Despite its polluting effects, fossil fuels are still the dominant energy source in the world. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has most recently affirmed the destructive effects human activities in the burning of coal and petroleum has on the earth's environment. The incessant daily discharge of greenhouse gases has depleted the earth's ozone layer, warmed the oceans and the earth's atmosphere, and disrupted ecosystems. The resulting effect is a detriment to society - acid rain, water and soil acidification, the destruction of forest, and a growing number of human illnesses. The costs to humans, besides rising health costs and loss of agriculture productivity, is untold. Rising sea levels, storms of greater force, floods, and greater heat waves are some prognosticated disasters humans can expect. Already the world has experienced its ten hottest years of the century in just the last decade or so and has suffered the effects of more frequent, violent storms in recent times. All these adverse costs are external costs, not taken into account by humans when they burn fossil fuels without regard. When external costs are added, the full price of fossil fuels triples. The benefits of alternative energy, thus, is becoming obvious. Being generally a clean energy source, alternative energy has no or negligible external costs. Policy-makers are beginning to realise that the costs of environmental damage from fossil fuels far outweigh the base cost differences of alternative energy and fossil fuels.

Yet, there is another benefit in alternative energy. While a shrinking quarter still contends the higher costs of alternative energy, rising oil prices and the technological advancements and declining costs of alternative energy (Table 1) meant that the cost equation is changing, even without factoring external costs. Even so, the consideration of the costs of fossil fuels, particularly oil, must include the uncertainties of the security of future supplies and price. The costs of fossil fuels, thus, is a function of these factors. alternative energy, in particular renewables, on the other hand, generally involves only the initial outlay in the plant or system. The sources of energy, solar, wind, and hydro, are essentially free throughout the lifetime of the alternative energy plant or system.