Technology that holds the key to world’s demand for power

Steep oil prices have fuelled rising interest in alternative sources of energy. Investors willing to accept high risks may consider following the founder of one of Britain’s biggest firms of independent financial advisers into a tiny energy company. Peter Hargreaves explains why he has put some of his own fortune at stake

The world found a very convenient source of energy in fossil fuels and has been too lazy to look seriously elsewhere. Anyone today who envisages a world without transport, heat and electricity needs to know just one fact.

According to BP Solar: “If all the sunlight hitting the earth’s surface in one hour was harnessed and converted into electrical power, it would be enough to fulfil mankind’s energy needs for a complete year.”

The problem with vegetation is that it takes millions of years to convert agricultural material into the fossil fuels on which we have become reliant. It is amazing that intelligent people believe we can fulfil our energy requirement by growing agricultural products today and using them as a source of power – biofuels are a complete non-starter.

Indeed, if you planted every piece of agricultural land in the entire world it wouldn’t start to provide for our energy requirements. Biofuels are also certainly not the answer to reducing carbon emissions – they produce the same amount of hydrocarbon as fossil fuels.

Telegraph