Why don’t we produce all of our energy using alternative renewable energy sources?

Question

Why don’t we produce all of our energy using alternative renewable energy sources?

Answer 1

Despite all the recent advances that solar and wind have made in recent years, coal is still much cheaper than every other option.  

Also, solar and wind have reliability issues that coal does not.  For example, a coal-fired power plant doesn't have to worry about energy production when the wind dies down, or the Sun sets.  

Coal does have significant environmental issues associated with it.  Mercury (poisons fish), sulfur dioxide (acid rain), nitrogen oxides (creates smog) and particulate (causes respiratory issues) are all emitted by coal-fired power plants.

Answer 2

To start off, a lot of people like to turn on lights even when there is no wind turning the turbines and after sunset when the pv cell s  go dead.  And not everyone lives on top of a geothermal vent or next to an ocean tide generating station.

Answer 3

ill touch on bio fuels since nobody else has.

bio diesel - quality bio diesel comes from soybeans.(there are others suitable, but soybean oil is already produced in large quantities)  if the u.s. was to force all diesel sold to contain 5% bio diesel we could not produce enough beans here in the states to fill the order.  thats using every drop for fuel and none for food.

Answer 4

Expense, if they could make power cheaper than with coal or nuclear the power companies would.  They are in the business of making money.  But they keep trying the other ideas.

Answer 5

There is a lack of political will and a status quo of vested interests that will always resist a total switch to renewable energy.

Check out http://www.wiserplanet.org for a discussion of solutions that include using alternative renewable energy sources.

Answer 6

It is simply not feasible economically or practically to do so. We use such an enormous amount of energy that renewable sources can only provide a tiny percentage of the total requirements.  Only if we go nuclear like France can we reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and cut our emissions dramatically.  Each fossil fuel power plant produces thousands of tons of carbon dioxide, as well as sulfur dioxide.  Nuclear produces no emissions other than waste heat. Very little nuclear waste either--all of the nuclear wast produced since the first plant went online, all over the world, would only cover a football field with a pile 51 feet high. That much ash is produced by ONE coal plant in less than a year.   It is also not economic to produce renewable energy sources, wind turbines for example are coming down in price, but even in my state which is a leader in wind power, the peak electrical load day this year had almost no power produced by wind--- a hot calm day-- so fossil fuels had to ramp up to produce the required power.