THE SOLAR ECONOMY Renewable Energy for a Sustainable Global Future
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THE SOLAR ECONOMY Renewable Energy for a Sustainable Global Future Hermann Scheer London • Sterling, VA First published in English by Earthscan in the UK and USA in hardback in 2002 and in paperback in 2004 Reprinted 2005 Original title: Solare Weltwirtschaft Copyright © Verlag Antje Kunstmann GmbH, München, 1999 Translated from the German by Andrew Ketley All rights reserved ISBN: 1-84407-075-1 Typesetting by MapSet Ltd, Gateshead, UK Printed and bound in the UK by Creative Print and Design Wales, Ebbw Vale Cover design by Andrew Corbett For a full list of publications please contact: Earthscan 8–12 Camden High Street, London, NW1 0JH, UK Tel: +44 (0)20 7387 8558 Fax: +44 (0)20 7387 8998 Email: [email protected] Web: www.earthscan.co.uk 22883 Quicksilver Drive, Sterling, VA 20166-2012, USA Earthscan publishes in association with WWF-UK and the International Institute for Environment and Development A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Scheer, Hermann, 1944-. [Solare Weltwirtschaft. English] The solar economy : renewable energy for a sustainable global future / Hermann Scheer. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-85383-835-7 1. Renewable energy sources. 2. Sustainable development. I. Title. TJ808 .S33 2002 333.79'4—dc21 2002006934 This book is printed on elemental-chlorine-free paper Contents List of figures and tables vii Foreword ix Acknowledgements xviii List of acronyms and abbreviations xix Scenario From fossil fuels to solar power: transforming the global economy 1 The power of the pyromaniacs 5 Fossil resource dependency: how economic processes have come adrift from their environmental and social bases 10 Global competition in place of global environmental policy 12 The origins of the fossil-fuel economy 14 Accelerating change and global displacement 15 Business unbound: cutting loose from nature and society 19 Reconnecting business and society through solar resources 21 From the political to the economic solar manifesto 25 PART I CAPTIVITY OR LIBERATION: FOSSIL FUEL AND SOLAR SUPPLY CHAINS COMPARED Chapter 1 Ensnared by fossil supply chains 37 Long supply chains due to limited resources: the logic of globalization 37 Fossil resource supply chains and industrial concentration: market destruction through market mechanisms 44 iv THE SOLAR ECONOMY The spider in the web: the growing influence of Big Energy and Big Mining 49 The convergence of power: networking, supercartels and the disempowerment of democratic institutions 56 Chapter 2 Exploiting solar resources: the new political and economic freedom 62 The solar supply chain 66 The economic logic of the solar energy supply chain 76 Solar power: technology without technocracy 82 PART II THE PATHOLOGICAL POLITICS OF FOSSIL RESOURCES Chapter 3 The 21st century writing on the wall: the political cost of fuel and resource conflict 93 A world in denial: the disregard for limited reserves 94 Dwindling reserves versus worldwide growth in demand 103 Arming for the resource conflict 105 Resource reserves, gunboat diplomacy and the moral bankruptcy of society 115 Chapter 4 The distorting effects of fossil supply chains 120 The rise and fall of the fossil city 121 The fossil resource trap closes on the developing world 128 Chapter 5 The mythology of fossil energy 137 Figures of fancy: the inadequacy of conventional energy statistics 139 The inadequacy of energy forecasts 143 The profligate subsidies for conventional energy systems 149 CONTENTS v The feigned productivity of nuclear and fossil energy 153 Ideology and the physics of energy 159 The fear of the small scale 166 PART III THROWING OFF THE FOSSIL SUPPLY CHAINS Chapter 6 Energy beyond the grid 173 Wireless power: the potential of solar stand-alone and stand-by technologies 174 The potential for natural and technological solar energy storage 182 Synergistic applications, cross-substitution and all-load micro-power plants 195 The solar technology revolution and the solar information society 201 Chapter 7 The untapped wealth of solar resources 206 The higher productivity of biological materials 209 Replacing fossil with solar resources 218 Solar materials: from agricultural monocultures to polycultures 220 The real biotechnology: materials science, not genetic engineering 225 Chapter 8 The profitability of renewable energy and resources 231 Whose costs? Why solar and fossil resources cannot be compared on the basis of economic efficiency calculations 233 Cost avoidance: economical application of solar resources in a nutshell 237 vi THE SOLAR ECONOMY PART IV TOWARDS A SOLAR ECONOMY Chapter 9 Exploiting solar energy 251 The role of capital allowances – and their problems 253 Tax-exempt status for solar resources: overcoming the legitimacy crisis of environmental taxation 256 Possibilities and problems in the market for green electricity 259 Green suppliers and municipal self-sufficiency 269 Creative