Full Scale Feasibility Development of Renewable Energy for a Workplace Manufacturing Facility

¶ … Scale Use of Renewable Energy for Manufacturing Facility Workplace

Renewable energy is a type of energy source naturally replenished and derived from the wind, solar, and geothermal action. Energy from biomass can also be classified as renewable, however, biomass energy such as oil, coal, and natural gas have finite sources. Contrarily, renewable energy such as sun, wind and hydro-electric energy have infinity sources because they are naturally replenished. In the United States, many manufacturing companies are increasingly using the renewable energy to cut costs of production. Every 2.5 minutes, renewable energy is being installed in the United States.

The objective of this paper is to discuss the feasibility development of a full-scale usage of renewable energy at our manufacturing facility. The paper also compares the costs and benefits of renewable energy compare to non-renewable energy.

Feasibility Development Full-scale usage of Renewable Energy

The cost-effectiveness is one of the major benefits of renewable since the energy is renewed naturally after being replenished. The wind energy is the most cost-effective renewable energy because the energy only involves the cost of installation since the energy is supplied naturally. However, the solar energy is more cost effective in a region where there is a plenty of electricity such as the state of California, Florida, and Texas.

Fig 1: Components of Levelized Cost of Energy

Source: Energy Innovation (2015).

As being revealed in fig 1, the capital costs of renewable energy is still higher than the capital costs of conventional energy. The major reason for the higher capital cost is that the conventional energy has been in existence for a very long time, many energy companies are producing the capital equipment and materials used for the conventional energy in a large scale leading to a cost reduction of its capital equipment and installation. Despite the higher capital costs of renewable energy, the variable costs and costs of maintenance of renewable energy are considerable lower than the variable costs of conventional energy.

Fig 2: Unsubsidized Comparison of Conventional Energy vs. Renewable Energy.

As being revealed in Fig 2, the onshore wind energy is the most cost-effective out of all the renewable energies, and the solar power is more costly than the conventional energy. However, the costs of renewable energy have started declining in the last few years since increasing number of companies are taking interests in investing in the renewable energy resources. (Lezard, 2014).

Recommendations