MANY TO MANY 65 FUTURE ENERGY RESOURCES

FUTURE ENERGY RESOURCES

The July/August issue of 'Green Futures', published by FORUM FOR THE UK, carries several articles on the various ways that energy can be produced, which would reduce the dependency on fossil fuels with their many environmental side effects. The sustainability, short-term, long-term effects and the potential capacity of the 'four Ws': Wind, Wood, Waste and Water, are discussed at some length. So is the exciting prospect of turning sunlight into electricity, which is viewed as one of the most promising among all 'renewables' with solar power, via photovoltaic cells, 'the fastest expanding energy technology' of today.

Among the first beneficiaries of this new technology could well be the world's poor.
An ambitious World Bank project will be bringing PV (photovoltaic) power to remote locations in developing countries. The Photovoltaic Market Transformation Initiative (PVMTI), launched by the International Finance corporation (private lending arm of the World Bank) aims to promote small PV arrays connected to batteries in poor rural areas, typically generating 20-100 Watts. Women and children will greatly benefit from this initiative, giving increased time for education and reduce health risks from traditional fuel like kerosene.

The world's largest oil companies are beginning to invest in alternative energy resources. BP, acknowledging the public consensus on global warming, has announced that it intends to invest US$1 billion in solar power, and Shell International Renewables has set the goal of capturing up to 10% of a world wind energy market by 2010. Among those nations with the most ambitious targets for the installation of photovoltaic systems are USA, Japan, the Netherlands and Switzerland, with Japan aiming for 4,600 Mwp (megawatts at peak) by 2010 and the Netherlands 1,250 Mwp by 2020.

Worldwatch President, Lester Brown, comments on the speed with which the business thinking is changing, adding "it's amazing how competition gets things moving!"

The oil and coal business is realising that the future does not lie in finite fuel resources but in 'renewables'. Lester Brown points to the rapidly growing economy of China: if China was to reach the point where each household would – western style – BR> own a car, it could use about 80 million barrels of oil per day. Today's oil production is 64 million barrels per day. Transferring this kind of calculation to other products being consumed at a fast growing rate, not only in China but other developing countries as well, "you end up with unsustainability on a grand scale."

Says the Worldwatch president: "so you're left asking what kind of model will permit us to sustain economic progress without destroying the support systems on which we depend. And you end up with a model which is based on renewable energy, on reuse and recycling, which is hi-tech, with excellent urban public transport... which is, in short, very different from the one we have now."

Source: GREEN FUTURES, Number 11, July/August 1998.
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