Business News : An Alternative to the Alternative.
Back in 2008, private investments in alternative energy literally withered due to the crash of the oil price and the freeze on the credit market. It was due to government subsidies that these projects kept on trudging over those difficult times, and now, other sources of alternative energy are receiving more funding as well.
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Biomass, Geothermal, and Wave power are the three main sources of these so-called alternative alternative energy sources. According to NEF, Geothermal power – attained from tapping the heat inside the earth – will increase by more than 40% by 2013, while that from Biomass – organic material like wood chips, farm waste, and grass trimming that are burned to produce electricity – will rise by more than 33%. Output from systems that harness electricity from ocean waves is expected to climb up from nearly nothing to more than 3,000 megawatts, which is the equivalent of four coal power plants, by 2020.
Compared to more common alternative energy sources like wind and solar power plants, these alternatives are generally more expensive, but they offer at least an advantage over their more common competitors. Unlike wind and solar energy, these energy sources are not reliant on weather, which are problems for wind power plants on calm days and solar power plants on cloudy days. This helps to supply a steady source of electricity, for which utilities are willing to pay the higher premium.
Despite all these, the newer technologies also have their own drawbacks. Newer Geothermal plants in California and Switzerland that drill deeper than traditional setups have been suspected to cause small earthquakes, while wave power is unproven on a large scale. As for biomass, the investments may stall if prices of the waste material they use as a power source rises as demand surges.
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