The effects of industrialization, fossil fuel use and population boom continue to take a toll on the earth’s atmosphere, seas, and forests. There is some good news though, incredible news in fact! Renewable energy is poised to become cheaper than fossil fuels by 2020 and beyond. This steady growth has come in the face of apprehension, technological immaturity and lack of funding for renewable energy infrastructure. When clean energy first made headway in the global scenario, business organizations and consumers, began to question its stability and scalability. The steady growth of renewable energy sources to account for nearly a third of the total electricity produced in a number of European and Scandinavian countries has been nothing short of spectacular. Emerging giants such as China, India and Brazil are well aware of the rising levels of pollution in their key cities and are quickly becoming an integral part of developing and sustaining clean energy sources.
One of the key components that promote the improved adoption of renewable energy sources is businesses. Irrespective of its scale a business organization has the power to influence the citizens of the city and the country that it is located in favor of going green. Creating the Awareness of renewable energy sources and making a commitment to reduce the carbon footprint are key aspects of the corporate social responsibility policies of companies across the world. By doing so, they are not only contributing to the adoption of renewable energy sources but benefit greatly from what they have to offer as well.
Promising Trends that will Make Renewable Energy Cheaper
High implementation and maintenance costs have always been two of the biggest challenges that have been associated with green energy. There are numerous technological advancements that are currently in progress and the most promising ones that will enable to reap the benefits of affordable green energyare as follows:
- Smart Grids:When energy generated from renewable sources is managed well, it augments the efficiency of the entire effort. Smart grids are designed to do exactly this. They are built from the ground up to regulate the movement of energy through an area. This efficient management of energy eliminates the scope of blackouts and interruptions in power supply. Most importantly the regulation protocols that a smart grid uses will use the cost of energy generation. With a great balance between availability and costs, businesses are set to take advantage of a smart grids potential.
- Green Energy Corridor: The idea of a green energy corridor is both intriguing and practical. Emerging economies like India have already started the development of these Infrastructures that promise to reduce the cost of energy buy synchronizing with solar and wind power generating stations. Green energy corridor will enable businesses to manage their operations systematically while also managing 2 reduce the cost of energy usage and also reducing their carbon footprint.
- Battery storage systems: Technologies like the Tesla Wall have the immense potential of helping small-scale industries and even residences come aboard the green energy wagon. Lithium-ion batteries are the current technological standard in battery efficiency. Advancements in chemical engineering and material science are paving the way for better of battery technology. These technologies have already been confirmed to higher more energy density with reduced physical weight, compared to lithium-ion batteries. Just like this smart grid, battery storage systems regulate energy efficiently, which will help businesses bring down the cost of energy usage by significant numbers.
- Electric vehicles: Transportation costs are the most prominent expenses incurred by every business. Currently, a majority of us are using cars powered by an internal combustion engine to get to work. In the future with the cost of the battery going down, the cost of electric vehicles will drop as well this will lead to an increased adoption of electric vehicles. When the members of a business organization use infrastructure like solar energy to power their electric vehicles for travel, they are contributing to the society as advocates of green energy. Cost-effective electric vehicles are going to be one of the key sources of cheaper renewable energy use by business organizations in the future.
Slowly but steadily, going green is going to be cheaper. The costs will be low enough to make a difference to businesses. The rapid growth of solar geyser sales in Cape Town is a live example of the intent of businesses in adopting an eco-friendly approach to their business policies. The reduced costs in green energy generation will make the use of renewable energy a business standard.