Renewable energy ‘and the beat goes on!’

Phil Yorio is the general manager of Micronesia Renewable Energy, Inc.-CNMI. (Contributed Photo)

With the uncertainty of oil making any type of comeback anytime soon and the U.S. going from over 1,700+ oilrigs pumping oil to less than 360 last week, it could basically be the end for oil production in the U.S. for the foreseeable future. Even T. Boone Pickens said in an interview last week that the U.S. oil industry is dead in the water, a very bearish statement indeed from the past guru in oil. Now Mr. Pickens spends his billionaire days investing in renewable energy. Bad for oil but great news for the U.S. solar energy market. In February the millionth solar energy installation was completed, this momentous number has taken 40 years to arrive, but believe me the next million will take a lot less time. With economies of scale, the price of hardware and software coming down and a more experienced workforce, solar energy has gone from $17 a watt for an installation 15 years ago to now under $3 a watt. There are solar farms now in the U.S. where the utility is purchasing solar energy for under $.04/watt, incredible and true. We have come a long way in this industry and we are only getting started. Solar power in the U.S. is expected to grow 119 percent in 2016 or roughly 16 GW of additional installed base.

This week in the solar energy world we also have some very exciting news coming out of Germany. The United States is responsible for the invention of solar energy but believe me Germany was the country that put this on the map, they were the movers and shakers that have enabled this industry to cut its teeth and grow its legs. Germany, the fourth largest economy in the world, at around 1pm last Sunday, May 8, a particular sunny and windy day Germany’s solar and wind energy plants supplied a combined 55 gigawatts or 87 percent of the 63 gigawatts being consumed from the grid. That day proved that a very well-engineered and planned out system with a very large amount of renewable energy production can work together fine. The average renewable energy mix to conventional fossil fuel produced energy was 33 percent in 2015. Germany has also come a very long way. This milestone in Germany was made possible because of a “People Powered” renewable energy revolution. This is what is needed on our beautiful island. We need good leaders supporting smart energy policy for the interest of our community. When I hear the status quo saying it will not work or it cannot work I focus on places like Germany where they did not listen to the naysayers they believed could change this world and their country and they did make it work. If we develop smart energy policy we can change our island where we can have energy security that is clean, efficient, sustainable at a very cost effective price. Planning out our energy future now is very important, in a time when oil is declining, and solar energy is getting more efficient and cheaper we want to be careful where we steer our future. I had the privilege of hearing Dr. Hermann Scheer from Germany speak a few years back and his words still reverberate in my head, “any country or nation that is building new power plants now, these will become the stranded assets within the next decade.” Together let’s be smart not to let this happen here.