Renew On Line (UK) 32

Extracts from the July-August 2001 edition of Renew
These extracts only represent about 25% of it

World Overview

The Future is Green says the GEF

Renewables have a bright future around the world as markets for green power expand, according to the Global Environment Facility (GEF), an international agency backed by, amongst others, the UN, World Bank, the African and Asian Development Banks and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. In their latest report, the GEF, which funds renewable projects, predicts that developing nations will need as much as 5000 GW of new generating capacity in the next 40 years and are ideally suited to renewable energy applications.

Mohammed El-Ashry, chairman and chief executive officer of GEF, said "If renewable energy captures just three per cent of the market in developing nations within 10 years, investments could exceed $5 billion a year".

The GEF believes that a transition to renewable energy is inevitable, not because fossil fuel supplies will run out, but because the costs and risks of using these supplies will continue to increase relative to renewable energy. In particular, GEF says that costs will increase as the environmental impacts of fossil fuel use are incorporated into the costs of energy and as the cheapest reserves are depleted.

Clean energy "lacks only will power"

There are no technical or economic reasons why the world cannot enjoy a high level of energy service and a better environment. This is one the key messages of a new report from the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) designed to assist policy-makers in the deployment of renewable energy systems. "Natural Selection: Evolving Choices for Renewable Energy Technology and Policy", published by UNEP’s Paris-based technology, industry and economics division, estimates that US$9 - 15 trillion will be invested in new power sector projects over the next two decades. "If a majority of this investment is directed towards clean energy technologies, the nations of the world will enjoy a global economy that is more secure, more robust, and much cleaner than that of the 20th century", it says.

‘Natural Selection: Evolving Choices for Renewable Energy Technology and Policy’ is available at: http://www.uneptie.org

World Energy Assessment

The World Energy Assessment is a major new study, backed by the UN and the World Energy Council, of global energy options for the future. It’s a vast document packed full of useful analysis of all the energy options, and is very positive about the future for renewables.

It concludes that ‘a prosperous, equitable and environmentally sustainable world is within our reach, but only if governments adopt new policies to encourage the delivery of energy services in cleaner and more efficient ways’.

We will be reviewing it in Renew 133. Meanwhile see: http://www.undp.org/seed/eap/activities/wea/index.html

WEC e-conference

The World Energy Council’s electronic conference in May attracted 1.2 k delegates. It is still accessible and includes papers from Dave Elliott on wind and Horace Herring on ‘rebound’ plus a fascinating paper by T. Kaneda from Japan on Hydrogen Co-ops.

See www.rmr-energyresource2001.com