Constantly increasing energy needs, combined with the rising price of petroleum and the coming exhaustion of fossil sources and environmental problems, are leading to the following consequences: the need to increase traditional reserves and the growing interest of governments and businesses in renewable energy sources.
How and why to invest in traditional energy sources
As regards traditional types of energy, it will only be possible to increase reserves, and thus, the recovery factor, through a better dimensioning of plants, the optimization of prospecting methods and extraction techniques, in addition to new discoveries. For this reason, Euramerica Energy considers the current trend, also taking diversification and the growth of demand from large emerging countries, could significantly favor new investments in prospecting and extraction and, in this direction, we are implementing our own strategies through the identification of projects of certain interest.
How and why to invest in renewable energy sources
On the other hand, greater sensitivity to the environment and the current political direction at the national and international level on the subject of energy and the ecology, coincide in indicating noteworthy development opportunities in the renewable energy sector.
Euramerica Energy, thus, believes that the sector of investments in small plants for generating electricity from renewable sources and connected services will acquire a new strategic role in the light of the new environmental and social awareness, reconciling respect for nature with business.
For this reason, one of Euramerica Energy's principal objectives is to become a primary operator in the production of renewable energy, investing important resources to conquer large market share through the construction of small plants for producing electricity.
Euramerica Energy's real strength is its ability to identify and exploit the “marginal” energy sources offered by various areas in the most rational way, from both the point of view of the conformation and type of the relative physical phenomena (presence of water, incidence of wind, solar radiation, etc.) and that of already existing products (electric plants).
In particular, the development program requires the construction of new plants, the purchase of already existing plants and commercial activities to identify suitable new sites or to sign agreements with the operators of integrated water services.
In particular, we are referring to the production of hydroelectricity from renewable sources through the construction of micro-hydroelectric plants, with power ranging from a few score kW up to several hundreds of kW.
Investments in alternative energy: the real energy revolution
The current energy crisis is characterized by two dramatic aspects: the first has to do with the increasing unsustainability of the cost of fossil energy sources, both in terms of net price and political dependence; the second is the environmental unsustainability of recourse to fossil energy sources. Excluding nuclear, which (despite the progress made in plant safety) still has the problem of storing the waste, the search for alternative energy sources is oriented toward renewable sources. Some technologies in this sector are absolutely mature: today, this source allows producing energy at lower costs than nuclear and is supplementing hydroelectric and geothermal, which are already being widely used in Italy. Solar heat is surely the next candidate for mass use: in Austria and Greece, there are more than 250 m² of solar heat collector per 1,000 inhabitants, while in Italy, we are still at only 8 m² (Israel and Cyprus have more than 500 m² per 1,000 inhabitants).
After starting as trench warfare and, then, a niche for green militants, ecology is now becoming trendy, even with the risk of being more fashion than real awareness.
Fortunately, while public and political opinion seems to be “talking the talk without walking the walk,” the market could be on the verge of a real energy revolution.
The Renewables 2005 report: the new energy sources are really economical
According to the Renewables 2005: Global Status Report, the most complete overview of Investments in alternative energy: the real energy revolution
The current energy crisis is characterized by two dramatic aspects: the first has to do with the increasing unsustainability of the cost of fossil energy sources, both in terms of net price and political dependence; the second is the environmental unsustainability of recourse to fossil energy sources. Excluding nuclear, which (despite the progress made in plant safety) still has the problem of storing the waste, the search for alternative energy sources is oriented toward renewable sources. Some technologies in this sector are absolutely mature: today, this source allows producing energy at lower costs than nuclear and is supplementing hydroelectric and geothermal, which are already being widely used in Italy. Solar heat is surely the next candidate for mass use: in Austria and Greece, there are more than 250 m² of solar heat collector per 1,000 inhabitants, while in Italy, we are still at only 8 m² (Israel and Cyprus have more than 500 m² per 1,000 inhabitants).
After starting as trench warfare and, then, a niche for green militants, ecology is now becoming trendy, even with the risk of being more fashion than real awareness.
Fortunately, while public and political opinion seems to be “talking the talk without walking the walk,” the market could be on the verge of a real energy revolution.renewable energy production in the world, prepared by the WorldWatch Institute of Washington, some one hundred researchers have focused on the situation with surprising results. The fastest growing energy technology in the world is photovoltaic (solar): photovoltaic electricity grew 60% a year from 2000 to 2004. Wind energy is second, growing 28% from last year.
That this is good for the climate is nothing new: renewable energy sources are the only practical way to avoid the climatic earthquakes and pollution caused by fossil fuels. The real news is the great success of renewable energies in the market: they are a growing sector that attracts considerable investment. Photovoltaic panels, wind plants, biomass and bio-fuel plants are good investments for the future of the planet, and not only ecologically, but also in a strictly economic sense.
In 2004, total investments in renewable energy reached 30 billion Dollars, a record (with companies of the caliber of Siemens, General Electric and Sharp). This means that the market's attitude has changed and that it is generally more favorable than in the past. Just look at the history of research into alternatives to petroleum: the United States has been working on it since the 1950s, but then the Detroit automobile manufacturers vetoed it. Besides, back then gasoline cost 30 cents a gallon, while, today, it has reached 3 Dollars a gallon and the situation is radically different for the automakers as well. Many are already investing in the Midwest, the US's granary for the production of corn for making ethanol, a possible replacement for gasoline, which already replaced 3 million gallons of gasoline in 2004.
Local policies for renewable energy
The Renewables 2005 report provides detailed information about the health of local policies. Forty-eight countries provide incentives for renewable energy. There are at least 20 governments that impose a quota for bio-fuels in gasoline. The state-of-the-art countries in the sector are Brazil (for bio-fuels), China (for solar hot water), Germany (for solar electricity) and Spain (for wind energy). And despite the dithering over the Kyoto Protocol, something is moving in the United States. In California, a great popular movement, the Vote Solar Initiative, resulted in the passage of the Million Solar Roofs bill. The objective is to install 3,000 MW of photovoltaic plants that will produce the equivalent electricity of 60 traditional thermoelectric plants, by 2018. The law requires builders to construct polarized homes: within 13 years, half of all new homes must have a photovoltaic roof.
