We need enormous amounts of energy to power our civilization. In the Netherlands, the average is around 6666 Watt per person. If we had to produce that power through human labour we would all have 200 “energy slaves”.

We should all be very happy with the services which those obedient energy slaves provide (and it is certainly more moral than real slaves) but “feeding” them energy is a challenge: each of us has a lot of “hungry mouths” to feed.

We need a source of energy that is abundant, safe and cheap. Biofuels are problematic because they reduce our food supply. Fossil fuels are running out and getting more expensive. Nuclear fission is dangerous and too expensive. So what do we do?

The answer is really as simple as you might think: we should tap the power of the sun more directly (instead of after nature has done all the hard work). The sun provides us with 10.000x the energy we need.

A supergrid (based mainly on wind power) could provide us with 10x the power we need and for competitive prices with current technology at current prices. Solar panels and mirrors dwarf the potential of wind. Although they are expensive now, they will probably be the cheapest energy source in the long run, because of what we call the KITE- effect: Knowledge Intensity Triggers Exponentiality.

Soon people will start putting solar panels on their roofs, even without subsidy. They will become energy producers! We made a simple simulation model to explain this phenomenon because we found that the big energy forecasters like the IEA and EAI are “missing it”.

Electric vehicles are another killer application that people will buy in droves. Not because it’s good for the environment but because they are cheaper, faster and more luxurious at the same time.

As with Internet and most changes that rely on the adoption of superior technology, we believe that the cleantech revolution is best understood and modelled as a system in which new technologies are creating positive feedback loops that will quickly take the system (in casu the energy system) to a new state. That means that a 5.000 BILLION euro industry will experience the same sort of speedy and disruptive change that the communications industry experienced after the PC kickstarted the adoption of the Internet.

One of the fascinating aspects of this development is that (like Internet) this will be a “bottom up” and “power to the people” kind of change. Consumers will become producers. The old centralized, monolithic “fossil” technology will be replaced with an decentralized “everybody can play” type of environment. Many different service providers will mesh into a robust world wide web of energy.

As “cleantech evangelists” we would love to share how you can predict, produce and profit from this disruptive change in earth’s biggest industry.

Let’s start a revolution together!