Shell will focus on natural gas and biofuels to meet the energy demand of the future.
“Biofuels are the only low-carbon transport fuel that can be scaled up fast enough to tackle carbon emissions from transport in the next 20 years,” Royal Dutch Shell Plc CEO Peter Voser said at the opening of the “Future Energy, Smarter Mobility” conference organised by the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute here yesterday.
Shell has finalised a joint venture with Brazil’s largest producer of ethanol to produce biofuels on a large scale.
Sugar-cane ethanol is said to produce around 70% less carbon dioxide compared with conventional fuels.
Natural gas was the other option Shell was pursuing as it could be produced more efficiently and at a lower cost.
Voser said natural gas plants produced 50% to 70% less carbon emissions than coal-fired plants and they could be built faster and more cheaply.
In the near term, Voser expected the price of energy to remain volatile as the world would face shortages for the next five to seven years.
On renewable energy, Voser said: “Our scenario planners believe by the middle of this century, about 30% of the world’s energy demand could be met from sources such as wind, solar and biomass.”
The conference was opened by Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Datuk Seri Peter Chin, who said the Sustainable Energy Development Authority (Seda) would be operational by Sept 1.
Seda is a government body responsible for implementing the feed-in tariff mechanism and the focal point of renewable energy development in the country.
