Queensland govt shifts gears, retains control and awards QML instead to its investment arm
Queensland Motorways Ltd (QML) would not go private after all as the state government had opted to allow its investment body, the Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC) to purchase the company and takeover its operations. REUTERS

Even as demand for oil is expected to surge in the next decade or so, alternative fuel sources are gaining popularity as they become more economically viable, according to a report by the Boston Consulting Group.

Concentrated solar power (CSP) and advanced biofuels are expected to be the main energy sources of the next decade, as they become more cost competitive.

There would be several structural barriers to rapid adoption - the biggest of them being the vast investments required to build the infrastructure, the report said.

By 2020, CSP could provide power at $0.10 or less per kilowatt-hour and be competitive with conventional energy sources, the report added.

Onshore wind and solar PV are the other viable options.

However, offshore wind will struggle to move beyond purely subsidy-driven growth or reach economic viability by 2020, the report stated.

Many countries are adopting measures for alternative sources of energy as natural resources become sparse or the cost of mining gets higher.

Electric cars are the new rage, with most major automakers launching new models in this genre.

The BCG report, written by Balu Balagopal and Petros Paranikas, expects electric vehicles to achieve a 5 to 10 percent share of new-vehicle sales by 2020. Though these vehicles will be attractive for lead market segments, battery costs will need to decline before it can be adopted broadly.

Even with higher adoption rates, EVs are unlikely to become a material part of the vehicle fleet in the coming decade, because fleet turnover is slow, they added.

A report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) on Tuesday stated that global energy demand will increase 36 percent by 2035, most of it driven by China.

As more people in China and other emerging nations invest in a car, the global car fleet will continue to surge, overshadowing the modest growth in the OECD, the IEA report said.

The IEA expects unconventional gas to account for 35 percent of the increase in global supply in 2035, with the use of renewable sources of energy tripling in the period.

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