Surge Protection For New Energy Production Sources

For many years there has been only one viable method of generating electricity for consumption by the public.  A fuel source had to be burned in order to generate heat and gasses which then turn turbines to produce an electrical charge.  This charge is processed and harnessed, then transported to customers through an electrical grid.  There are fixed costs involving the processing and transport, but the methods of actually turning the turbines remained relatively consistent.  The fuel source that had to be burned was generally a fossil fuel like coal, oil or wood which could be harvested from the earth in large quantities.  Although these fuel sources are limited, it was always assumed that by the time they started to run out some other fuel source would replace it.  This is an issue simply due to the ever increasing demand and the limited quantities of minerals and other fuel sources in the earth.  In addition to the obvious issues with this, there is the additional problem of pollution and by products being produced with an element is burned.  Due to these issues, clean energy production methods were invented.

Clean energy production methods use no fossil fuels in order to turn the turbines, instead harnessing the power of wind, flowing water or sunlight to accomplish the task.  The elements are not destroyed, but instead are simply harnessed and used for the purpose, ultimately creating a system that has unlimited free fuel sources and is cleaner because it produces no pollution.  The drawbacks to the system is the cost associated as well as the fact that the fuel sources are not always present, making it critical to keep the systems producing when the wind is blowing or the sun is shining, as well as minimizing the costs associated with equipment damage.  Repair and replacement of equipment makes up the majority of the production costs in the clean energy space, as high tech equipment is often damaged or destroyed in the field.  This comes due to frequent lightning strikes to components, producing damage at the strike point as well as overloading the attached equipment when the associated power surge travels along power lines.  The technical solution to the issue is the installation of advanced surge protection devices, and while these devices will currently reduce the amount of damage that is expected and keep systems online longer, they still can be further improved to work even more effectively.  Over time, these advanced SPDs will drive the costs of production of clean energy down beyond the costs of fossil fuel energy, producing power cleaner, more efficiently and cheaper across the board.  At that point there will be no reason to continue to produce energy using fossil fuels, and the world will be a cleaner and more inhabitable place by default.