Nanotechnology is key to solving the world's energy crisis, according to inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with ZDNet Asia's sister site Silicon.com, Kurzweil said nanotech will enable global energy needs to be completely met by renewable sources such as solar as soon as 2028, doing away with the world's dependency on fossil fuels.
"We're applying nanotechnology to solar panels and coming up with a new generation of solar panels that are much more efficient," he said.
Nanotechnology--or the business of "applying information processes to create intricate new devices at the molecular level"--is an information technology and, when used to improve solar panel technology, will help produce an accelerating rate of return over the next two decades, according to Kurzweil.
"The cost of solar energy is coming down dramatically and the amount of solar energy we're producing is on an exponential--in fact, it's been doubling every two years and has been doing so for the last 20 years…
"Solar is only eight doublings away from being 100 percent of the world's energy needs. And it's doubling every two years--so that's 16 years for it meeting 100 percent of our energy needs," he said.
Another "exciting development" involving nanotech is around energy storage, which Kurzweil says is necessary for boosting the output of solar energy because of its intermittency.
"That's another exciting development and an industry that will be transformed over the next one or two decades due to [nanotechnology]," he predicted.
"The crossover of the tipping point where solar energy will be less expensive than fossil fuels in almost every situation is within five years," he added.
And while Kurzweil believes global warming is caused by humans, the futurist also expects that humans have the key to solving the problems it presents.
"Part of it appears to be caused by humans but we're going to be able--I believe we will in 20 years--to completely replace fossil fuels with renewable energy. Solar can do it by itself--there are other promising ideas like geothermal and I believe that will happen because of...exponential growth in nanotechnology," he said.
Kurzweil added: "We have 10,000 times more sunlight than we need--we only need to capture one 10,000th of the sunlight that falls on the earth--we don't have to do it very efficiently but we do need to do it inexpensively but the cost is coming down."
Natasha Lomas of Silicon.com reported from London.
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