Posted on: October 22, 2008
Some Sunshine Beyond the Darkness
I have just come back from Seville in Spain where Mr. Al Gore and I addressed a conference on "Climate Change, Awareness and Action". During the course of my visit there I also saw a set of facilities that are at various stages of construction and operation for harnessing solar energy, which are the initiative of a company called Abengoa Solar. This is an extremely impressive effort which would scale up to the establishment of a 300 MW solar thermal power generation facility. In the doom and gloom that the world seems to be gripped by with the current financial and economic problems facing different countries, this set of developments comes as a refreshing reminder of what the future holds. At the same time I also read a news report which indicates Mr. Barack Obama stating that he would like to see the US independent of oil supplies from the middle-east in the next 10 years.
Once the dust has settled it would be essential for political leaders and those in business and industry to focus on the limitless opportunities that the future of renewable energy represents. It is very heartening to see the Government of the Republic of Korea having launched their Green Growth Programme, which is essentially going to dovetail Korea’s impressive rate of economic growth with an overwhelming growth of green energy, that is, different forms of renewable energy. As part of this effort the Government of Korea is allocating 2.7 billion US Dollars over the next five years to promote green energy solutions. They have also targeted a larger share of the global energy market in which they aim to capture 13 percent by 2030 in what is termed as the green energy sector. The leaders of South Korea have also stated that they would strive to become one of the top four nations producing green cars. The Government plans to enhance the economic efficiency of solar energy by bringing down production cost of solar power from the current 700 won (63 US cents per KW power) to 150 won (14 US cents) by 2020.
In India the Prime Minister released the country’s National Action Plan on Climate Change on June 30, 2008, the main thrust of which lies in the enunciation of eight separate National Missions, the very first of which is the National Solar Mission, which would promote the use of solar energy for power generation and other applications. The major innovation under this mission would involve tapping the country’s potential for solar thermal power generation.
I believe we are on the verge of a major energy revolution, which would result as much from efforts to combat climate change as it would from concerns about energy security and the vulnerability of oil importing countries to uncertain oil prices confronting the world. While much more needs to be done worldwide in this direction, the examples mentioned above provide cause for optimism.
