“Energy, Renewables Alone?”

Abstract

At the dawn of the twenty-second century, the grandchildren of those born at the start of the twenty-first century will be having their own children and the global population could have reached 11.2 billion. At such levels, the world’s energy demands could be 124% higher than in 2017. How can this increased demand be met? It is highly unlikely that traditional fossil fuels will be able to meet these future wants and needs because of their continuing depletion rates. Moreover, the accumulative amounts of carbon dioxide produced, since the start of the British Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth century, by the burning of such fuels can be correlated with increasing rises in global surface temperatures. It is these rises which have led to the growing public concerns about the detrimental impact of anthropogenic activity on climate change. Consequently, although fossil fuels provide almost 90% of today’s energy demand, additional forms of energy will be required for the future. But what will these be? A study by the Stanford University group, based on the energy scenarios of 139 countries, predicted that all their energy needs could be met by renewable forms by 2050. Whatever the accuracy of such predictions, the underlying assumption that all countries will buy into the wholly renewable scenario is highly optimistic. The World Energy Council, in their ‘hard-rock’ energy transition scenario for 2060, has suggested that the availability of local resources and the concomitant political pressures will prevent global collaboration on energy use and climate change issues. Thus, while the eventual transition away from the dominance of fossil fuel energy is inevitable, exactly how and when this will happen to remain matters of conjecture. The current development emphasis on alternative energy sources that are considered to be sustainable and renewable will likely continue. However, will such sources ever be able to meet 100% of the future global energy needs in the absence of carbon-based fuels, let alone the increasing demand for energy? In this chapter, the candidate energy sources, which are considered by some, if not all, to be renewable, are discussed against a background of the growing acceptance of climate change, government and regional energy policies, and associated incentives in an attempt to address the question, ‘Renewables Alone,’ at least for the remainder of this century.