Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Energy and
money
Which one makes the world go
round?
This chapter takes a look at how the money goes in, out and around
the energy sector. It examines the relative subsidies to fossil fuels
and renewable energy, and looks at the controversies over whether
financial speculators force up the price of oil or whether the energy
companies rip off their customers.
The money that goes in
Tourism is often claimed, at least by those inside it, to be the world's big-
gest industry. But sightseeing, almost by definition, depends on transport,
which is but a sub-sector of energy
The overall amounts of money now
going into energy are now huge. The International Energy Agency reck-
ons that cumulative investment in all kinds of energy to the tune of $26
trillion (or $26,000,000,000,000) will be needed in the period from 2007
to 2030. That estimate was based on the value of 2007 dollars, not allow-
ing for any future depreciation of the greenback. It is also based purely on
current projected needs, not allowing for any new crash climate-change
programme that may well be required over the next two decades.
Just over half (nearly $14 trillion) of this huge amount would go to the
power sector - new generation and distribution systems for electricity.
These are getting much more expensive, especially if countries want to opt
for low-carbon nuclear reactors - the cost of the new generation of French
reactor has risen to €5bn - or wish to avoid unsightly onshore windmills
by putting turbines and grid connections into the sea. Indeed, virtually all
.
