SIEMENS

Imagine a world of endless, cheap electricity powered by solar systems mimicking the way plants harness sunlight to photosynthesize — a world, like nature, where carbon dioxide is no longer a pollutant but a key component of the fuels needed to drive this energy revolution.

Across the globe, research teams are moving ever closer to this vision. Just recently a group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced they had found a very simple way to extract photosynthetic materials from old grass clippings and agricultural wastes. The mixture, supported by a network of nanowires, can be ‘painted’ onto roof tops and other structures to generate electricity, especially in remote, off-grid locations. The big challenge is to now significantly boost the efficiency of such emerging technologies.

MIT is not alone in pursuing such pathways. From Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK to Brazil, China and Singapore a myriad of technological research programs are underway to transform our energy systems and thus guide us to a more sustainable energy future.

There can be no doubt about the urgency of the need to act. Energy-related carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel burning, which need to begin falling by around 2020 if the world is to avoid dangerous levels of climate change, climbed by three per cent to an unprecedented 31.6 billion tonnes in 2011.

Meanwhile, around 1.3 billion people are without access to electricity and some 2.7 billion are without access to clean cooking facilities, mainly in the developing world, including sub-Saharan Africa. This is not just a challenge to development and eradicating poverty — air pollution linked to fossil fuel burning from cars and trucks to power plants and stoves kills up to six million people each year.

While the world will continue to consume fossil fuels, there is an urgent need to shift towards alternative forms of energy and to make better use of the fossil fuels used, including through significant improvements in energy efficiency in power production, transmission and usage in buildings, and industry and transportation. Many measures have to be taken that must fit together like the pieces of a puzzle.

Nevertheless, the world is not starting from ground zero. The latest assessment of investments in clean energy, coordinated by UNEP, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, and the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management shows that in 2011 $257 billion was invested in renewables, up 17 per cent from 2010. Indeed, this figure was higher than its counterpart for new investment in fossil fuels, and more people are now employed in the clean energy sector than in the fossil fuel industry. Much of this growth has been driven by the targets and timetables under the UN climate convention and its Kyoto Protocol, which are allied with creative public policies by an increasing number of nations.

Kenya, UNEP’s host country, is seeing a boom in both wind and geothermal generation after replicating Germany’s feed-in tariff. The largest wind farm in sub-Saharan Africa is about to be built in Turkana — one of Kenya’s poorest regions — and geothermal generation is growing there as part of an overall goal of generating 5,000 MW by 2030.

Other sustainability factors are coming into play. South Africa, for example, is looking to solar power as a water-saving measure. Limited freshwater supplies will be challenged by coal and nuclear power and their cooling requirements. Solar PV parks, on the other hand, require minimal water to operate, except for washing the panels’ surfaces.

Formidable challenges to our energy future remain, including more than $600 billion worth of fossil fuel subsides. Countries such as Ghana, Indonesia and Iran are moving to phase out such subsidies and others should consider the opportunities. Transparency, governance, exchange rates, and up-front costs are all areas that need to be addressed by international and bilateral donors. The development of smart, regional grids able to manage power from large to small power sources in a seamless way will also be essential.

The Future of Energy goes to the heart of a Green Economy and whether societies can achieve a sustainable 21st century. Wind, both on shore and off shore, solar, geothermal, and now wave and tidal systems, are growing globally, and fuel cells, electric drives and other technological breakthroughs for vehicles are no longer a novelty.

Maintaining research and development while supporting smart policies and creative finance will also be essential. Maybe one day photosynthesis will not only produce our food and beautify our landscapes with trees, shrubs and flowers. It may also reveal how mimicking nature can meet one of the biggest challenges seven billion people, rising to over nine billion by 2050, will face.