Professor Eric Martinot, senior director of research with the Institute for sustainable energy policies in Tokyo, told students and teachers at a seminar on April 18 that renewable energies have become "mainstream" and are "an important part of our energy system".
Martinot has just completed a two-year project entitled Global renewable energy futures report, a collection of 170 personal interviews conducted with industry executives, the CEOs of companies in renewable energy, the utility leaders, officials and researchers.
"Still we are thinking in the future of renewable energies such as 1990 or as it is the year 2000," said Martinot. "Our thinking is right behind the reality that renewable energies are today and where to go based on the trends of technology, cost and market finance."
Martinot gave an overview of various scenarios and projections of the oil industry, the International Energy Agency (IEA) and environmental groups. The data show that investment in renewable energy is a key example of the current growth and predicted path. Investment in renewable energy is predicted to double, if not 2020, then 2040.
"During the last three years, from 2010, the global investment in renewable energies exceeded investments in fossil fuels and nuclear power generation capacity. That's very striking that most of the people,"he said.
Despite this growth, Martinot said: "the existing sources of finance will not allow us to achieve high levels of renewable energy. Loans of the Bank and the financial balance of utility are the two main mechanisms of current finance and going to miss." In the future it will have to wait to see new sources of investment, pension funds, oil companies and Community funds.
Renewable energy currently supply around 20% of the world's electricity - with hydroelectric energy of about 15 percent of that and all other renewable energies (wind, solar, geothermal and biomass) that make up five per cent. Martinot sees potential in the expansion of renewables for heating and cooling in the near future.
"We have all the technologies that we need now, we don't have to wait for the high shares of heating and cooling from renewable energy technology, but this will involve huge changes in building construction, architecture and building materials, the construction industry," he explained. "It may take decades for that to change."But we can do it."
Integration of renewable energies in the network, buildings, houses and vehicles is where he sees the greatest opportunities of investment, infrastructure and research.
"Electricity grids have been operated and designed for the past 100 years on the basis of two things: first, energy storage is impossible, and number two, who has offered to meet the demand," said. Due to the variability of renewable energy, the integration and management of storage and demand are needed.
Martinot believes that we are on the way to the fight against these challenges. "We're seeing both turned them on its head because it has become a practice of energy storage and is working on a commercial basis in a number of projects." We are also seeing the so-called "demand response" where demand has really can be adjusted to meet supply, rather than the other way around. "
Utilities in Denmark and Germany, for example, are using new tools to manage the variability of wind and solar, and are able to switch to natural gas and heat when necessary.
The construction sector is another opportunity to integrate renewable energy current with the demands of the typical House of the family. Martinot described houses of the future that use solar energy for heating and water hot, electric vehicles with batteries for the home page for the power and energy storage, storage of passive heat in the construction of buildings and geothermal heat pumps to power homes.
"If you were able to standardize this type of construction in architectural practices in the world could reduce the cost and make if more common in the homes of the people", said.
Admitted Martinot is bullish on renewables and has high hopes that we can reduce carbon emissions and provide affordable energy.
His research shows that we can be optimistic about the future of renewable energy sources, such as Governments, utilities and energy companies are expanding investment, research and development across a variety of sectors-renewable energy.
