Biofuels and Concentrated Solar to Become Economically Viable

According to the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), biofuels and solar energy would soon become economically viable when compared to the traditional power sources. Analysts report that electric cars and wind power are still facing opposition with people unwilling to adopt them.

Alternative energy has found popularity among the U.S. Presidents even in 1970’s, such as implementation of solar panels on the roof of the White House, but they never gained popularity among the public. According to Balu Balagopal BCG’s senior partner, a solar revolution may very well be on its way, maybe even quicker than expected.

The report also reveals that Concentrated Solar utilizing the sun’s heat to operate a boiler for producing power had much better chances, as the solar plants could be constructed to retain heat for hours together, thus solving the problem of cloudy days or night time. Once large-scale production of biofuels made from non food materials such as switchgrass are developed, their prices would be on par with gasoline prices of $3 per gallon by 2015, due to reduction in the cost of enzymes and feedstock fuels. These calculations were based on a collection of factors, such as conclusions obtained from prior technological programs, forecasts for materials, and also investigation of future impediments against carrying out the new technological programs on a large scale.

Thus the group concluded that without developing the storage aspect of the energy generated, these land based wind and solar farms would be impractical, despite the reduction in costs of PV solar panels. The group also envisaged that the process of extricating greenhouse gases from the power plant exhaust, and keeping them secure and segregated would need a lot of time for these costly offshore wind power projects. Electric vehicles would also account for maybe 5-10% of the total sales in the market by the year 2020 due its prohibitive battery costs.

Source: http://www.bcg.com/