The Future is Green
With unlimited resources and manpower, human kind can easily erase all pollution forever from the face of Earth. We have the knowledge and the energy we need. Our Sun is generous towards the Earth, it would be enough for us to take care of all energy reaching the surface of Earth from the Sun during one hour to supply the power consumed by mankind during one year.
Or put in another way, if we could just use all energy that the Sun gives the Earth on an area the size of West Virginia there will be enough energy to supply the total world demand, and even give the entire Greenland the color the vikings saw when they named it, if we would like.
However, it doesn’t matter how green we can paint the world as long as we can’t make it financially viable. We are not there yet but we are slowly crawling out of the oil pit.
We will get some unexpected help in the green-coloring in the next decade when the world will start to see a severe lack in oil. Oil prices will rocket to reach above US$ 150 a barrel by year 2020 which will make it financially viable to dig deeper into alternatives for gasoline as fuel.
Next decade will also see the second renewable energy source take a giant leap. So far we are doing a pretty good job exploring water as a renewable source with hydroelectric power supplying 19% of the world electricity demand. Wind power is currently blowing in with most power generated in Germany but with Denmark in the lead in relation to their total electricity consumption.
New wind turbines will mainly be placed off-shore over the next decade and the global installed capacity of wind power added annually by year 2020 will match the current total capacity of today. The following decade will also see the light of solar power rising in the electric grid.
When it comes to fuel people might claim that ethanol is a green option but it also demands a lot of crop to be produced. If we use all grain harvested in the US it will only supply about 16% of the ethanol needed for the US car fleet. This would mean obese food prices, which will cause even bigger problems.
Ethanol is needed as a bridge between oil and a more sustainable fuel and the best known option today is hydrogen, which don’t add any pollution when used in a car. However, for the distribution of hydrogen quite vast investments are needed, so it will take some time before it makes an impact in the car industry. In year 2035 the millionth hydrogen-fueled car will be sold in the US, but then only making up 0.4% of the total fleet.
Hydrogen also demands a lot of electricity in the production and therefore Iceland will be way ahead of rest of the world, due to their access to geothermal energy and their small isolated country. They will be able to take the last gasoline pump out of service by year 2040 as the first country in the world with hydrogen as the only fuel.
Hydrogen will initially be produced with fossil fuels as it is today but as more power capacity is added based on renewable sources, the brand of the future will enter the market – Re-hydro. Re-hydro is hydrogen produced by 100% renewable sources and will be the dominating fuel from year 2050 and beyond.
As you notice the transition will be quite slow from the fossil fuel dependent society that we live in today, but by year 2100 we will be living in a green world and with the progress in regeneration over the next decades you might be able to live it. So close your eyes and imagine the future and you will see that your vision slowly turns...green.
About the author:
Pontus Edenberg is the editor of News of Future, an independent publication that gives you the news of the world for the next 50 years.
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