In general, across the world, shale gas is a preferred source of energy over renewables at the current time, particularly where cost is the main driver, according to Ann-Marie Carberry, director business advisory at Contax Partners.
As such, renewables companies, for example, PV panel manufacturers and others are working ferociously on driving increased efficiency within their panels and trying to lower the cost of their alternative solution.
“Year by year, we do see progress being made in this space with costs coming down and efficiency increasing. In some parts of the world however, cost may not be the only driver and incentive for using renewable energy,” said Carberry.
For example, over the last few years in Saudi Arabia, there has been some momentum gathering in the interest of renewables. Solar is starting to be considered as a strong alternative to using valuable barrels of oil for domestic power generation. In addition, there is an interest to support the development of new technologies in country, and a desire to develop local content in country in new industries such as solar and other renewables.
“At the same time, Saudi Arabia seems to be embarking on a mission to explore the country’s gas potential, which may lessen the momentum with which solar takes off in the country over the coming years,” said Carberry.
Contax Partners believes that a mixture of energy sources is critical for a sustainable way forward. As such, many countries will aim to rely on diversified energy sources.
“Of course, it is true that some sources will be more dominant than others, and thus, gas will be more dominant over renewables in most instances for as long as costs are lower, but in general, all countries will probably endeavour to use generate 5-25% of their energy from renewable sources in order to have a diversified mix of power sources,” said Carberry.
