EVERY time Resources Minister Martin Ferguson makes an announcement regarding geothermal energy he likes to quote the statistic that just 1 per cent of Australia's geothermal resources could power Australia for 26,000 years. But does he really believe it can even power Australia one time over? The pace and quantum of the government funding for geothermal suggests he is not entirely convinced. He wouldn't be the only one.
But a report in the latest issue of Scientific American by Mark Jacobsen, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University, and Mark Delucchi, a research scientist at the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, outline how wind, water (which includes geothermal) and solar technologies could power the world by 2030. No more need for fossil fuels.
According to US Energy Information Administration estimates, the current global demand for energy is 12.5 terawatts (12.5 trillion watts).
By 2030, this is expected to be 16.9TW, although efficiency measures such as switching vehicles to electric power from fuel combustion could save more than 5TW of demand.
Read article
No comments:
Post a Comment