Top 5 countries to invest in renewable energy

According to the Ernst & Young 'Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index', the 5 most attractive countries for investment are

1. Spain
2. USA
3. Germany
   
4. UK
5. India

in that order. The index provides an overall score for renewable technologies that are currently entering the market on a large scale, i.e. wind, solar and biomass. Wind as the most important renewable from a business perspective today, is weighted 85%, solar and biomass respectively 5% and 10%.

For each technology, an index is constructed based on a mixture of infrastructure and technology factors:

• Infrastructure (35%): Market risk, Planning & grid connection issues, Access to finance
• Technology (65%): Power offtake attractiveness, Tax climate, Grant/soft loan availability, Market growth potential, Current installed base, Resource quality, Project size

Financial aspects, i.e. access to finance, power offtake attractiveness, tax climate and grants/soft loans, often regarded as the critical factor of success for renewable energy sources, are weighted together 35.5%. They're a very necessary, but far from sufficient condition for development.

Top 5 renewable energy technology in UK

Renewable energy may make up only a small proportion of the UK’s overall electricity supply, but it is growing. According to the government’s own figures, renewable energy made up 4.55 per cent of all electricity generated in the UK in 2006, which is 0.32 per cent higher than in 2005, and nearly a whole percentage point ahead of the 2004 figure.

That 4.55 per cent makes up 18,133 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity generated, an increase of 7.5 per cent compared to 2005. It may sound like a lot, but greater London alone consumed around 41,436GWh of electricity in 2005. And the big guns are still coal (which produces 33 per cent of the UK’s electricity), nuclear (20 per cent) and gas (a whopping 40 per cent).

Renewable energy is measured in megawatt-electrical (MWe), the amount of electrical power a plant has the capacity to produce. For renewables, of course, power capacity doesn’t always equate to how much power is actually produced — wind turbines, for example, only produce power when there is wind. Nevertheless, the UK’s current renewables capacity is 5,659MWe. The UK’s entire electricity power capacity — including coal, gas and nuclear power stations — is 83,045MWe.

The UK still lags well behind other countries in renewable energy generation. In Spain over a weekend in March, according to the AEE (Spanish Wind Energy Association), wind power accounted for an average of 28 per cent of Spain’s entire power demand. But renewables are growing and will continue to do so, as necessity dictates. To shed some light on the use of renewable technologies for electricity production, we’ve looked at the UK’s top five renewables — in no particular order — in terms of total installed capacity and future potential.

Photovoltaic solar panels
The final major renewable energy technology in the UK is photovoltaics solar panels (PV), which currently contribute 12MWe of the UK total electricity capacity. Many installations are on schools and office buildings, but some are being offered directly to consumers by house builders, as with the in Reading. Photovoltaics are growing rapidly, with 2.4MWe of this capacity having become operational since January 2007. Much of that growth was driven by a government funding programme that is now complete, which offered grants for small, medium and large-scale implementations. Whether this growth will continue is a moot point as the government’s successor programme has been criticised by Friends of the Earth for failing to offer consumers enough funding.

Wind
Wind power has massive potential in the UK with offshore wind farms alone apparently able to meet all of the UK’s current electricity needs, according to the government’s figures. Onshore facilities, however, are easier to build and 327 wind farms currently make up 1,842MWe of the UK’s electrical power capacity, according to statistics from the RESTATS database. Wind turbines are more difficult and expensive to install at sea and such make up a more modest 394MWe, but offshore wind farms have fewer planning issues and 90MWe of new capacity has become operational since January 2007. There are currently seven operational offshore wind farms in the UK with a further five under construction.

Hydroelectric
These plants can be divided into large (producing over 5MWe) and small (below 5MWe) hydroelectric plants. Most of the large plants are concentrated in Scotland and Wales and draw their water from high-level reservoirs with their own natural catchment areas, and make up 1,369MWe of energy capacity. Opportunities to grow large hydro capacity are very limited as most of the potential sites are already in use. Smaller-scale plants are growing in popularity and are typically used for domestic or small business purposes and make up 156MWe.

Biofuels
There are many different kinds of biofuels in use for electricity generation, such as the oats-powered plant used by Quaker Oats. Landfill gas is one of the fastest-growing areas — it is the methane-rich biogas formed by the decomposition of organic matter in landfill and can be used to fuel electricity turbines or directly in boilers. RESTAT estimates that this makes up some 875MWe of electricity capacity. Another growing area is sewage sludge digestion, which uses the gas produced to maintain the temperature necessary for the process. This makes up 122MWe with the excess energy being sold off onto the grid. The final growth area is municipal solid waste, which is produced in incinerators and makes up 327MWe of energy capacity. At the end of 2006, there were 24 such plants in operation burning municipal solid waste (MSW), refuse derived fuel (RDF) and general industrial waste (GIW). Other biomass generation projects include Lockerbie’s plant powered mainly by forestry waste, and a straw-fired power station near Ely, Cambridgeshire.

