Renewable energy will displace oil and gas: Futurist – Alberta Daily Herald Tribune

The world is moving away from fossil fuels towards renewable energies, and Alberta risks being left behind, says futurist Nikolas Badminton, whose presentation kicks off the Growing the North conference at the Entrec Centre on Wednesday.

Badminton is a Vancouver-based futurist, someone who makes predictions about how technology will shape the future. He says a big shift to renewable energy over the next 10 to 15 years will make fossil fuels far less important, adding Alberta needs an entrepreneurial ethos to adapt to the change.

Albertas sort of lagging behind in this vision of renewables, and I think in a province where youve got over 300 days of sunshine per year, were sort of missing an opportunity for creating an abundance of energy, Badminton said in an interview.

He points out that 51% of Albertas energy is still generated by coal and 39% by natural gas, while hydro and wind only account for 2% and 5%, respectively. In B.C., on the other hand, 90% of power is hydro-generated.

According to Badminton, the beginning of the great shift away from fossil fuels is already evident. Last year Tesla Motors announced it was planning to produce 500,000 all-electric vehicles in 2018, two years ahead of schedule. And Ford announced last month it is launching a fully electric SUV by 2020, as well as 13 new electrified vehicles over the next five years including hybrid F-150s and Mustangs. By 2023, Badminton said, battery-powered cars will be the same price as combustion-engine cars.

The disruption is here.

Its happening in agriculture too, he added: John Deere has just come out with a prototype electric vehicle. I think we can see farming going all electric in the next few years. And last November Alaska Airlines flew the first commercial flight with a renewable biofuel.

Badminton says Alberta should be channelling its talent towards innovation, thinking about technology startups ... Theres such a huge branch of talent in Calgary, Edmonton and across the province that I think it could become a huge innovation centre.

In addition to shifting towards renewables, Badminton endorses the circular economy, an idea advocated by The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a think tank. The concept envisions a world without junk yards; consumer products would be designed to be disassembled, once theyre no longer wanted, so that their materials can be re-used. Things that have to be thrown away, such as packaging, would be compostable.

However, Badminton acknowledged such a massive transformation of the economy would be unlikely to happen without government intervention.

Without these incentives, without certain regulations in place to actually start to force the change, the change is slow to come.

Badmintons talk starts at 8:45 a.m.

khampson@postmedia.com

Twitter @kevinhampson