Twenty percent renewable energy by 2020
Says the European Conference on Renewable Energy
Does not really sound like much, although a lot more than the current 6% and also a lot considering that the energy consumption will continue to rise over time.
One of my intuitions is however that all initiatives are looking at large-scale centralized production methods. For some that might be the only way forward, e.g. when we want to exploit the energy contained in seawaves, or when looking at geothermal solutions. Those might not be easily applicated at home-level.
It also puts the burden of responsibility too little on us, energy consumers, I think, when the message is that we will come up with central solutions, and don’t you worry.
What can I do at the home level, at affordable prices, now to 1) reduce my personal dependency on fossil fuel, and 2) make it more likely to bring about energy regime change in a distributed manner.
This weblog is written by Ton Zijlstra (Enschede, Netherlands). I'm a knowledge management and change management consultant.
