3 Unknown Renewable Energy Trends Resulting from Climate Change

published Jul 31, 2019
1 min read

Hydro Power

Climate change is here and is impacting our planet in a rapid manner. The largest contributor is both flora and fauna have been severely damaged as a result of a continued increase in human population. Both flora and fauna are crucial to protecting Earth and our precious ecosystem.

Climate change has impacted a number of avenues, but there are some new trends in renewable energy that you might not have considered that are now becoming more important than ever before.

Unknown Trends in Renewable Energy Resulting from Climate Change

Let’s get into some important trends that are happening right now as a result of climate change.

1. Hydro Resources Are Becoming More Valuable

Hydroelectric resources are actually becoming more valuable as a result of climate change, particularly in regions with heavy rainfall and rising reservoir beds.

As our sea levels rise and hurricanes become more extreme, the rivers and lakes are becoming much more powerful. This has resulted in record levels of hydroelectric production in regions that feature hurricane climate and rainstorms. High production levels result in significant value.

2. Recycling Needs to Catch-up with Renewable Energy

As technologies like solar and wind continue to get installed around the world, we need to start thinking about how these technologies will get replaced and recycled. Solar, in particular, includes steel and other precious metals that are very difficult to recycle. These recycling processes, if done correctly, can ensure that we can continue to use these technologies into perpetuity.

Next, battery technologies that will help us store power transmitted from solar and wind have highly complex chemical compositions that will need to be properly disposed of. We need to think of ways to recycle these technologies as soon as possible. Not 30 years from today.

3. Wood-Based Biomass Can Become Relevant

Woody biomass projects are going to become vital in high wildfire type climates. Wildfires have recently become more common and fierce. Climates like California have seen record wildfire conditions, which severely damaged transmission lines. Rising temperatures have dried out fallen and dead trees in forestry.

Recent legislation in California promotes the use of wood-based biomass to produce power. In this example, wood biomass projects will become more important as they are now being used to burn fallen/dead trees and subsequently reduce wildfire risk.

Historically, these types of projects were extremely hard to finance and were highly complex despite the many advantages of using biomass. Given the importance of reducing the rising wildfire risk, these projects will be given much more attention to practical use while also helping save the environment.

What are some common trends you’ve seen as a result of climate change?