Challenges in the Deployment and Adoption of Renewable Energy

A Canton, Mississippi-based professional, Rudy Warnock led numerous projects with Warnock & Associates, LLC, an engineering firm that he founded and managed for 14 years. Rudy Warnock is a highly-motivated leader with expertise and interest in the areas of engineering, project management, and renewable energy.

Renewable energy is an alternative energy resource that can be derived from the sun, wind, water, heat within the earth, and organic materials from living organisms. While countries such as Iceland and Norway are powered by more than 95 percent renewable energy, most of the rest of the world lags far behind, relying on fossil fuels and other nonrenewable energy sources.

The challenges in collecting energy from natural sources begin with availability. Both solar and wind are difficult to predict and cannot be completely relied upon without the ability of power grids to collect and store excess energy. Another challenge of harnessing energy from natural sources is its dependency on location. Not all regions have the ideal combination of advantageous weather, a predictable climate, and proximity to a power grid.

Financially, renewable energy development projects are costly in terms of installation and maintenance. Although governments award subsidies and grants to renewable energy projects, they have traditionally allocated more such breaks to conventional energy producers.

While there is still a long way to go before the entire world can truly optimize the usage of renewable energy, statistics have also shown how much has changed since the 1980s. The changing consumer attitudes in favor of renewable energy, increased government incentives, and new business opportunities for the entire energy supply chain will be the driving forces to achieve 100 percent renewable energy consumption.