The coronavirus pandemic, unemployment, and economic growth aside, many voters place a special emphasis on environmental issues, particularly with respect to renewable energy sources.
In a dichotomy typical of the US presidential elections, for example, US President Donald Trump was labeled by such voters as friendly to fossil fuels (gas, coal, oil), while US President-elect Joe Biden was seen as more sympathetic to green energy sources.
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Environmental issues play less of a part in Israeli elections but as this is an issue close to all of humanity's heart, this may change in a few short years.
To better understand the urgency some equate with environmental issues, you can compare it to the question of peace, which always takes center-stage in Israeli elections. Cleary, no one opposes peace, but there are those who want to see it come to fruition "now" and "at all cost," while others believe it can be reached while exacting a minimal price.
By this logic, the proponent of green energy want it "now and at all cost," while the conservatives know we will get there eventually, they simply see no reason to leap before we look.
This, of course, is not a new debate. It has been going on for over 15 years and environmentalists have marked notable achievements worldwide. In the United States, for example, 10% of all energy production now comes from renewable sources.
If we continue at the current pace, which is not particularly slow, renewable energies will account for 15% of the world's total energy production by 2030. This is not as trivial as it may sound, especially when you consider that some countries, like China, for example, have slowed the pace of transition to renewable energies and increased their own "pollution quotas" in order to achieve what they deem as more urgent, namely economic growth targets.
Many Third-World countries and oil-rich countries are also in no hurry to adopt alternative energy sources. So in fact, 15% of world production means double that number in some countries. In Israel, Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz pushed the government to approve one of the most ambitious energy targets in the world – 30% production from renewable energy sources (in Israel's case mostly solar energy), by 2030.
A leading research institute that reviewed the cost of making the move to renewable energies in the US determined that rapid transition of this kind would cost no less than $4 trillion – about 25% of the gross domestic product of the United States. No one is talking about a similar expenditure in Israel, of course. Here the debate focuses on monumental investments in clean energy versus moderate ones.
As implied by the comparison to peace, this ventures beyond money and into worldviews: are objectives better achieved through revolution or conservative steps. So at the end of the day, it is not certain that Biden will actually allocate more funds to renewable energies than Trump has over the last four years, but it is clear that Biden will speak more enthusiastically about the importance of the issue, as Trump has enthusiastically spoken about lowering fuel prices.
This conflict is interesting because is reflects an awareness of environmental issues while embodying big industry interests. On the one hand, the oil and gas industry makes up about 4% of the global GDP, amounting to $86 trillion a year. As such, it aspires to protect its interests and grow further.
On the other hand, you have the ever-expanding renewable energy industry, which demands increasing amounts of money for research and development, as well as for infrastructure – which is also the main criticism against it.
Contrary to what most Israelis have come to believe, solar energy amounts to only 8% of alternative energy production. The largest market share – 64% – belongs to hydroelectric energy, followed by wind power (24%), bioenergy, such as ethanol extracted from corn (3%), and geothermal energy (1%).
Although hydroelectric energy is a major field in renewable energy, it is probably the one with the lowest growth potential, estimated at about 2% a year. Many believe the hydroelectric industry has exhausted itself, because such power stations have already been installed in rivers that can sustain them, and it is unlikely that new rivers suitable for such endeavors will be discovered soon.
Also, as much as renewable energy is considered an innovative field, it's actually not as new as one what think.
Hundreds of years ago the Chinese tried to conduct natural gas through bamboo pipes. The 20th-century use of coal was common among the poor, with the rich using fresher wood. Closer to home, the Israeli Electric Corp traces its origin to visionary engineer Pinhas Rutenberg, who wanted to use the Jordan River to produce electricity in then-British Palestine in the 1930s.
The renewable energy industry is gnawing at the traditional energy market at an annual rate of 8%. Within this market, solar energy is leading, showing a double-digit growth rate annually for nearly a decade. In 2017 – the last year for which data in widely available – the solar energy market grew by 32%.
Those criticizing the renewable energy industry are not trying to eliminate it, rather cool the enthusiasm it generates. In other words – invest in research and development, but not in its application in the field. But governments are succumbing to pressure and pour huge sums of money into building renewable energy plants. In the US alone about $ 1billion has been invested in the field every year for the past two decades.
In Europe, countries have invested even larger sums, and it is worth bearing in mind that the majority of these funds do not come out of the state's coffers directly – it is the result of rising electricity tariffs.
One must remember, however, that energy cost estimates are easy compared to the global effects of using the alternatives. Enthusiastic proponents of renewable energy point to studies in the field of global warming, which they attribute primarily to the use of fossil fuels.
According to one study, within three decades, 386,000 homes in the United States will be in danger of flooding due to rising sea levels and will have to be evacuated – and that, say the proponents of renewable energy, is just one of the catastrophes that lurk ahead unless we mend our ways.
It seems that the coronavirus crisis will not work in favor of the alternative energy industry. The latter may seem appealing when oil prices climb to around $100 per barrel, but not so much when they are fixed below $40.
And not one word about the expanse of land required for the production of solar energy, which is 40-times greater than the area required for the production of energy from natural gas, for example; or about the cost of conduction systems, or issues concerning solar availability. Lacking solutions in this field have also been holding back the massive transition to electric vehicles.
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