It seems like the world will finally be at peace when the humankind abandons crude oil and natural gas. Indeed, all the modern wars are waged for recourses, especially crude oil. Iraq, Libya, Syria… Iran is in jeopardy… In this aspect, it looks natural that US politicians are more “concerned’ about “oil-rich” Venezuela than “socialist” Cuba.
Oil and gas keep electrifying the entire world. Tensions keep escalating as these valuable recourses are running low. It seems like it is only a matter of time before we have to switch to alternative fuels.
Simultaneously, renewable energy sources will help us to stop wars. It may sound exaggerated but we cannot ignore the importance of discovering alternative fuels.
Biofuels, solar and wind power… How are things in those industries? What are their prospects? What do analysts forecast?
Let’s try to answer these questions…
Alternative Energy: Unlimited and Eco-Friendly.
According to Eugene Olkhovsky, ’s leading expert, alternative energy is one of the key issues these days for 2 reasons:
1. Conventional energy sources are running low at an unprecedented pace.
2. They keep polluting the environment thereby leading to unpredictable consequences like possible climatic changes and natural disasters.
More experts say that alternative energy can help to resolve these problems.
Gloomy forecasts start manifesting themselves. The era of cheap crude oil and natural gas is over. Even Americans starts switching to economy cars. The rest of the world is buying hybrid cars (like Toyota Prius).
Obviously, oil and gasoline prices keep setting new highs.
The chart below, courtesy of , reflects the current state of affairs in the market of oil and gasoline:
Some alternative solutions include:
· solar panels
· windmills
· biofuels
· secondary gas (produced from trash right in trash dumps)
These industries start gaining strength in some parts of the globe. At the same time, researchers are indignant at the fact that the world is too slow to react to the obvious panacea. There are rumors about some conspiracy of the world’s major oil and gas companies, which hinder the spread of alternative energy sources simultaneously buying up patents on innovative “green” devices and technologies.
Obviously, rumors have some grounds. Multiple oil and gas companies are involved in research and development activities connected with alternative energy.
Now let’s have a closer look at alternative energy sources.
Solar energy.
Solar-panel manufacturers say oil and gas companies seem to be unaware of the fact that the energy revolution is coming as renewable energy sources will oust conventional ones (especially as the latter are running low).
Still, solar industry has a number of problems, including low efficiency of solar panels. For standard silicon-based solar panels, it is roughly equal to 15%. Therefore, solar panels are difficult to repay while vast territories are needed to produce substantial amounts of electricity.
However, Soitec Solar, a Germany manufacturer of solar panels, has started manufacturing the so-called multilayer solar panels based on indium and gallium. They are more efficient in absorbing solar power as they deal with various parts of the spectrum. Moreover, specially lenses increase the light intensity by 500 times. The latest lab tests show that the efficiency of such solar panels can be enhanced up to 40% and even higher. The production version of such panels is twice as efficient as standard silicon-based panels (30%+).
In May 2012, Germany (which decided to abandon nuclear energy after the Fukushima-1 meltdown) increased the aggregate power capacity of its solar power plants up to 20 gigawatt, which is the power of 20 nuclear power plants. However, sunny weather is needed to produce enough electricity on a regular basis. Experts say that the cost price of 1 kilowatt-hour of solar energy is around 10 eurocents and is expected to drop down to 5 eurocents, which will be roughly equal to the cost price of the electricity produced by conventional means.
At the same time, American manufacturers of solar panels are forced to close down because the US market is flooded with more competitive Chinese panels. When China starts conquering an industry, it looks highly promising. The Chinese authorities pay a lot of attention to the local solar industry. The financial support is considerable. The Chinese production of solar panels used to be export-oriented. These days, the domestic demand keeps growing at a steady pace. India, is another Asian giant that starts betting on solar energy.
Wind power.
Germany’s wind power infrastructure is so developed that windmill parks can be found throughout the country. Moreover, there are special services that provide wind-power companies with hourly weather forecasts. Experts say that seashore windmill parks present the biggest interest in terms of their efficiency.
Biofuels.
Biofuels become increasingly popular around the globe as they are produced from renewable resources and there is no need to spend billions of dollars in order to extract those recourses as energy is derived from biological carbon fixation. Another major factor is oil price hikes that force car owners to switch form gasoline and conventional diesel to biodiesel.
Alternative Energy: Pitfalls
There are some pitfalls when it comes to alternative energy. The first and major one is subsidizing. Alternative energy industries cannot do without governmental support. Even if to consider the prospects of lowering the cost price of a kilowatt-hour of electricity produced form solar energy, solar production is useless in cloudy areas.
Moreover, solar energy requires considerable investments in production and transportation. In particular, Germany will have to build an entire infrastructure. Experts say that Germany will have to spend at least €50bn on the transportation of alternative energy within the next 10 years. This will result in energy price hikes (up to 70%). Of course, the expenses will probably be covered in the long run. However, nobody can guarantee that.
These days, the governments of Italy, Spain , Great Britain and even Germany cut down the expenses on solar energy production and lower the so–called “green tariffs”.
It seems like there is no cheaper energy than hydropower and nuclear energy. German experts are seriously considering the possibility of restarting Germany nuclear power plants.
Solar energy is weather-dependent Therefore, solar power plants are inappropriate for industrial production and need to be backed by other types of energy plants.
Yet, there are some environmental issues. The service life of solar panels is 30 years. They need special utilization conditions as they contain cadmium. This is a minor problem. However, the expansion of solar parks around the globe may eventually lead to major climatic changes due to possible changes in the reflection characteristics of the Earth.
Wind energy is weather-dependent as well even though it is eco-friendly. For now, it is viewed only as a secondary energy source. The aggregate capacity of today’s global solar industry is below 0.1% of the global energy production.
At the same time, the biofuel boom may end as fast as it began. In particular, European authorities have cut the corn, wheat and rape acres for biofuel production.
Alternative Energy: Prospects Are Unclear
All the info mentioned above gives us to understand that the future of alternative energy doesn’t look as bright as some experts say. One thing is sure: this is not a revolution. If there is a transition to alternative energy, it will be gradual and prolonged.
There is a lot to be developed, discovered and improved before alternative energy makes a few steps to get closer to dominating the global energy sector.
