Transition from Fossil Fuels to Alternative Energy - Alternative Fuel VS Fossil Fuels
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We have a crisis of fossil fuels, their limited supply, and growing costs and demand on hand. At this point, we need nations and institutions to come together and decide on strategies and measures to not only deal with this crisis, but also to formulate a plan to move to alternative fuels as a world together.
Both the demand side and supply side logistics need to be looked at and appropriate actions decided. In today's high-energy economies, demand side cuts are urgent. While on the supply side, we need a well-coordinated plan on a massive scale, to internationally develop and deploy alternative energy resources needed the world across.
In about thirty years, the world will need to make the shift from oil and gas to other fuel sources. In another fifty years, this transition to the chosen new fuels will have to be complete. However, there is a huge gap between that which is needed and that which is actually happening. Instead of focusing more on other fuel sources, the world's consumption of gas, oil and is growing at an alarming rate.
The signs that we might be at the brink of energy transition are very feeble at best. The close coupling of economic growth to energy and oil prices could be the driving factor behind this. While some energy experts suggest that the rising energy process hurt the economy, this is not substantiated currently by real world data. They might be proven right at some point down the road, but by that time the societies will be in an economic slump leading to job losses, with energy scarcity leading to brownout sand blackouts, increasing international conflicts on the remaining energy resources, and more such dismal news.
To prevent this from coming true, the world powers have to come together, analyze the conundrum we are in, discuss the possible solutions we can avail of, and formulate a viable plan (IETP, or The International Energy Transition Plan) for transitioning from fossil fuel based economies to other sources of energy, and they have to do it now. They have to anticipate, negotiate, agree upon, and put in place sufficient funding to support the plan. The infrastructure and technical requirements for such a program will also have to be setup and coordinated.
The energy experts tell us that such a transition will not be smooth. There will be a need to develop new technologies and the infrastructures required to support them, and this will be a huge undertaking. For instance, Germany has powered only 10 percent of the country with windmills and solar arrays, after giving rebates and tax breaks to organizations going the alternative energy way.
The IETP will have to take stock of its existing and potential energy resources. They will have to create smart goals to wean societies away from fossil energy and indoctrinate them into alternative energies. Specific targets and timeframes will have to be setup for reducing the fossil energy intake and replacing it with the chosen modes of energy. While currently there is no trace of serious planning in this direction, it has to be mobilized very soon.