Renewable energy

During the past five years two major developments coincided that changed the way people view the world around them, and the way businesses operate: the rise in energy prices and the acceptance of global climate change.

Oil prices are on the verge of hitting US$100 per barrel, a steep rise from its price in 2000 of US$11 per barrel - this rise in prices is slowly shifting consumer choices away from gas-guzzling trucks and sports utility vehicles to more efficient hybrid cars. Higher crude prices also makes the exploration and production of unconventional liquid fuels such as oil synthesised from the tar sands of Alberta, Canada, more feasible. The economic rationale for tapping unconventional fuel is clear: oil prices are high enough to support the extra costs involved in exploration and production. This appeases some of the insatiable global demand for energy, but really does not do much to alleviate people's environmental concerns and does not ameliorate global warming. Activists have long been calling for alternatives, and we are now seeing more and more renewable energy options all over the world, mostly in the form of biofuels, wind farms, and solar energy.

Among the renewable energy sources, biofuel is fast becoming the most prevalent, especially in Europe, Asia and the US. These fuels are derived from plants, a resource known as biomass.

Wood is most frequently used in industry to generate power and create heat; rapeseed is the ingredient used to develop biodiesel; and corn forms bioethanol. Certain types of grasses and coppices are being used to create biofuels, but are less pervasive than rapeseed and corn.

In the global climate change debate, much of the talk revolves around the deleterious effects of heat-trapping gasses and carbon footprints, and it is widely held that biofuels are carbon neutral. This belief is coming under increasing scrutiny because a great amount of fossil fuels are required to grow crops and process them to biofuels - energy is used to manufacture the fertiliser, power farm vehicles, and transport crops. This consumption has a marked impact on the overall greenhouse emissions savings achieved from using biofuels.

A new criticism has been levelled against biodiesel and bioethanol. Last month, Nobel Laureate Paul Crutzen published a study that looks at the release of nitrous oxide (N2O) from fuels using rapeseed and corn as feeder stock. He found that the emissions contribute as much as, or more than releases emanating from fossil fuels. Crutzen said that the advantages of reduction of carbon dioxide emissions resulting from switching to biofuels is more than offset by the increased nitrous oxide in the atmosphere - a greenhouse gas 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide as an atmospheric insulator, and a greater environmental threat.