Europe and the United States Re-emphasizing the Development of Alternative Oil Energy Sources

On February 16th, Austria's "News" published a headline article on its front page entitled "The flight from oil has begun", stating that developed countries in Europe and the United States are paying renewed attention to the development of alternative energy sources to oil, but they need to formulate a convincing action plan to avoid the dangers of oil. The unfulfilled efforts once again came to nothing.

The article pointed out that the Iranian nuclear crisis and the resulting rise in international crude oil prices (excluding inflation factors have reached the level of the oil crisis in the late 1970s), as well as the recent Russian-Ukrainian natural gas dispute, these factors have triggered concerns in developed countries in Europe and the United States about "eliminating Oil" wave of political discussion. Especially in Europe, which relies heavily on oil and natural gas imports, energy has once again become the focus of the political agenda.

In many European countries, nuclear energy, which once fell out of favor, has been given a new lease of life: the Netherlands' Ministry of Economic Affairs has announced that it will build three new nuclear power plants within a few years. Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, and France have similar plans, and nuclear facilities in Finland and Romania are under construction. The UK has shut down 22 nuclear reactors in the past few years, but Prime Minister Tony Blair now believes that new nuclear power plants may be "necessary".

Sweden passed a referendum in 1980 to suspend the use of all nuclear power plants until 2010, but now 63% of the people support the development of nuclear energy. Although the Swedish government's official position insists on withdrawing from nuclear energy, it still invests large sums of money in modernizing existing nuclear facilities. Germany has decided to stop using nuclear energy by 2021, but the Russian-Ukrainian natural gas crisis has once again sparked controversy, with some politicians demanding an extension of the use period of nuclear energy. Austria insists on rejecting nuclear energy.

The European Commission believes that the use of nuclear power will not achieve a lasting renaissance, but other alternative energy sources have great potential and are encouraged, such as biomass energy, wind energy, solar energy, etc. Among them, the European solar energy industry has almost the largest production capacity, related Stocks appreciate significantly. Biofuels will play a larger role, although at most they will only meet 20% of fuel needs.

Although the United States is far less dependent on Middle East oil than Europe, accounting for only 20% of total U.S. oil demand, President Bush said in his speech to the nation that the United States will spend billions of dollars to develop biogasoline to reduce its dependence on the Middle East. dependence on oil. In an effort to reduce oil imports from the region by three-quarters over the next 20 years, the United States will invest in 900 biogasoline facilities.

When commenting on the article, it was pointed out that the Iranian president used oil as a threat, and Russia made Europe understand how fragile its natural gas pipelines are, but the resulting discussion about alternative energy is not new, but a replica of history. The two oil crises in the 1970s made Western countries even more panicked than they are now. Soon, energy-saving technology developed rapidly, and the whole world was looking for alternatives to "black gold." Later, as oil prices fell, the pressure to find new energy sources was lifted, thus laying hidden dangers for the recurrence of energy crises.

In the face of oil resources that will eventually be exhausted, especially since most of these resources are in crisis areas of world politics, industrial countries should not repeat the mistakes of the past. Political slogans should be turned into practical actions, while avoiding policy tilts from being abused by a few people. According to predictions from Germany's Adenauer Foundation, Europe will rely on imports for 90% of its oil and 70% of its natural gas by 2020, so Europe cannot afford policy mistakes.

The article believes that Western developed countries are seeking alternatives to oil, but they still lack corresponding convincing solutions. Whether in Europe or the United States, single measures such as building a few nuclear power plants and biogasoline plants are not enough. Once oil prices fall, these facilities will be left out. The real energy threat is right in front of us, but Europe does not have a truly convincing and unified response plan. This will leave a recipe for a repeat of the same mistakes in 10 or 20 years.

According to a relevant report in "News", oil, coal and natural gas as traditional energy sources currently account for 80.3% of global energy demand. As alternative resources to oil, nuclear energy accounts for only 6.4% and renewable energy 13.3%. Biomass energy is the most important among renewable energy sources, including wood, biogas and biogasoline. The proportion of hydropower utilization is only 2%, and it has reached the limit of development in some countries such as Austria. Solar energy and wind energy have become rapidly developing fields. Under Austria's initiative, the EU strives to increase the proportion of biomass energy from the current 4% to 9% by 2010. The biggest weakness of these new energy sources is their high cost, so they still depend on the emergence of superior technologies.