What’s the Biggest Barrier to Sustainable Energy Transition?

People are shifting towards sustainable and eco-friendly life, and it needs to be appreciated. An eco-friendly life helps us contribute to the good cause as well as saving things for our future generations. As Australia has more natural resources, it can be easy for Australians to shift towards sustainable energy solutions.

Sustainable life eliminates harmful fossil fuels, carbon gas emissions, coal powder, etc. Sustainable energy gives you a new, healthy way of life. Natural resources like wind, waves, and the sun are harmless and are best for longevity. But as every coin has two sides, there are also some restrictions when it comes to sustainable energy transition. But with the right mindset and the right decisions, one can overcome those obstacles and can step into the future with the promise of a healthy and sustainable life.

Here are some of the barriers one can face when they choose sustainable energy transition.

• Limited Infrastructure: Renewable energy projects need large amounts of land as they are equipped with big machines. For the same, at times it becomes difficult to acquire that much land for a single project. That is why it becomes conflicting for big-scale projects.
• Economic Concerns: Well, we are contributing to a good cause, but no one will choose the future if the solutions are affecting their wallets. Renewable energy products are a bit more expensive than fossil fuels and other things. It takes people to consider their choices one more time. Though renewable energy solutions are low maintenance, the initial costs still make people think twice.
• Technical Barriers: As renewable energy solutions are based on automated machines, it can cause a barrier when a machine malfunctions. The technology and the machines are too complex, and normal people cannot change or look into them by themselves. For the same, when something happens, they have to call another person to make it work. At the same time, if the machine gets outdated after a few years, then one has to buy a new machine, and again it costs too much for your packets.
• Intermittency of Renewable Resources: The world is aware of the abundance of natural resources, but do we give it a conscious thought that there are different seasons and they do affect energy production? Yes, we never thought about it. If you integrate solar panels, they certainly not be able to produce energy at night or during cloudy days. Or the wind farms—do they get the same amount of windblown constantly? well, certainly not. You may not have thought about it, but these issues also create the biggest barrier to choosing a sustainable energy transition.
• Inconsistency in Legal Policies: When it comes to legal policies, the Australian National Policy Framework changes from time to time. For the same, big projects are scared of what if they invest and rules change and then their profit is stuck and they don’t get imagined ROI. This affects the sales of renewable energy projects.
• Knowledge and Awareness: One can say that in many rural areas people are still not aware of the benefits and uses of sustainable energy products. In contradiction, they use fossil fuels and find them easier to use. This also acts as a drawback factor in some villages.
• Changing Market Dynamics: Fossil fuel has been the main source of energy production for the majority of Australians. That is why people are inclined towards it more than trying something new. The government subsidies and discounts people get from using fossil fuels or products using them attract customers to buy them. Discounts don’t let them think about future consequences, and people choose harmful products. Combining all these, it becomes difficult for renewable energy solutions to come to market and let people know the advantages.
• Difficulty in energy storage: As said earlier, wind, sun, and waves produce energy at certain times or certain seasons. Hence, it is needed to store the energy for production when there are no natural resources. However, the storage battery systems are not pocket-friendly and may give you financial stress. For the same, it becomes an obstacle in choosing renewable energy solutions.
• Complexity to integrating with current systems: Renewable energies can create a stronger system when added to your current system. However, the cost of making changes and upgrades for integrating the new system is a bit expensive. Also, you have to check it that does your grid can work with that much power and certain other things. With all these, it may cost more and make people choose the systems they are using rather than shifting to sustainable energy solutions.

Conclusion

As we discussed above, given are the main obstacles that don’t let people choose sustainable energy solutions. But the good thing is we are planning easy ways that take people towards natural energy solutions. To reduce the cost-effective factor, the government is opening subsidies that make the cost half of it. Soon, there will be awareness programmes for the people. The government is also trying to reduce the production cost so people can buy it more rather than affecting their wallets.

In a nutshell, obstacles and barriers will be there, but the government is finding solutions that help people choose sustainable living and contribute towards nature.