Alternative Energy Producers Racing to Gain Market Share

By Gillentine, Amy

The solution to the current energy crisis won’t happen quickly, which could give companies focused on providing renewable alternatives to oil and natural gas time to gain a foothold.

But securing a share of the increasingly competitive energy market won’t be easy.

“Every company has its own reasons for being against the other technologies,” said Bob Duffy, chairman of the political science department at Colorado State University. “Just look at the backlash against ethanol.”

As more farmers switch to producing corn for ethanol, food prices have risen — resulting in a backlash against using corn as a biofuel.

“It’s just a response to the market,” Duffy said. “There’s a push to create an alternate to ethanol — but there are other reasons people make this claim. They want their own pet idea to move forward.”

The National Commission on Energy Policy has tried to fill the void left by Congress and the president — saying they “rejected the proposition that uncertainty justifies inaction in the face of significant risks.”

The commission advocates focusing on conservation and growing traditional global resources, while raising money to develop new sources by selling tradable permits that limit carbon dioxide emissions. It also has recommended using advanced coal technologies, next-generation nuclear technology and renewable resources to generate electricity and transportation fuel.

“Using energy more efficiently offers an economic bonanza … because saving fossil fuel is a lot cheaper than buying it,” Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute wrote in “Scientific American.”"Over the past decade, chemical manufacturer DuPont has boosted production nearly 30 percent, but cut energy use 7 percent and greenhouse gas emissions by 72 percent … saving more than $2 billion so far.”

Increasing end-use efficiency can “yield huge savings in fuel, pollution and capital costs,” he said, “because large amounts of energy are lost at every stage of the journey from production sites to delivered services.”

Lovins estimates that the United States could save $70 billion by 2025 by improving automobile efficiency and finding substitutes for oil.

“With the help of efficiency improvements, and competitive renewable energy sources, the U.S. can phase out oil use by 2050,” he said. “Profit-seeking businesses can lead the way.”

But without $4 a gallon gasoline prices, there likely wouldn’t be such an intense focus on finding an alternative to fossil fuels.

“People usually don’t notice energy policy — until they’re paying more. Then, suddenly there’s a focus on energy policy,” Duffy said. “These issues aren’t new; they’ve been around for 30 years or more.”

Credit: Amy Gillentine

(Copyright 2008 Dolan Media Newswires)

(c) 2008 Colorado Springs Business Journal, The. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.