What Future for the Renewable Energy

In 1973, after the Kippur war, a considerable increase of the petroleum price occurred, because, Arabian countries decided to reduce the extraction and export of this raw material. It was the first time that petroleum price was imposed not by the market but as a consequence of a political unilateral decision. The governments of the occidental countries reacted to this situation by promoting researches on the use of coal as a possible substitute of petroleum. In Italy, for example, a national “Energy” project based on the use of coal had been launched and funded covering a period of about 10 years. Although, after some years the situation turned to the normality and the price of petroleum was consistently lowered rendering not convenient the use of coal, thanks to the performed studies, the scientists have learned to obtain from coal all the necessary components to satisfy the energetic needs. Coal was chosen as a possible alternative for the abundance of this raw material and, because, at that time the consume of petroleum was relatively limited and the environmental problems, deriving from a majestic use of petroleum, were not so important as today. In the last century, the petroleum consumption increased exponentially and the growing economy of the countries under development greatly contributed and still contributes to this increment. Gradually, the anxiety for the depletion of petroleum as raw material, which remedy could be clearly the use of coal, was substituted by the anxiety for the sustainability of the consequences of a continuous increase of the petroleum consumption on both the environment and the quality of the life. Under this aspect, coal is worse than petroleum and cannot be considered as a possible substitute.