough to fulfil our current energy needs. I think the most immediate goal we should have is to cut out fossil fuels, and to invest in and upgrade our energy storage and management facilities. Unfortunately doing so is very expensive, and may not be possible in the current economic climate.

    • Photo: Jaclyn Bell

      Jaclyn Bell answered on 15 Mar 2015:

      I think people are aware of the situation and know that there will be a serious crisis if we just wait to run out of fossil fuels instead of doing something about it now. Sustainable energy is the way forward (as is nuclear energy – but this is still very controversial in some places) but unfortunately we don’t get enough energy from it to meet the planets demand – not nearly as much as we get from burning fossil fuels. Lots of companies are working on ways to increase the amount of energy harvested from the wind/sun but it will take a long time for people to adapt to this way of living and to make the switch – we have already started to see this with electric and hybrid cars 🙂 lots of companies haven’t made the switch to renewable energies yet because it is too expensive like Ollie has said… and I don’t really know what will happen with things like flight and high-speed rail if we do completely run out of oil… I suppose that will be the job of future scientists and engineers like all of you to figure out! 😉

    • Photo: Michele Faucci Giannelli

      Michele Faucci Giannelli answered on 16 Mar 2015:

      This is a complex topic and is not easy to answer without a lot of details.
      I think we will use more and more renewable energy once it will be cheaper to produce it in that way than in any other ways. So for a while longer burning oil will continue to be the main source of energy. Remember also that there are sectors where fuel is the only alternative, for example there are no alternatives for flying planes.
      I also think that more will be done in the future for improving efficiency and also to move pollution out of the cities. So electric cars and more energy efficient houses will be the standard in few years.
      As for any major infrastructure revolution this will require years and major investments which is where the politics really enters the game.

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