Scientists Urge EU Member States Towards Major Solar Committment - AFP

[hatrack]

The European Union and its member states are being urged by leading scientists to make a major multi million Euro commitment to solar driven production of environmentally clean electricity, hydrogen and other fuels, as the only sustainable long-term solution for global energy needs. The most promising routes to eventual full-scale commercial solar energy conversion directly into fuels were identified at a recent international meeting in Regensburg, sponsored by the European Science Foundation (ESF). An interdisplinary task force was established at this meeting to make the case for substantial investments in these technologies to EU and national government decision makers.

The fundamental issue is that total annual global energy consumption is set to at least double from its current level of 14 TW by 2050, while fossil fuels will start to run out. The use of fossil fuels also produces unacceptable levels of carbon dioxide, causing global warming and has disastrous effects in many areas, such as food production.

Apart from solar energy, the shortfall can only be made up by renewable sources such as wind, along with the other non-fossil, non-renewable fuel source of energy, nuclear. But these will be unable to satisfy the predicted increased energy needs and certainly will not be able to replace fossil fuels entirely, even for electricity production alone.

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The European research programme will therefore seek to develop systems for converting solar energy directly into such chemicals with much greater efficiency, offering the prospect not just of producing unlimited energy, but also fixing atmospheric carbon dioxide to bring concentrations back down to pre-industrial levels as part of the overall thrust for clean renewable energy. There are considerable challenges, with the first being to mimick the functioning of natural photosynthetic systems, particularly photosystem II, the enzyme complex in the leaves of plants that splits water into hydrogen and water via a catalyst comprising four manganese atoms along with some calcium.

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http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Europe_Sets_Up_Task_Force_for_Solar_Energy.html

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Intriguing

[phantom power]

2. global energy use will not double by 2050.

The energy sources aren't there to do it with. We're going to spend the next 45 years desperately trying to move "sideways," maintaining our current usage, while transitioning to non-fossil sources. Maybe someday after the Big Transition, global energy usage will start doubling again.

Unless we end up using coal, god help us.