Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
A self-taught inventor has signed a contract with Country Energy, one of the country’s biggest power grids, to test a new source of clean and renewable electricity that will harness ocean currents and has the potential to drastically reduce electricity costs on islands.
Newsweek Middle East regional editor Christopher Dickey and Forbes.Com editor Paul Maidment respond to queries from Forbes readers about the future of energy.
German Environment Minister Jürgen Trittin recently inaugurated a large solar-powered energy plant in the eastern city of Espenhain, noting that Germany is the leading European country to install solar energy facilities.
In the blustery northwest corner of Cumbria, wind farms are becoming part of the landscape.
Renewable and low-carbon energy are not just the long-term solutions to climate change. They are indispensable today if we are to cushion the British economy against volatile oil and gas prices and the impending peak in world oil production – not least the dwindling reserves in the North Sea.
If alternative-energy companies are so hot, why are their stocks so unpopular? Record-high oil prices make wind and solar increasingly competitive. Fear of climate change should brighten prospects for any alternative to fossil fuels, which release the greenhouse gases that cause global warming. Yet over the past two years, the worldwide stock-market value of companies developing renewable energy—which includes everything from wind and solar to recycling—fell from $13 billion to $10.7 billion, while the value of fossil-fuel companies surged to record highs of more than $1.2 trillion.
Tony Blair’s call on British businesses to take the moral lead on climate change is laudable and his encouragement to the UK renewable and low-carbon energy industry is welcome. But by tying renewables so closely to climate change, we are in danger of undervaluing them.
NEARLY three-quarters of the population agree wind farms are necessary to help meet the UK’s current and future energy needs, despite a vocal protest against their expansion.
Rising oil prices and pollution are fueling interest in green power in Asia but experts see no prospect of a rapid switch from the region’s growing dependence on oil, coal and gas.
RENEWABLE energy sources such as wind and solar energy will continue to meet only a tiny portion of world energy demand, despite their impressive growth.
High international oil prices mean that Brazilian ethanol is rapidly winning a place in new markets, according to findings by consultant Júlio Maria Borges, director of the JOB Economy & Planning consulting firm in Brazil.
Even $50 a barrel can’t wean the world from oil. Only government can do that.
