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Long Term Fuel Options

By: Jarod Bartch

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Over the last two years energy prices have been extremely volatile. The perception that the oil price would rise forever came to a screeching halt as the recession hit and the price of a barrel of oil dropped by over $110.

Confusing messages are coming out in regards to our gas supplies as well. The Bank of England has warned of an inflation spike caused by the high cost of fuel and yet energy companies have been slashing their prices of flat. Looking beyond the present confusion, however, what should we be expecting from our gas and electricity suppliers when bills come in ten years down the line?

Conventional wisdom suggests that there is only so much fossil fuel around and that as it runs out it will become more expensive. Flying in the face of this are recent media reports claiming that natural gas reserves may be far greater than anyone had ever anticipated. Accessing this ''shale gas'' may transform the economic world, as countries such as Poland, Sweden and Germany suddenly have access to massive resources. Fuel from these countries will be more secure and cheaper, both good news for British customers.

Despite these promising reports things have gone quiet. In a world increasingly concerned with environmental issues the methods of extracting this ''shale gas'' are not set to be popular with a heavy reliance on strong chemicals. The price of such gas, should it become available, will be lower than current fossil fuels, so it looks like a promising option.

Regardless of the price, shale gas poses another problem, it does nothing to reduce the impact of climate change. The government has set an ambitious target of reducing the UKs carbon emissions by a third by the end of the decade, this relies on investment in green fuel, unlikely if shale gas is plentiful and cheap.

This will obviously bring our fuel prices down, efficiency measures will save us on the volume of fuel that we use, and this should mean that we pay less, but there''s a cloud on the horizon.

This will only get us so far, however, and ultimately we''re going to need to become greener. The problem with green sources of energy are that they''re expensive, often prohibitively so. Wind farms cost up to a third more for a unit of electricity from a coal fired power station, and that is a double the price of natural gas. The greener our sources of energy become, then, the more expensive they will also be.

Of course, that''s a price that most people would be willing to pay for energy security and hopefully for a significant reduction in emissions, but it does mean that looking into the future energy is just going to keep becoming more expensive. The onus will be on homeowners to use as little of it as possible if they want to keep their bills down.

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

Jarod Bartch is the author of this article about energy. Visit British Gas to find out more about gas and electricity suppliers for UK residential and business customers.

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