Wind could meet the shortfall in fossil fuels

Denmark Bulletin
Thursday 9/11/2006 Page: 3

BRUSSELS: The world's wind industry could install 120OGW of turbines by 2030 to meet the shortfall in oil and gas supplies, according to the Global Wind Energy Council and Renewable Energy Systems.

'The world's energy resources are not sufficient to sustain expected growth trends," said the joint survey of world fuel resources and their impact on the development of wind energy.

A growing gap between energy demand and the available supply of oil and gas meant that high energy prices were here to stay.

The report shows that many forecasts have overestimated global reserves of oil and gas, and rebuts predictions by the International Energy Agency that 60% of global energy could still be provided by oil and gas by 2030. It estimates that production of oil could peak in eight years and gas in 25, with prices first rising steeply.

While coal could last until the end of the century and increase its share of energy supply, coal for large-scale power generation would only be acceptable if clean coal technologies were developed, which currently have cost and technological barriers. A serious shortfall between demand and supply could become evident by 2010, with a 10% shortfall by 2020 and an 18% shortfall by 2030.

Wind energy had been the fastest-growing energy source of the last decade, driven by increasing environmental and energy security concerns.

Natural gas could support only a quarter of the new gas-fired power additions planned until 2030, leaving a gap of 1200GW for other power sources.

That gap offered enormous potential for wind power that was unforeseen by the GWEC's wind capacity forecasts.

Wind power was clearly one of the most cost-effective and environmentally-acceptable energy technologies, the report concluded. (Refocus Weekly)

1. A recent study by Australia's CSIRO has concluded that carbon sequestration (the pumping of C02 back into the ground) is not cost-effective when applied to existing coal-fired power stations. To be successful it would require new, high-tech facilities built in geologically suitable areas - which may be a long way from existing transmission infrastructure, thus adding to the high cost of building new power stations.