A 3rd industrial revolution or just another ugly windmill?

Jeremy Rifkin was the keynote speaker at the Rotterdam Global Urban Summit. It was a great conference, with many interesting people, and debates focusing on climate change and implications for cities.
http://www.urbansummit.rotterdam.nl/en/Rifkin sketched a very grim picture of the situation of our planet. The temperature will rise, with disastrous consequences. Fossile fuels are almost depleted (while our entire economy is still largely built on oil), and the US is broke. But there is hope: if we change our bad habits and transform our energy system towards more renewable energies, something beautiful may happen: a twin revolution of energy and communication (the web 2.0 revolution), and history has shown that these moments are turning points in history. Rifkin's main point is that we must change from centralised energy production to a decentral, linked approach, where each house, factory or anything else generates energy from renewable sources (sun, wind, and anything else as long as its durable), and shares it in an "intelligent grid'".
Great ideas, though not very new. And his plea against centralised energy production somewhat contadicted with the view of star-architect Winnie Maas, who complained about the 'new ugliness' of windmills and solar panels on every corner of the street. Is it really so bad to put windmills far away at see, out of sight, Mr Rifkin? I guess not. He takes the analogy with the Internet too far.For me the conference raised a lot a issues for further debate:-what's the use of setting long-term targets (like 20% reduction of CO2 in 2030) when all current politicians and corporate decisionmakers be way retired by then? Lets stick to short-term goals and hold the bosses accountable!-Where to put the tax money for promoting durable energy and reduce energy consumption? In more R&D, or in mass-rollout of current energy saving technologies or renewables? Prof. Kornelis Blok (Utrecht University) showed how fast energy-saving technologies improve, and how prices come down rapidly as well.-How to design regulation that enhances an energy transition, and get away from the subsidy-driven approach that produces many nice pilot projects but few big resultsCities are key pollutors but also the cradle of new solutions. Therefore it's a challenge to create places for experimentation, mixing bright young people, big business, developers, engineers, economists,planners and lawyers to think really hard about solutions and make them reality. The Rotterdam climate lab will hopefully do this, inspired by Melbourne's example of an eco innovation lab...
http://www.ecoinnovationlab.com/