Discussion in the 20th World Petroleum Congress focus on pros and cons of non-fossil fuels

A roundtable discussion on ‘Cost vs. Benefits of Non Fossil Fuels’ during the 20th World Petroleum Congress featured a panel of experts who agreed that the world is experiencing a new era of renewable energy and urged more emphasis on innovation and new technologies. “Even though fossil fuels will comprise the largest part of the world’s energy matrix for the foreseeable future, other sources of energy are gaining rapid market share and attracting very significant investments,” said moderator Ricardo Castello Branco. It was noted that non-fossil fuels like biofuels, solar, wind, biomass, tidal, wave and geothermal sources can help provide security of supply to major consuming countries, but the high cost of producing these alternative and complementary sources of energy can make them uneconomical.

Differences in opinion

Laszlo Varro, head of the Gas Coal and Power Division of the International Energy Agency (IEA) pointed out that oil prices increased five-fold, but the cost of solar panels dropped by 25%. “Fossil fuels will be the backbone of the energy industry for the next 25 years, but the cost gap between fossil fuels and non-fossil fuels is narrowing,” he said. Varro added that there is a brighter future for natural gas because it has a substantially lower carbon footprint compared to other fossil fuels. Wim Thomas, head of the Shell International (UK) Global Business energy team, focused on the long-term challenge and emphasized that out of a global population of seven billion, 1.5 billion people use 45% of the world’s energy. Wim said that non-fossil fuels meet less than 1% of global energy demand. According to Wim, it takes around 30 years to fully develop new technology, make an impact and win some market share. He used the hydrogen fuel cell vehicles as an example, which he says are an expensive proposition, and would cost much to produce on a commercial scale.
The World Petroleum Congress is held every three years and covers all aspects of the industry, including technological advances in upstream and downstream operations, the role of natural gas, alternative and renewable energy, and the management of the industry as well as the various social, economic and environmental impacts. (December 8, 2011)