Selected for the Global Economic Symposium 2010

In principle, solar and wind are more than enough to deliver any amount of energy mankind might want to demand. However, these sources are usually best exploitable in areas that are far from demand centres: It is technologically challenging to transport electricity over large distances and even more to store it; as a consequence electricity markets have developed as regional markets. To change this, proposals have been made recently to generate electricity e.g., by large-scale solar thermal power plants in North Africa and transport it through high voltage direct current power lines to the demand centres in Europe.

Projections claim that by 2050, 700 TWh electricity per year—this matches a rough quarter of the European electricity demand in 2006—can be transmitted, raising yearly revenues of 35 bn EUR. In addition, other world regions aim for an integration of regional power grids and sources: In January 2010, several European governments littoral to the North Sea announced to connect their production of wind energy. Yet, projections show that in the midterm the future energy mix for electricity generation will still contain fossil energy and nuclear power.

The share of the fossil energy in the future energy mix strongly depends on the implementation of low-carbon technologies like carbon capture and storage (CCS) and the ability to substitute lowcarbon for high-carbon energy sources. Nuclear power will also constitute an important option due to its provision of emission free power.