Energy

The national electricity grid has been built in such a way that supply and demand is always in balance. Small changes cannot risk the function of the grid. I’m buying electricity which is produced by renewable energy source, I guess wind power. I have never thought is it really a wind energy that I’m paying for. There is always electricity at home when I plug in something but how can I be sure that it is exactly that electricity which is produced with wind power. How to be sure that the energy company is not cheating on me? If suddenly all the Finns would like buy electricity which is produced with renewable energy sources, can the supply respond to the new demand? I guess our grid would not be in balance anymore, but the solution is to raise the price of the renewable electricity so high that some of the people can’t afford it. I remember that another professor from Aalto University School of Science and Technology told in one course that when the price of renewable energy will go under the price of energy produced with fossil fuels, we will start to buy it. But it seems that suppliers cannot respond to that demand or can they? At least not yet!

The problems with renewable energy sources are related mostly to costs and efficiency. Oil reserves are decreasing and it is becoming more expensive but we still have plenty of coal. It’s cheap and easy to get. I really hope that some of the new experiments to produce energy with algae and wave power will succeed soon. Otherwise there is too big temptation to continue using fossil fuels. Technology needed to access the most difficult to reach sources are still developed. More money should be put into the research and development of the renewable energy sources. And what will be the situation in the production of renewable energy in Finland after 10-20 years? We are already using our most potential rivers. Solar power is not best option in our latitude and wind farms are ruining the landscape, at least some people think so. And I still don’t know what I should think about nuclear power. I’m eager to hear more about our changes in a next lecture and especially how we can take advantage to our biomass resources.