Innovation in Renewable Energies
Technology improvement is about “doing things differently”, but innovation is about “doing different things”.
The IEA report about additional natural resources in US has created a lot of excitement in US. Nevertheless, the fact that the resources are by nature widely unconventional means that every barrel of the shale-oil or shale-gas (boe) will require more energy to extract, hence bigger GHG impact for the US. And we have not yet touched the potential environmental issues around underground fracturing. One would expect more from collective intelligence of the human kind who sent man to the moon 30 years ago.
I believe that all the renewable energy alternatives need to be utilized to be able to reduce the share of the fossil based energies globally. It would be insane for human race not to do that when we know that the life time of the fossil based energies is limited to few more decades anyway.
The nuclear will have its own environmental challenges and should be kept at the bottom of the list, although it is a reality that we would need it over the transition period.
The key to a successful transition to green energies is a collaborative approach between policy makers and the energy industry. None can succeed without the other. Energy sector need to have a clear strategy for technology development to reduce the GHG footprint of the oil and gas projects, as well as elevating the maturity of the technology and innovations in renewable/alternative energies.
We need the energy industry to widen its horizon, and learn from social-entrepreneurs like Alfredo Moser. We need more bottle lights.