Renewable energy capacity increasing

Faster than fossil fuels

Jon Boyd, Jul 20, 10.

For the second consecutive year, growth in new electric capacity generated from renewables is greater than the growth in new capacity generated from fossil fuels and nuclear plants, says eurekalert.org, commenting on two reports issued last week. The article claims that 60 percent of Europe’s new capacity was generated from renewables in 2009, with more than 50 percent generated from renewables in the U.S.

The Renewables 2010 Global Status Report (executive summary, pdf), says:

Many of the trends reflect the increasing significance of renewable energy relative to conventional energy sources (including coal, gas, oil, and nuclear). By 2010, renewable energy had reached a clear tipping point in the context of global energy supply. Renewables comprised fully one quarter of global power capacity from all sources and delivered 18 percent of global electricity supply in 2009. In a number of countries, renewables represent a rapidly growing share of total energy supply—including heat and transport. The share of households worldwide employing solar hot water heating continues to increase and is now estimated at 70 million households. And investment in new renewable power capacity in both 2008 and 2009 represented over half of total global investment in new power generation.

Trends reflect strong growth and investment across all market sectors—power generation, heating and cooling, and transport fuels. Grid-connected solar PV has grown by an average of 60 percent every year for the past decade, increasing 100-fold since 2000. During the past five years from 2005 to 2009, consistent high growth year-after-year marked virtually every other renewable technology. During those five years, wind power capacity grew an average of 27 percent annually, solar hot water by 19 percent annually, and ethanol production by 20 percent annually. Biomass and geothermal for power and heat also grew strongly.

Much more active policy development during the past several years culminated in a significant policy milestone in early 2010—more than 100 countries had enacted some type of policy target and/or promotion policy related to renewable energy, up from 55 countries in early 2005. Many new targets enacted in the past three years call for shares of energy or electricity from renewables in the 15–25 percent range by 2020. Most countries have adopted more than one promotion policy, and there is a huge diversity of policies in place at national, state/provincial, and local levels.

Many recent trends also reflect the increasing significance of developing countries in advancing renewable energy. Collectively, developing countries have more than half of global renewable power capacity. China now leads in several indicators of market growth. India is fifth worldwide in total existing wind power capacity and is rapidly expanding many forms of rural renewables such as biogas and solar PV. Brazil produces virtually all of the world’s sugar-derived ethanol and has been adding new biomass and wind power plants. Many renewables markets are growing at rapid rates in countries such as Argentina, Costa Rica, Egypt, Indonesia, Kenya, Tanzania, Thailand, Tunisia, and Uruguay, to name a few. Developing countries now make up over half of all countries with policy targets (45 out of 85 countries) and also make up half of all countries with some type of renewable energy promotion policy (42 out of 83 countries).

(Photo credit: GWEC)