Clean Energy Surge Protection
The production of electricity is crucial to modern life as we know it, and the most effective means of producing this energy will always be employed. There are several different methods of effectively producing electricity for public consumption, and the methods that are employed en-masse are generally dictated by several factors. The first of these factors is overall production costs, and the ultimate price that a consumer must pay for the use of a specific amount of power. The costs associated with producing that unit of power must be completely covered, and a profit structure applied to the amount on top of these costs. The fixed costs of production across all forms of energy production involve the storage and transport of the electricity, as well as method-specific costs that are different depending on the way that the product is generated. In the case of fossil fuel production, costs of a fuel source like oil or coal must be factored in, as well as the costs associated with the processing of that fuel source ultimately resulting in electricity being produced. In the cases of “clean energy” sources there is no cost associated with the actual fuel as it is a sustainable and renewable element that is not burned to produce the ultimate product. The fuel sources of wind, sunshine and flowing water are necessarily purchased although there are costs associated with taking these natural resources, and the associated costs of processing involve the transition of that free fuel into electricity through mechanized turning of turbines.
Additional factors that separate the fossil fuel and clean energy production methods are residual aspects like pollution and greenhouse gasses. As fossil fuels must be burned in order to produce the electricity product, they produce a certain amount of negative by- products that do damage to the natural environment. The typical decision making process involves a comparison of the perceived damage vs the cost, and if the person does not see significant enough damage as far as pollution, they will opt for the cheaper production method. There is no debate that clean energy production is a superior method as far as producing less damaging by-products, but the associated costs of clean energy production are oftentimes higher than fossil fuel production, causing people to choose support of the less ecologically friendly method.
What if the clean energy production methods cost less to the consumer and also produced less environmental damage? In this case there could be little argument against clean energy methods, other than the special interest groups which would fight it, and the obvious shift over to clean energy would even so happen rather rapidly. Luckily, through technological advancements, this process is already starting. Surge protection devices designed specifically to protect clean energy production equipment have the ability to drive down production costs significantly by protecting against electrical surges that can damage solar and wind power collection system circuitry. Electrical surges caused by lightning strikes or coming from the power grid to these types of industrial facilities are common, and make up a large portion of the repair and replacement costs associated with the businesses that produce clean energy in this way. By eliminating or reducing the repair and replacement costs of the equipment involved in the process, we may soon see the pendulum swing to where the production of clean energy cost is far less than fossil fuel. At that point the debate is over.
