Summit Notebook
Exclusive outtakes from industry leaders
Enviro-boxer Britain needs to spend more on climate cure
Scientists may face an uphill battle in trying to warn the world about the looming perils of global warming, but one of Britain’s top academics wouldn’t trade places with the politicians tasked with negotiating a new global treaty to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
“Although the science (of climate change) is difficult and still uncertain, it’s a doddle compared to the politics,” said Martin Rees, president of the Royal Society, Britain’s science academy.
Thousands of international delegates will convene at UN climate talks in Copenhagen in December. All early indications suggest those talks, seen as critical to agreeing a successor to the Kyoto Protocol after it expires in 2012, will be anything but a cake walk.
That said, Rees thinks UK policymakers have done a good job so far.
“We must give (the UK) government credit for its leadership in this area, going back to the Gleneagles G8 summit in 2005 when climate change was pushed up the agenda,” Rees said at the Reuters Climate and Alternative Energy Summit this week.
“The UK punches above its weight in the debate on climate change even though we only produce 2% of the world’s emissions,” said Rees, likening Britain to some sort of environmental boxer.
Rees thinks that because the UK has the high-tech know-how, it should strive to provide more than 2% of the solution to the climate problem by upping investment technologies to help replace fossil fuel burning.
Google’s Green Energy Czar on investing in renewables
Bill Weihl, Google’s Green Energy Czar, sat down at Reuters’ Global Climate and Energy Summit in San Francisco and talked about Google’s solar thermal project, infrastructure costs and where he sees the energy mix heading in 20 years.
Here he chats about emerging clean tech hubs and what the United States should do about investing in renewables.
(Editing/video by Courtney Hoffman)
I think this is a good thing. Google has the horsepower to get the word out on new technology. We and the rest of the world need to stop burning fuel to make our power and run our machinery. It will take time, but we will make the switch.
BrightSource CEO talks about building carbon-free future
John Woolard, the chief executive of solar thermal energy company BrightSource, sat down at Reuters’ Global Climate and Alternative Energy Summit in San Francisco to talk about energy efficiency, project financing and the future of carbon-free power.
His advice: build fast!
(Editing/video by Courtney Hoffman)
Last month, all renewables combined (wind, solar, biomass and mainly waterpower) exceeded nuclear in power generated. Globally, wind is being added at several nuclear plants a year, but that will greatly accelerate in the US. Why? Because between the Atlantic, Great Lakes and Great Plains, the US has enough undisputed wind space to double in average terms its currant average power draw of 430,000 MW. Also, current new nuclear has a wholesale power price (per recent EU report) of 9.7 cents/KWH. But that dies not include future escalations in that nuclear power cost. Wind can survive quite nicely on 9.7 cents average on a 20 year fixed price contract, providing we change our technology to lower cost gearless reliability, which China is fast doing, already with two factories producing gearless turbines. We have none, but that can change dramatically and fast with my new gearless turbine and fast offshore deployment barge IP (both to be announced soon). New software, very high voltage dc grids, better wind power planning with new weather forecasting tech to predict day ahead wind capability when and where will all revolutionize wind so that it can dominate the grid power feed. It has to; we can’t depend just on nuclear (because it’s next impossible to get approval and construction accomplished) and carbon to meet 2050 power needs.
Kinder: wind, solar not the answer to U.S. energy needs
Rich Kinder, CEO of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, says the Obama Administration’s push to develop alternative energy sources such as wind and solar are not the answer to reducing the nation’s dependence on oil or reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Click below to hear where Kinder thinks the U.S. should be focusing its attention.
Kinder: wind, solar not the answer from Reuters TV on Vimeo.
yeah its the hydroelectric capacity that represents the largest amount of ‘renewables’. Yet, all hydro capacity has been tapped.
