Renewable energy make up just 2 % of global energy market

Renewable, environmentally friendly sources of energy make up just 2 % of the global energy market but are growing and production will equal that of oil and natural gas by 2040, the World Petroleum Congress was told.
"The oil industry may be seriously underestimating the potential of renewable energy to be a large part of the energy market in the years to come. And it does so at its own peril," said Christopher Flavin, the president of the Worldwatch Institute.
"It seems there is a concept that real energy men don't do renewables," said Flavin. "But that is changing." Flavin said $ 24 bn (EUR 19.94 bn) was being invested in the industry this year, the largest part by major corporations that do see the potential.

Jeremy Bentham, vice president of Shell's hydrogen business, told the congress that the production of renewable sources of energy would equal that of natural gas in 25 years and that of petroleum by 2040. Renewable sources of energy include wind, solar power, biomass, geothermal,hydro-electric, hydrogen and energy from ocean resources.
Flavin said oil accounts for about 30 % of the global energy market now, while renewables make up just 2 %. But he said wind power was growing at an average rate of 30 % a year, solar power at 23 % a year while the growth in fossil fuels was about 2 % a year.

Norway gets 45 % of its total energy requirement from renewable sources and Sweden 25 %. Flavin said that increasingly countries are creating economic incentives for the use of renewable energy sources and that the incentives are reducing the cost at the same time that the prices of oil and natural gas were soaring.
Bentham said the desire for some energy independence and the need to reduce air pollution in cities were major factors in the drive to increase the use of renewable energy.

Europe must import 50 % of it oil today and that will increase to 85 % by 2030, said Bentham. He said the forecasts call for the United States to import 20 % of its natural gas in the future when todayit doesn't have to import any.
"With fair and good incentives we can have solar power competitive in 10 years time," said Bentham.

John Gass, president of Chevron Global Gas, told the congress that while oil would remain the dominant energy source in the short term, the role of natural gas was growing rapidly worldwide.
"Natural gas has very much come of age. In the past 20 years, demand for natural gas has increased 70 %," said Gass.

George Verberg, president of the International Gas Union, said that the cost of liquefied natural gas or LNG was coming down and that it would change the nature of the market for the commodity from a regional one to a global one.