Because of the sheer scale of our energy infrastructure, it takes years (and more likely decades) for even the most innovative discovery to have a meaningful impact.
Every year for decades, the planet has used more energy than the year before, spurred largely by the improving standard of living in developing areas. At the same time, the world has tried to move away from fossil fuel dependence and toward renewable sources in the worthwhile hopes of reducing environmental impact and gaining more independence from supply sources that are unreliable or unfriendly (or both). New energy supply technologies, therefore, always attract plenty of attention.
Still today, as has been the case for the past century, we are powered by fossil fuels. In fact, despite tremendous investment and favorable tax treatment for renewable and other new energy sources, the world has relied on steady increases in fossil fuel production to meet a nearly constant 80% of our energy needs.
There is no doubt that new and emerging technologies continue to transform our daily lives — usually for the better. Significant developments over the past several decades have reduced the impact of burning fossil fuels: improved means of converting wind and solar energy into electricity; increased efficiency of combustion engines and turbines; new and better batteries that can store larger quantities of electric energy; enhanced oil and natural gas drilling and recovery methods; and better environmental control equipment that keeps byproducts out of our air, soil, and water.
But none of these innovations and improvements has yet been a “game changer.” It’s a simple fact that, because of the sheer scale of the energy infrastructure needed to power our lives, it takes years (and more likely decades) for even the most innovative discovery to have a meaningful effect.
We don’t know exactly what our ingenuity will come up with next, but we can be certain that whatever it is, it will take time to be developed and deployed. Meanwhile, power producers still have a responsibility to keep up with the world’s constantly growing demand, so we can’t just sit back and wait. We need to keep utilizing our proven, reliable, and economical “traditional” energy infrastructure at the same time we work to develop the “next big thing.”
