Technology created an energy revolution over the past decade — just not the one we expected. By now, cars were supposed to be running on hydrogen or cheap batteries. Electricity would be generated with solar panels and wind turbines. Fossil fuels? They were going to be expensive and scarce, relics of an earlier, dirtier age.

But in the race to conquer energy technology, Old Energy is winning. Oil companies have used technology to find a bounty of oil and natural gas so large that worries about running out have melted away.

The result is an abundance that has put the U.S. on track to become the world's largest producer of oil and gas in a few years. Enormous reserves have also been found in East and West Africa, Australia, South America and the Mediterranean.

The consequences of this are enormous. A looming energy crisis has turned into a boom. These additional fossil fuels may pose a more acute threat to Earth's climate. And for renewable energy sources, the sunny forecast of the last decade has turned overcast.

The new century brought deep concerns that the world's oil reserves were beginning to run out. Energy prices rose to record highs. Climate scientists showed that reliance on fossil fuels was causing troubling changes to the environment. And as a result, Wall Street and politicians were pouring money into alternative energy companies.

But the oil and gas industry was innovating, too. New technology allowed drillers to do two crucial things: find more places where oil and gas is hidden and bring it to the surface economically. Large oil companies turned up huge discoveries offshore in ultra-deep water with the help of faster computers and better sensors. Onshore, small drillers learned how to pull oil and gas out of previously inaccessible places through new methods such as fracking.

Renewable technologies have had their successes. Solar now generates six times more electricity in the U.S. than it did a decade ago, and wind produces 18 times more. But the outlook for renewable energy is as dim as it's been in a decade.

It's certainly possible the world will change direction again in the next five years. And there are hundreds of companies working on renewable energy projects. But Mark Papa, the CEO of oil and gas company EOG Resources, said oil and gas companies will just invest in even more sophisticated technology. He estimated that current techniques pull only 6 percent of the oil trapped in shale to the surface. Learning to double that would yield yet another enormous trove. "Now we go into the next phase of technology," he said. "How are we going to get the rest of it out of the ground?"