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PARIS, France, July 12, 2006 (Refocus Weekly)
The International Energy Agency has published two
documents, a four-page promotional document ‘Renewable Energy for
Dummies’ and a 106-page synthesis ‘Renewable Energy Technology
Deployment - Barriers, Challenges & Opportunities.’
IEA’s Implementing Agreement on Renewable Energy Technology
Deployment (RETD) provides five “bad excuses for not using renewable
energy and four good reasons for action” in the first publication.
Renewables “sometimes” are too expensive compared with conventional
energy technologies, but “subsidies to conventional technologies can
give a wrong picture, and it is sometimes difficult to reflect all
the benefits of using renewable energy in the price signals.” By
making subsidies visible, internalizing external costs and benefits,
and giving more information about the real prices of the different
energy technologies, “renewable energy would have a more level
playing field in the different energy markets,” it explains in the
first section.
“Renewable energy technologies should typically be integrated into
existing energy infrastructure and in many situations it is not that
easy to do,” and it concedes that “financing of new renewable energy
projects can be troublesome because the projects may seem more risky
than projects for better-known technologies.” Experience shows that
“it is possible to increase the competitiveness of renewable energy
technologies by an accelerated market introduction,” and it “is
difficult to get renewable energy projects approved.”
“From a global perspective, the concerns about the global warming,
the recent development in fuel prices and the increasing concerns
about security of supply have put focus on renewable energy
technologies as alternatives to fossil fuels,” it explains in the
second section. “Business perspectives of renewable energy are
becoming an increasingly important driver for national governments,
industries and energy companies.”
The market for renewables is growing rapidly, with grid-connected
solar PV growing by 60% annually during the past five years, while
wind has increased 28% per year, biodiesel by 25% and solar thermal
by 17%. “From an industry point of view, investments in development
of renewable energy technologies now could be a sound investment in
the future.”
The second document is a synthesis of various studies on barriers,
challenges and opportunities for renewable energy deployment, and
was promised at the 2004 International Conference for Renewable
Energies in Germany. The report will identify project activities to
be included in an implementation plan for RETD until 2010 and a
detailed work program for the coming year.
“Analyses show that the technical potential for utilization of
renewable energy is almost 20 times as high as the current global
energy demand,” it explains. “Today, however, renewable energy only
provides 17% of the world’s primary energy needs and traditional
renewable energy use (biomass and large hydro) make up the greater
share” (9% and 5.7% respectively).
New renewables such as wind and solar provide 2% of total global
primary energy consumption which “may seem a very low figure but, in
some countries and markets, renewable energy penetration is high,”
with Brazil using as much ethanol as gasoline for automobile fuel
and the total wind power capacity increasing to 47.3 GW in 2004.
Total solar PV capacity has grown to 5 GW while Israel has installed
1 m2 of solar water heating for every person.
“If countries learn from each other and best available practices are
spread, the utilization of renewable energy technologies may
increase considerably,” it notes. “Probably the greatest challenge
for renewable energy technologies is to become
economically competitive with conventional technologies and in the
longer term to be able to handle the issue of intermittency.”
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