destruction in the energy industry and the transformation of the resource industry 276 Hard roads to soft resources 280 Chapter 10 Regionalization of the global economy through solar resources 285 Regionalization effects through solar resources 288 ‘Own implementation’ versus ‘joint implementation’: opportunities for the developing world 292 Regionalizing trade flows 296 The sustainable economy: global technology markets, regional commodity markets 301 Trade not talk: beyond the energy industry 308 Chapter 11 The visible hand of the sun: blueprint for a solar world 312 Forwards: towards the primary economy 316 Work and the solar economy 320 From the bounty of the sun to global economic prosperity 323 References 326 Index 341 List of figures and tables Figures 2.1 Comparison of electricity generation from fossil fuels and renewables 79 2.2 Internal processing steps involved in solar and fossil fuel/nuclear electricity generation 81 3.1 Estimated duration of crude oil and natural gas reserves 105 7.1 The ‘petrochemical snake’ 212 7.2 Comparison of solar and petrochemical resources 213 7.3 The range of applications of a solar raw material 222 9.1 Energy supply structures incorporating renewable energy 274 9.2 Model for the future: municipally/regionally integrated energy supply incorporating renewable energy 275 Tables 1.1 Geographical concentration of mineral reserves 43 2.1 Characteristics of solar resources 68 2.2 Can industrial concentration and monopoly structures be avoided? 88 3.1 Mineral reserves 102 3.2 Growths rates for fossil energy use in Asia, in millions of tonnes 112 4.1 Energy imports as a percentage of export revenue, selected developing countries 134 6.1 Stand-by power consumption and equivalent PV panel area 180 6.2 Energy storage technologies 193 viii THE SOLAR ECONOMY 6.3 Energy regulation strategies in biological systems, compared with existing and potential architectural applications (selected examples) 198 7.1 Comparison of market prices for fossil and regenerable resources 214 7.2 Comparative evaluation of products manufactured from fossil and solar raw materials 216 10.1 Regional distribution of economic activity: renewable and non-renewable resources compared 290 FOREWORD Preventing climate change: beyond the Kyoto Protocol ‘LET’S IMPROVE THE atmosphere’ – that was how the German government greeted delegates to the conference on climate change held in Bonn in July 2001, the eighth such conference since 1992. Yet even before the conference took place, it was abundantly clear that even if the Kyoto Protocol were to be implemented in full through to 2012 without being watered down, the most it could achieve would be to bring emissions back down to the already dangerously high levels of 1990. On the basis of existing agreements, the objective was no longer to improve matters, but merely to prevent them getting any worse. Matters have not been improved by either the discussions in Bonn or the follow-up conference three months later in Marrakech, held to hammer out further details on how the Kyoto Protocol is to be implemented. If implementation were to proceed as planned, the result would be a paltry 2 per cent emissions reduction in those industrialized countries that have signed up. The USA, responsible for 25 per cent of global emissions, would not be taking part. Across the globe, however, total emissions would continue to rise by a further 10 per cent. The gulf between the targets that must be met and the measures that have been agreed is vast. The UN-endorsed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has stated that emissions reductions of 60 per cent by 2050 are vital if the global climate is to be stabilized. There is surely no-one who seriously imagines this can be achieved by prolonging the Kyoto process beyond 2012. The Kyoto debate would appear to have run its course. x THE SOLAR ECONOMY In reality, it is now time to open up the debate. When reporting to the public, politicians face understandable pressure to present even minimal results as a success. The truth is, however, that holding international conferences has proved to be an inadequate response to the dangers and challenges that climate change presents. Despite the general consensus that we have to stick to the path originally chosen, it is now past time we asked whether these conferences have not in fact done more harm than good. While the delegates have been debating over the past decade, emissions have been rising by an unprecedented 30 per cent. We can no longer afford to measure the success of climate change conferences in terms of agreements reached. In view of the consensus assumption that such conferences represent the international instrument par excellence for tackling climate change, it is fair to ask how much has been neglected, postponed, cut, omitted or mishandled since they began. The roll-call of failure is so long that it would be irresponsible not to look for a better way forwards. ‘Let’s improve the policy’ should be the new leitmotiv.