ARE RENEWABLES ADEQUATE?
Rejecting the nuclear option just leaves us with wind and the other renewables. Let’s consider the size of the task we are setting them. We not only want them to make up for the declining amount of energy that oil and gas will start to deliver in around twelve years’ time but also to provide the increasing amounts of energy required to raise incomes – in other words, for economic growth if not in the wealthy countries then in the poorer parts of the world. Figure 8A5 shows the very close relationship between the annual increase in energy consumption (expressed as industrial CO2 emissions) in OECD countries and the annual increase in their incomes. Roughly 50% of all energy used around the world is invested in trying to generate economic growth and then more energy has to be spent as income on a continual basis to work the new systems. The rate at which a country’s economy can grow, if it does not use extra energy, is equal to the rate at which it can increase energy productivity and th
