Solar energy the changing of the energy industry

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

Oil was discovered close to where I grew up in Oil Creek Pennsylvania in 1859, but it was the Spindletop oil geyser that blew oil out its derrick in Texas 1901 that changed the world forever and with it an industry was born. The United States changed rapidly over the next 20 years changing its fuel source from wood to coal and eventually oil for energy purposes. In 1885 coal surpassed wood as the primary source of energy and for the next 75 years’ coal was king, but with the boom of the automobile makers like Henry Ford and the Dodge brothers and the break out of World War II, finally in 1945 oil was the No. 1 source for energy. Between 1945 and 1950 automobiles on the road in the U.S. increased by nearly 60 percent. With a run of almost 120 years this industry has reached its peak point and will decline and cease to exist over the next 35 years. With an industry that the world has relied on for all these years it is hard to imagine a world without oil but that is what is coming. This commodity that wars have been fought over, men have toiled night and day to find it, building technology and revamping this equipment every 10 years with newer and faster machinery to get it out of the ground, process it, shipping it all over the world will cease to exist in 35 years, this is not only amazing but almost unthinkable.

Mark Jacobson a professor at Stamford University has put out some very interesting articles on how the United States can be 100 percent renewable by 2050. He has actually laid out an energy plan for all of the 50 states on how to do so. With the battery storage technology advancements this is achievable. Solar energy, hydro, wind, nuclear, and biomass along with energy storage will replace all the fossil fuels, coal, oil, and even gasoline for the transportation industry.

This could not come fast enough, with climate change, third world countries with a young demographic coming online and the population of the world increasing 30 percent over the next 30 years we need fossil fuel to go away. We as the human race, the race that is supposed to be the guardians of this precious planet are killing it. The ice caps are melting, the oceans are dying and island nations like Kiribati are disappearing. The community of Kiribati where people have existed for the last 5,000 will disappear by 2025, they have already started an evacuation plan, sad but true.

We as an island nation have relied on this fuel for the last 100 years and have been plagued by the ever increasing costs of fuel volatility, pollution, and maintenance costs to run these soon to be defunct power plants and exporting tons of cash to Singapore where these monies should have stayed on this island going back into the community, where its suppose to stay. Can you imagine how this will change the lives of our children and their children forever.

The true testament to not “will this happen but when” is that now the oil and gas industry are themselves investing in renewable energy projects. They are well aware that the end is coming so I guess it’s the if-you-cannot-beat-them-join-them mentality and the renewable energy industry welcomes them with open arms.

I always like the quote by Victor Hugo: All the forces in the world are not so powerful as an idea whose time has come.
The renewable energy industry’s time has come.