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Thursday, September 4, 2008

Renewable Energy Action Agenda

Renewable Energy Action Agenda

It would be interesting if each of the 'experts' making commentary about various renewable energy options were to actually state if they have any actual experience beyond the theoretical. There are actually not many people who are utilizing renewable energy in their every-day lives outside of perhaps solar hot water heating. Those of us who have been using these technologies for decades are often bemused but frustrated by the obvious misrepresentations about cost, utility, user-friendliness and affordability that frequently arise in these commentaries.

At first I thought it was people with vested interest in the old technologies, but I think that is just a part of the problem. There also seem to be a subset of people trying to create an identity for themselves by venturing opinions on subjects that they have no first-hand knowledge of. They can often be identified by how sure they are of themselves.

We need to get over these kinds of competitive debates. We need to get to work to bring technologies that work to the market. We need less 'experts' and more entrepreneurs and visionary investors. These problems are not going to be solved by venture capitalist slight of hand nor those 'experts who can deconstruct anything. The technologies that already overwhelm the world are riddled with problems that make them improbable successes. Just because we can identify problems does not mean we should abandon the effort to develop technologies that overcome the problems. The alternative is mass extinction, including, possibly, of the human race.

Jonathan Cole