It’s a question I’ve asked several times, indirectly on Sciencebase – is renewable sustainable or just a pipedream for blue-skies thinkers?
Dawn Stover suggests that it may well be: Renewable energy sounds so much more natural and believable than a perpetual-motion machine, but theres one big problem: Unless youre planning to live without electricity and motorized transportation, you need more than just wind, water, sunlight, and plants for energy. You need raw materials, real estate, and other things that will run out one day. You need stuff that has to be mined, drilled, transported, and bulldozed — not simply harvested or farmed.