Viable alternatives to fossil fuel "decades away"

Alternative Fuels

For the next few weeks, Copenhagen will host the United Nations conference on climate change, where world leaders and delegates from 192 countries will attempt to reach a comprehensive global deal on reversing the effects of global warming.

At the forefront of their discussions will be the development of alternative fuels - like wind, solar, biomass and geothermal - as we try and cut our reliance on the polluting fossil fuels such as crude oil and coal. But, many experts still believe it will be a long time before any of these energy sources will be a large-scale alternative to fossil fuels.

At present renewable energy sources are merely an addition to traditional sources, and even though their global development is expanding rapidly, they still only represent less than one percent of our energy needs.

Technologies are growing

As reported by voanews.com, at a recent talk at the James A. Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University in Houston, Ambassador Richard Jones, Deputy Executive Director of the International Energy Agency, assessed future energy supplies and demand.

He said: "Modern renewable energy technologies are growing. In fact, they see the fastest rate of increase. But their share of total energy use is so small today that even by 2030, they are only taking about [providing] two percent [of the energy consumed worldwide]."

But, there are certain cases in parts of the world that contradict these figures.

On the Danish island of Samso for example, the community there has recently become the first energy self-sufficient place on the planet where renewable sources like wind and solar have made traditional fuels obsolete.

Also, in Austin, Texas, renewable technologies are also having a significant impact. This fast-growing city gets about a tenth of its electrical power from wind turbines in the western part of the state.

Roger Duncan, General Manager of the electrical utility, Austin Energy, explains: "We get somewhere between 10 and 12 percent of our energy from renewable energy and the remainder from coal, nuclear and gas. We have plans going forward to get 30 percent of our energy from renewables by the year 2020."

And whereas it will be decades before towns like Austin will achieve what the island of Samso has achieved, the future for green power technology looks ever brighter as fossil fuels become scarcer and more expensive.

Development of alternatives

Government subsidies for renewable energy technology are growing year on year, but people must realise that the development of alternative energy through government programs is not free.

So until wholly clean renewable energy reaches a point where it can replace traditional fuels, governments need to focus on immediately cutting carbon emissions through the use of transitional fuels, such as abundant natural gas that burns 50 percent cleaner than coal.

Alternatively, retrofitting clean-coal technology onto existing coal-burning power plants and nuclear energy can also contribute to cutting emissions until we are weaned of fossil fuels for good.

But there are also ways to be more eco-friendly that don't involve fossil fuels or renewables - the conservation of energy through more efficient vehicles, better constructed homes and office buildings, and better methods for monitoring energy use. These are things we can all get involved in.

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