We planted a clean energy seed in the ground and it is slowly taking root deep and deeper. Skeptics had been ridiculing clean energy as a non competitive entity largely footed by our government with tax breaks. While this is true, what you readers may forget is that the real costs of producing a clean watt has come down if not in a crashing manner!
This means that the vaunted pricing clout long enjoyed by our oil & gas industry despite our constant efforts to improve efficiencies , etc, is fast slipping away. What we are witnessing now is a total U-turn with rampant new hydrocarbon developments that propels United States as the world's leading producer of oil and gas . What we still ignore is the unknown environmental damage that is occurring during the meanwhile. While I don't have the facts on the environmental damage, it is blatantly obvious to me that the damage is multiplied many times over every barrel equivalent in oil or gas is produced than merely a couple decades ago.
Recently , I took a brief glimpse at news about banks diversifying away from the petrol investments, but what remains to be mentioned is whether they are going to move toward clean energy investments away from the former. This remains to be known.
Oil and gas investments has been historically very cozy places to park capital since it had been so long the dominant player in the energy fields. It may still be for a long time to come but what really matter the most is that it will become less and less dominant as time passes. There will be fewer and fewer chairs to seize while the music lingers on.
I am not suggesting that clean energy investments is a sure fire place to bet on, but it is struggling smartly . It is gaining in sophistication and reliability which should count for now. The pow-wows of the utilities are slowly washing hands off the dirty energy that they had long so accustomed to making business with.
They are learning the ropes now and they will be more confident as time passes . However, the technology may take a turn and render the present technology obsolete overnight. Nobody will ever know whether photovoltaic technology will be surpassed by another new technology in the future with much higher efficiency. This is where investors should pay close attention to. As of lately, we are achieving just over 20% capture of sunlight on any area with present photovoltaic. There is some interesting ideas swimming around that promise to boost toward 25%.
Actually even with 100% efficiency as you can have with plain mirrors which nobody wants to use yet, somehow for some reason unexplained, there is only so much sunlight we can capture in all suitable locations . Will it be enough to bring clean energy providers some dominant role in energy ? Probably not, costs may prove to be advantageous to them over the oil and gas as time passes.
Mother Earth can only take as much abuse as we can get away with. One day, we will get the natural ultimatum and we will find ourselves on a crash course to change ways we produce energy.
Can we afford to ignore or what? The only way we can is if we start abandoning the masses to financial damnation and start saving our own for ourselves... It can happen here in America. Who knows?