The report was released by the Renewable Energy Policy
Network for the 21st Century, also known as REN21, and it
provides an upbeat picture for renewables, despite the murky
outlook for the global economy.
The report was originally
released in 2005. Since then, solar PV has grown by 60 percent
annually, wind by 27 percent, solar hot water by 19 percent,
according to the authors. In 2009, renewables made up more than
half of investment in global power generation. And that's with
depressed oil and gas prices, lenders being very choosy about
projects and individual consumers facing their own financial
problems. Total investment in the industry was about $150
billion last year.
Other than the stellar investment figures during a slow year
for most other industries, there's not much surprising in the
2009 report. The industry continues to move along – increasingly
in developing countries – driven largely by robust public
policy. Where policy lacks, investment does too.
Perhaps the most important trend is the role of China in the
global renewable energy market. According to the report, the
country produces about 40 precent of solar PV panels, 30 percent
of wind turbines and 77 percent of solar hot water systems
globally. The Chinese presence will impact investment decisions
of companies as they work to compete with “The China Price,” and
decide where to locate manufacturing facilities.
Many organizations like the International Energy Agency and
the Energy Information Administration put together yearly
figures on renewables. But none do it quite as comprehensively
and clearly as the REN21 folks do. It's worth keeping around as
a go-to resource for figures on the industry.
Here are some other highlights taken straight from the report
about the various renewables sectors:
- Wind: Trends include new growth in off
shore development, the growing popularity of distributed,
small- scale grid-connected turbines, and new wind projects
in a much wider variety of geographical locations around the
world and within countries. Firms continue to increase
average turbine sizes and improve technologies, such as with
gearless designs.
- Grid-connected solar PV: The industry
has been responding to price declines and rapidly changing
market conditions by consolidating, scaling up, and moving
into project development. Thin-film PV has experienced a
rapidly growing market share in recent years, reaching 25
percent. A growing of number of solar PV plants are
so-called “utility- scale” plants 200-kW and larger, which
now account for one-quarter of total grid-connected solar PV
capacity.
- Biomass power: Biomass power plants
exist in over 50 countries around the world and supply a
growing share of electricity. Several European countries are
expanding their total share of power from biomass, including
Austria (7 per- cent), Finland (20 percent), and Germany (5
percent). Biogas for power generation is also a growing
trend in several countries.
- Geothermal power: Geothermal power
plants now exist in 19 countries, and new plants continue to
be commissioned annually—for example in Indonesia, Italy,
Turkey, and the United States in 2009.
- Concentrating solar thermal power (CSP):
CSP emerged as a significant new power source during
2006–2010, after initial stalled development some two
decades earlier. By early 2010, 0.7 GW of CSP was in
operation, all in the U.S. Southwest and Spain, with
construction or planning under way for much more capacity in
many more countries.
- Solar hot water/heating: China
continues to dominate the world market for solar hot water
collectors, with some 70 percent of the existing global
capacity. Europe is a distant second with 12 percent.
Virtually all installations in China are for hot water only.
But there is a trend in Europe toward larger “combi” systems
that provide both water and space heating; such systems now
account for half of the annual market.
- Biomass and geothermal heating: Biomass
heating markets are expanding steadily, particularly in
Europe. Trends include growing use of solid biomass pellets,
use of biomass in building-scale or community-scale
combined-heat- and-power plants (CHP), and use of biomass
for centralized district heating systems. Use of geothermal
direct-use heat plants and ground-source heat pumps is also
growing. Globally, there exists some 500 gigawatts-thermal (GWth)
of heating capacity from biomass (270 GWth), solar (170 GWth),
and geothermal (60 Gwth).
- Biofuels: Corn ethanol, sugar ethanol,
and biodiesel are the primary biofuels markets, although
others like biogas for transport and other forms of ethanol
are also significant. Corn accounts for more than half of
global ethanol production, and sugar cane for more than
one-third. The United States and Brazil accounted for almost
90 percent of global ethanol production. The
second-generation biofuels industry has seen many research
and pilot-production plants commissioned, most with some
form of partial public funding.
Although wind and solar are clearly scaling up the fastest,
the REN21 report shows that the other industries are making some
good gains as well.