Meanwhile, in many countries new industries are emerging. Even in the US, still the renegade in international climate policies, sustainable energy business is booming.

Many sustainable energy technologies are creating their own markets. This year was a top year for announcements of new offshore wind farms. The first real offshore farms even took out to sea, to get onto the grid. While the fossil fuel world is chasing after carbon capture and storage, prospects for photovoltaics, concentrated solar power, biofuels, wave and tidal energy, energy storage, heat pumps, low-energy buildings and appliances are strong. Even the transport sector – too often a world on its own - promises to focus on energy efficiency!

For me personally, I found it encouraging that finally the grid issue too is getting attention. The current infrastructure for power, gas and heat is not very well suited for the purpose of a sustainable energy supply. It has largely been designed for large power plants, a centralised supply. But renewable energy is largely about decentralised sources, very close to the end-user. Without immediately discarting the old system, we need another infrastructure that can handle both large offshore wind farms and small PV roof systems on houses.

The year 2007 was a year of change, in many regards. Stimulated by unequivocal scientific conclusions about the climate, new policies are finally at pace with the developments in business. The next decade will be a decade of harvesting what was sown.

I wish you many merry thoughts under the Christmas tree.

Rolf de Vos
Editor in chief
GreenPrices
r.devos@greenprices.com