Energy for the Future

Powerhouse: With a capacity of 22.5 megawatts, the Three Gorges Dam in China is currently the most powerful power plant in the world. © shutterstock/isabel kendzior

Does that seem far removed from today? Actually, the situation is not that different from what we have been doing since the dawn of the industrial age. We continue to increase the availability of energy: With the rise of the steam engine, coal consumption rose from 10 million tons a year in 1800 to about 800 million tons a century later. About 21 trillion kilowatt hours of electricity are consumed annually around the world. Our hunger for energy seems insatiable. Whenever we have more energy, we develop new technologies that consume more of it – interestingly, even in the sectors that were important over the course of our history. Heating and cooling account for about half of the world’s energy consumption. Transportation is next with about one-third. And then there is the fact that developing countries are continually raising their standard of living – leading to a growing demand for energy.

Now it could be argued that the ability to innovate has consistently made more energy available. Take steam engines, oil exploration and the invention of the battery, for instance – the possibilities multiply with each new technical idea for using or storing energy more efficiently. We can be sure that human ingenuity will continue as a source of new supplies. And yet, we know that we are at a crossroads. We have reached a hard limit with today’s fossil fuels, and it is similar to the one that humanity reached when it relied on wood. There is a need for new forms of energy, new ideas and new approaches to efficiency. In this connection, the word “new” is misleading. As is so often the case with innovations, many of the answers and solutions have long been on the table – in coming years, it will be a matter of implementing and scaling them to size. So, this is the “energy of the future.”