Can renewable energies alone replace oil when it starts to run out? Is nuclear power part of the answer? Can the world economy really continue to grow using the energies we have at our disposal? What do we need to do to reduce our energy consumption and achieve a sustainable society? These are just some of the issues Pedro Prieto, Vice Chairman of the Spanish Association for the Study of Energy Resources (AEREN) and member of ASPO, discusses in this exclusive interview with Renewable Energy Magazine.
AEREN is responsible for the website Crisis Energética, which has become a reference among Spanish speakers around the world for information about peak oil and the energy crisis.
"We are close to reaching peak oil – the time when oil production reaches a maximum and the point after which this fuel’s contribution to Humanity will become increasingly smaller," explains Prieto. "The issue of peak oil is so important to Humanity that it could overshadow concerns about climate change."
Prieto's work involves informing people about the pressing issue of what we will do as a race when oil runs out. He also strives to bring to our attention the fact that while renewable energies are good, they are not the definitive solution to the energy challenges we face: "I believe that we should avoid assuming too quickly and easily that renewables can replace fossil fuels as and when these resources start to decline."
"My criticism of many who defend modern renewable energies is that they almost always tend to argue in a very superficial way that as reserves decrease, renewables can replace fossil fuels in both volume and at a rate which will enable the world economy to continue to grow. However, when they put the figures on the table, they almost always do so out of context," he says, warning that: "The idea that we can replace 80% of the non-renewable energy we consume now from the lithosphere and extract it from the already abused biosphere, while continuing to increase the amount we consume, is decidedly unrealistic and even less sustainable".
Click here to read on:
