Renewable energy needs government support

When the country is gasping for energy and power, it matters less than what the sources are, or at least a transition towards the cleaner energy is a little down the priority ladder. But, when the traditional sources are not enough to fulfill demand, alternative sources need to be harnessed.
And for the part of the world where things have not been so uptight, the focus to bring renewable sources into the mainstream has been touted as the highlight of the future energy mix.
After all the hype about the world’s fossil fuel sources shrinking drastically and the need for the renewable to make up for the production loss, what comes as a surprise is how the discernments, so prevalent a couple of years ago, have ebbed.
The perceptions of the shortage and scarcity of oil and natural gas have receded, the recent energy vision by the World Economic Forum (WEF) proclaims. Accompanied by the birth of the renewable, the fossil fuels have taken a U-turn from likely shortage in the coming years.
Amid the vast array of criticism that coal has received in the recent past, it has experienced the fastest growth in the last decade, and this trend has been typified by the accelerated economic progress in the emerging economies and the resulting rise in the need for power at affordable prices.
Figures show that wind, solar and other non-hydro renewable resources provide only 1.6 percent of total world energy. And this besieges around one single factor: the burgeoning energy demand in the emerging and the developing world which revolves around indigenous fossil reserves.
What leaves a question mark on the future of renewable energy is the transition pattern of the energy mix highlighted in the Energy Vision 2013: with the continued pace of industrialisation in Asia and Africa, the oil, gas and coal are likely to remain the most important fuels in the coming 20 years.
For renewable to compete with the big three—oil, gas and coal— subsidisation is required, a lesson from the developed markets especially in Europe. The golden rule is to subsidise the sector up until a point where efficiency of the subsidised fuel exceeds the rate of expansion.
Those at the wheel need to realise that subsidisation is not for the traditional reserves of fossils like it is happening now. Or at the end of the road, options are even fewer.