Yesterday, within the framework of the Russian Energy Week, the second day of the VI Global Energy Prize Summit was held. The event gathered experts from four countries, including Russia, for a polemic discussion on Three E (Economics, Ecology, Energy) Synthesis Formation as a health factor of the Earth: The Hydrocarbon Époque – Opportunities for New Technology Development.
Cardinal changes in the world energy system require new technologies for the extraction, processing and storage of energy resources, while changing the philosophy of their consumption. The development of such technologies is not only the solution of environmental problems, but also new incentives for the global economy, the experts of the Global Energy Prize Summit believe. In particular, Adnan Amin (UAE), the member of the Global Energy Prize International Award Committee, the IRENA Director General, is convinced that the transition to renewable energy sources is becoming more and more economically reasonable, and in the next decade, the costs of generating solar energy can be reduced by 60 %, and wind energy by 35%. Last year, global investments in renewable energy reached almost 265 billion US dollars, while renewable power generation capacity increased by a record 161 GW. Further decarbonisation will lead to great economic benefits, the expert signs: «We estimate that the net additional investment needed to undertake the transition would amount to USD 29 trillion over the period 2015-2050. This will fuel economic growth and create new employment opportunities, in our view boosting global GDP by 0.8% in 2050. In our view, renewable energy jobs would be around 26 million by the middle of the 21st century».
In turn, the laureate of the Global Energy Prize 2007, Professor Thorsteinn Ingi Sigfusson (Iceland), Director General of the Innovation Center of Iceland mentioned that the development of new technologies is dictated by the desire to reduce greenhouse emissions into the atmosphere. The scientist spoke about the innovations applied in his country to reduce the burden on the environment. For example, a new method of fishing, where instead of nylon nets light-rays are used, which allow ships to significantly reduce the consumption of diesel fuel, and, therefore, to reduce harmful emissions into the atmosphere. The second decision, which the scientist spoke about, concerns the use of heat pumps for heating the Arctic islands with the help of a warm sea current.
The laureate of the Global Energy Prize 2012, academician Boris Katorgin (Russia), Director of the Research Center “Energy Physics Systems” under the MAI, told about promising technologies, in particular, about the work on the development of space energy and ways of its wireless transmission to earth. The expert emphasized that scientific research is extremely necessary, because there are not enough breakthrough ideas in the traditional power engineering, and increasing the efficiency of solar cells in these realities is a big task. «It is necessary to create new layered sandwiches that absorb the entire spectrum of the solar light. Modernization of photocell materials is the main direction for the development of solar energy», summarized Boris Katorgin.
The importance of the consistent approach and the introduction of technological innovations in basic energy was underlined by the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Global Energy Association Alexander Shokhin (Russia), President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. “In our country, the mining sector lags behind innovatively from the processing sector. I think that the introduction of new technologies in the exploration and extraction of traditional raw materials, which happens with the help of foreign investors, is a good sign. Progressive development of all types of energy – what we need, this is a system approach. Only in this case we will be ready for any drastic change in the fuel and energy balance”, stressed Alexander Shokhin.
Expanding the idea of a comprehensive approach, the expert of the Global Energy Prize, KEGOC Board of Directors member Dominique Fache (France), touched upon the issue of information technology in the energy sector, namely information security. “Nobody ever talks about this, but often large companies suffer losses precisely because they neglect the protection of their databases”, he said. At the same time, despite the fact that the Russian information security market is poorly developed, in comparison with Western competitors there are already quite developed organizations that are ready to provide comprehensive information protection. The main difficulty lies in the limited financial resources: the introduction of new technologies in the field of information security is difficult to justify. Nevertheless, the realities of today require considering this moment, the expert is convinced.
Recall that the Global Energy Prize Summit is held annually since 2012 to discuss the acute problems of the energy industry, working out precise mechanisms and ways of their solutions and their communication to the public, as well as leading energy organizations of the planet. In 2017, the year of the 15th anniversary of the Global Energy Prize, the summit was held in a new format: the first day in Lyon (France) at the HQ of Euronews, the second day in Moscow (Russia) at the venue of the “Russian Energy Week”.
