“We Need Renewables,” Says World Energy Council Chair
Readers here on CleanTechnica know very well that renewable energy is now mainstream, and that solar and wind power are now even cheaper than other options in many if not most regions of the world. Still, big energy agencies are slow to evolve, and are heavily influenced by some of the richest and most powerful companies in the world (fossil fuel companies).
So, when I interviewed the Chair (first Chairwoman, to be particular) of the World Energy Council in Abu Dhabi in January, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Of course, being part of the World Future Energy Summit and Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, and with Marie-José Nadeau being on the board of the Zayed Future Energy Prize Selection Committee, there was a clear backdrop in place. Here’s the 3-minute clip I recorded:
The money quote was clearly, “If we want to have a cleaner planet, if we want to have a safer planet, we need renewables.”
However, Nadeau also hinted a (somewhat shameful?) admission that “as long as we can see, and we’ve made scenarios to the 2050 horizon, we see fossil fuels taking an important part of the energy mix,” and just says that renewables are “part of our energy future.”
She also called renewables “only a complementary source to another source of energy, which in most cases is based on fossil fuels.”
Not the most aggressive statements about renewables… but there’s still the admission that we need renewables if we want a safer and cleaner planet. But that’s been clear for a long time, no? It would have been more interesting and exciting to hear about record-low solar prices, wind at 3 cents/kWh, the falling costs of renewables and their potentially disruptive nature, etc.
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