Renewable energy has several advantages including diversifying energy sources to enhance security and reduce costs, reducing pollution and emissions, and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. However, renewable energy also has some disadvantages such as having a lower energy intensity than fossil fuels so more space is needed, the technologies are often expensive initially, and the production may require reliable backup and storage options to manage intermittent supplies.

1. Lecture : 03
Advantages and Disadvantages of Renewable Energy

2. Advantages of Renewable Energy
Diversifying energy carriers for the production fuels, electricity, and heat;
enhancing energy security and reducing the long-run price of fuels from
conventional sources
Reducing pollution, environmental emissions, and safety risks from
conventional energy sources that damage human health, natural systems,
crops, and materials
Mitigating greenhouse gas emissions down to levels that can be sustained
Improving access to clean energy sources and conversion technologies by
taking advantage of the local availability of renewables

3. Continued
Reducing dependence on and minimizing expendeture on imported
fuels
Reducing conflicts related to the mining and use of limited available
natural resources, as most renewable energy sources are well
distributed
Promoting economic development, creating new jobs and local
employment, especially in rural areas, as most renewable energy
technologies can be applied in small-, medium-, and large-scale
systems in distributed and centralized application
Balancing the use of fossil fuels, saving them for other applications
and for future generations.

4. Disadvantages of Renewable Energy
 The energy intensity (J/m2) of renewable energy sources is often low
compared with most fossil fuel and nuclear energy sources. Consequently,
space is needed for the conversion of available energy into useful energy.
 Renewable energy conversion technologies are often quite expensive,
operating costs (fuel costs) is nominal but the initial costs is too high this
make renewables less attractive, and thus especially requires high discount
rates that depends on the level of investments as well as governmental
interventions
 The levelized cost of energy (LCOE) from renewables is often not yet
competitive in the marketplace, especially in grid connected applications. This
may change, however, as renewable energy costs are brought down through
technological learning while penetrating markets. Also, using conventional
energy sources will become more expensive due to resource depletion and
policies to internalize external costs

5. Continued
 The production of energy carriers from wind, solar, and wave energy
may set specific requirements for the total energy system to achieve a
reliable energy supply. It may require methods to predict renewable
energy supplies many hours ahead, management of energy demands,
availability of backup power, development of storage options, and
enhanced flexibility of energy systems
 The exploitation of renewable energy sources may entail environmental
and social concerns, as experienced with, for instance, electricity
production from hydropower, wind energy and the use of biomass
resources