The solar-power industry needed stability to become competitive, the Vice President of Royal Dutch Shell's Hydrogen Business Jeremy Bentham said Johannesburg on Wednesday.

Jeremy Bentham told the World Petroleum Congress in Johannesburg: "The solar industry needs stable markets. With fair and good incentives we can have solar power competitive in ten year's time."

He said over the course of time different companies gave different incentives to get markets moving, and that these incentives changed, upsetting the industry.

Reasons for countries to shift to renewable sources of energy included the need to preserve energy independence as well as the increase of air pollution in cities.

Renewable energy production would be on the same level as gas production by 2030, and as oil by 2040, Bentham predicted.

"We are not constrained by capital, but by opportunities as we grow," Bentham said.

Electricity generation from wind power was reaching its target of being competitive. Turbines in the Thames estuary were providing electricity to a quarter of homes in the greater London area.

Bentham stressed that government policies would play a major role in advancing the use of renewable energy, and that fact-based and not emotion-based discussions were required around the issue.

Source: Xinhua