Discussion highlights included:
- How renewable energies can become more cost competitive and provide a bigger share of the world's energy mix
- Challenges to making renewable energy more mainstream
- Proposed steps that government, industry and investors should take to make renewable energies a bigger part of the energy mix
- Individual consumers' influence on the renewable equation
Participants in this discussion saw renewable energy
technologies as an important part of the solution to the
problem of higher prices and declining availability of
fossil fuels.
The nurturing of renewable energy technologies was seen
as mainly a government responsibility and, to a lesser
extent, an industry responsibility. There were relatively few
mentions of steps that individual consumers could take.
Government subsidies were the most frequently mentioned
policy measures for promoting renewable energy, followed
by carbon taxes on fuels or cap-and-trade programs for
greenhouse gases.
Respondents often sought to broaden the discussion
beyond renewables, to include the need for other long-term
energy solutions including greater reliance on nuclear power,
conservation, energy efficiency, and lifestyle changes.