Science for presidents

Energy Management

The new business of energy

Europe encourages innovation communities to accelerate the transfer of technology in climate and environment

The United States currently leads the investment in transforming the current energy model. But it is not the only protagonist. Europe, with the help of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, aims to encourage communities to reunite higher education and enterprises with the double objective of improving the science of climate change and get benefit in the form of innovations in the energy sector.

Xavier Pujol Gebellí | 18 March 2010

Photo: Julio Meneses

The arrival of Barack Obama as President of the United States has led to the start of what many analysts consider a "real revolution" in the world of energy. Climate change and green technologies are, as often repeated by Steven Chu, Secretary of Energy and one of the most recognized Nobel Prize in Physics in recent years, one of the biggest challenges not only to "mitigate the effects of global warming "but also" to secure the economy of the future of which it is still the leading world power.

Since taking his current position, almost two years, Chu is little lavished in public events. In one of the most recent one, on the 8^th of March at Stanford University, where he is professor emeritus of physics, the renowned scientist referred to the shift that the Obama administration is taking on climate issues. Although the United States’ involvement clearly marked distances in the approach of the Copenhagen summit, which ended in a resounding failure and no waiver on the part of this country to continue developing its own technologies and strategies to address what would be a change in the physical and biological conditions of the planet. This is what in scientific and political terms is known as double-track, which is reflected in the parallel accumulation of data on climate and energy, designing a model that preserves the power of American companies in the world. The development of clean technologies for energy production and transformation of the automotive sector have become the first two major policy planks of Chu.

Europe responds

The response of the European community, however delayed, has also arrived. It is not only the competition announced by the United States that worries, but what Chu calls a "new industrial revolution that we must provide the energy we want but in a much cleaner way", which is spreading to China and to the emerging economies of Southeast Asia. China has taken a few years building technologies for the production of wind and solar energy, albeit with low yield for now. And its southern neighbours, with Japan still ahead, are launching their first electric car prototype. Too much competition for the market to be the only star of the future energy model.

Europa acts when competitors have already begun their transformation process European plans for the moment, result in action taken by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), an institution of a new format that claims to be the continental rival of the prestigious American lMIT. Its pregnancy has been especially arduous and the birth painful because of the reluctance of the major European powers at its approach. However, some have acted swiftly to launch an unusual proposal in the territory of climate and energy: the development of so-called Knowledge and Innovation Communities, KICs, designed to unite companies and universities under a common focus. Paris leads the KIC on climate and Barcelona for innovation in energy, particularly renewable. Berlin is the main focus of the third focus of communities, for ICTs and Information Society.

The initiative, which encompasses the three communities with a score of European cities, has planned a duration of five to seven years and its horizon is located in 2020, date for which many of the Community actions are focused with an aim to lay the foundations of "the Europe of tomorrow", in the words of José Manuel Barroso, European Commission president.

Is it too late, especially if competitors have already begun their transformation process? The answer from experts is mixed. On the side of "yes" those who fear seeing the lost war are placed, especially if one takes into consideration the budgets that the United States is willing to invest to bring about the change of energy model. On the side of "no", are those who now dare to compare areas in which Europe has gained a certain advantage. For example, in fission, in which the American experiments are behind ITER, being built in Cadarache (France) or technological development in renewable energy in which countries like Finland, Germany, France and Spain have been investing for years.

IN TRANSFORMATION The current energy model, as is well known, is based on consumption of fossil fuels, especially oil. In the medium term, probably about 50 years, although there is no consensus on this, the extraction costs of oil and the gradual depletion of easily accessible pockets, will force a change of fuel. Oil is now the basis for almost 70% of energy demand, and everyone agrees on the need for a change of source. The financial crisis that has ended in a productive crisis with high percentage of destruction of jobs is being the catalyst for change.

It is in this context that analysts are already talking of a transformation process that by the hand of climate change has already begun to occur, especially in Europe. The most visible of all is that big power companies are already introducing evidence to suggest that they are not the only providers. "The average citizen is moving from consumer to provider in just ten years", recently summarized Antoni Martínez, Director of the Catalonia Institute for Energy Researc (IREC) to this medium, referring to the potential supplier of households from solar panels.

Intelligent distribution networks, new superconducting materials, nuclear depth review of the concept, electric cars equipped with new batteries, recharge points to replace the traditional gas stations, and a host of new applications with electricity in the background and new sources of supply, set the future agenda. They mark the new business of energy.

Subjects of the article

Comments

Name: e-mail Comment:

1 comment

taih 19/03/2010
Hola, s'agraeix l'ús de la vinyeta, tot i que probablement el peu no sigui exacte. la foto estrictament parlant no és meva, sinó el resultat. podeu acreditar el treball si voleu com una vinyeta de taih (http://www.facebook.com/lasvinetasdetaih). rebeu una ben cordial salutació

<< 1 >>