Security aspects of future renewable energy systems–A short overview

Energy security is sometimes used to advocate renewable energy systems. Renewable energy systems can improve some aspects of security, but they will not automatically lead to the removal of all types of security problems and new problems will most certainly arise. This paper analyses energy security aspects of renewable energy systems on the basis of a broad typology on energy and security. Renewable energy sources do not suffer from the same long-term resource availability problems as finite fossil resources and their geographical location is less concentrated, but other issues such as dependence on variable flowing resources and competition for scarce land resources will grow in importance. Many security issues related to energy are also dependent on the energy carrier rather than the energy resource and on the existence of effectively functioning institutions and regulations. New interdependencies will appear and will have to be handled within future international and bilateral institutional frameworks.