In the next 15 to 20 years, significant parts of the world will have free electricity for a number of reasons. Firstly technology companies are developing remarkable new technologies that will produce energy in ways that have never been explored before, and at remarkably affordable prices.
This was according to Dr Graeme Codrington, futurist and founder of future trends company, Tomorrow Today, speaking at the Qlik Southern Africa Summit 2017, held in Johannesburg last week. Codrington noted one of the most significant things happening right now that a lot of South Africans are not aware of, is that we are about to enter a new age of how, and where we get energy from.
"One of the most ambitious of all energy projects is a project called International thermal nuclear experimental reactor (ITER), which consists of a massive underground chamber, which will be the first fusion device to produce net energy. For example it will produce around 500MW of energy from 50mW of energy through self-replication, in the same way as the sun does.
"Solar energy is going crazy at the moment, the prices of solar have halved in the last year and the efficiency of solar panels has doubled in the last 18 months. The size of solar panels are reducing dramatically too. We're building massive solar rays all around the world," he revealed.
Making reference to Germany, Codrington added that some European countries are leading the way in terms of moving towards a cleaner, healthier renewable energy future, as Germany is in the process of closing its nuclear and coal fire stations as it transitions into renewables.
"If you're going to get solar energy right, then you have to get batteries right too, because you have to store the energy from the sun. Elon mask is leading the way in producing remarkable batteries, the Tesla car can drive 600km on batteries that only take 15 minutes to charge! The Tesla factory will be producing the batteries we need, in order to change the world," he noted.
Some of the world's most influential people have come together to create the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, headed up by Bill Gates and others. The idea behind this coalition is to plan to find, fund and support miracle energy solutions, he continued.
"In the next decade or two, we will live in a world in which energy is no longer an issue, because the price of energy would have fallen dramatically. Not only does a world with no energy costs remove 20% of costs, a percentage which will be added to GDP, but if we solve the energy problem we no longer have a water problem. If we solve our water problems, we can also solve our food problems. We live in a world where one of the world's key constraints could be removed in the next 10 to 15 years," he pointed out.
As new technologies come up, we need to switch on our radars and start thinking about exponential change and things that would change our world substantially in the near future. It's not just technology that is changing in our world, it's everything, concluded Codrington.
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