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Even Royal Dutch Shell is starting to sound the alarms about our inability to keep up with the growing demand for energy and how this is contributing to profound uncertainty around the world.

“When we have looked at the deployment of energy at a world scale, it typically takes around 30 years when something has been a success, to go from a pilot plant to being 1% of the world’s total primary energy.

His assessment will damp expectations that advanced “second generation” biofuels will soon be able to make a significant contribution to the world’s fuel supplies, even though they have received heavy research and development support from Shell and other companies, as well as from many governments.

Mitsubishi Electric, Toshiba and Showa Shell yesterday each unveiled plans to boost their solar panel production.Shigeaki Kameda, president of Showa Shell's solar subsidiary, said the company intended to become the world's largest producer of thin-film photovoltaic panels, with the business eventually rivalling its Y3,000bn ($33.6bn) oil-refining and petrol operations in scale.Mitsubishi said it hoped to produce 600 megawatts' worth of photovoltaic cells annually by the financial year to March 2012, up from 220MW.Toshiba, which makes residential solar-power systems, said it was aiming to take 10 per cent of the Japanese domestic market by the year to March 2013.