Wave and tidal stream
Being an island at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean makes the UK well-suited for wave and tidal power, but the difficulty in harnessing this means that it so far contributes just 0.5MWe of total energy capacity. The Limpet oscillating water column is the only wave device in the UK. It is located off the isle of Islay in Scotland and is operated by Wavegen. Tidal energy is estimated to have the potential to produce up to 22,000GWh per year, but current deployments are still only prototypes. The government has launched a couple of schemes to encourage wave and tidal plants, but these are not expected to amount to more than around 25MWe of capacity in total, the majority of which will come on stream after 2010.

Original Source: The Smart Planet

Poor nations rich in renewable energy potential

Developing nations have the potential to generate large amounts of energy from renewable sources, according to a US$10 million assessment coordinated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

UNEP hopes to attract support to enable developing countries to transform the assessment's findings into effective energy policies.

The initial results of the Solar and Wind Energy Resource Assessment (SWERA), which looked at 13 developing countries, were announced last week (14 April).

They show how developing countries could harness thousands of megawatts of electricity from solar and wind energy.

"In developing countries all over the world we have removed some of the uncertainty about the size and intensity of the solar and wind resource," said Klaus Toepfer, executive director of UNEP last week.

"These countries need greatly expanded energy services to help in the fight against poverty and to power sustainable development. SWERA offers them the technical and policy assistance to capture the potential that renewable energy can offer."

The SWERA project used satellites and ground-based instruments to assess the potential for wind and solar-powered renewable energy.

Its findings have generated a range of tools to promote the implementation of policies that promote use of renewable energy sources. These tools include maps of wind and solar resources.

The researchers created the 'geospatial toolkit' to overlay wind and solar maps with electricity distribution grids.

Already, the project has influenced policy in several countries, including Nicaragua and Guatemala.

In Nicaragua, the SWERA assessment showed that there was much more potential for wind energy production than was previously thought.

As a result, the Nicaraguan National Assembly passed a decree in 2004 giving wind energy priority over other forms of energy when feeding into the electricity grid.

In Guatemala, estimates that renewable energies could yield 7,000 megawatts of electricity prompted the Ministry of Energy to create the Centre for Renewable Energy and Investment. The centre will identify sites for wind energy development.

According to previous UNEP estimates, the African continent needs 40,000 megawatts of electricity to power its industrialisation. An initial SWERA assessment in Ghana suggests that the nation has the potential to generate more than 2,000 megawatts from wind energy.

It takes about 1,000 megawatts to power a US city the size of Seattle, whose population is 560,000.

Tom Hamlin, project manager for SWERA, said last week that the project will be seeking support to meet requests from renewable energy development programmes in other developing countries.

The 13 developing nations involved in SWERA are Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Cuba, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Kenya, Nepal, Nicaragua, and Sri Lanka.

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Top Ten Cost-effective Renewable Energy Systems

  1. A solar thermal system to heat your hot water pays for itself in two to three years depending on your location.
  2. A solar water heating system for your pool or hot tub also pays for itself in two to three years.
  3. Solar photovoltaics to power your home or business, using government incentives, will reduce your monthly electricity costs significantly, in some areas. In some countries, such as Japan, solar is a viable alternative to fossil fuels. In North America, fossil fuels will continue to rise in cost and solar will continue to decline.

  4. A portable solar system for an RV will cost less than a thousand dollars and provide you with power for many years.

  5. Solar panels for remote electricity (electric fence, lights, monitoring station, etc.) are much cheaper than hooking up to the grid.
 6. A solar photovoltaic system for your cottage or remote location can cost much less than connection to the grid.
  7. A geothermal system will pay for itself in five years or less and provide you with heat energy for the lifetime of your home or business.
  8. A backup power system to cover your essential electricity needs, when a power outage strikes.
  9. A wind energy system to power your farm, home or cottage could make your farm energy self-sufficient, in some geographical areas.
  10. A micro hydro power station can provide you with limitless energy, if you have running water on your property.

Top Ten Important Solar Energy Power Tips

1. Whatever solar power system or product you plan to utilize, always ensure that the solar panel faces in the direction of the sun. In the Northern hemisphere the panel must face south and at an angle to the horizontal equal to your latitude plus 15º.

2. Before meeting a consultant regarding the installation of a solar power system, always have on hand a list of all your electrical appliances together with their wattage and the hours of use. Any dealer worth his salt will need to know this information.

3. Before committing to a specific power system always check to find out exactly what the local, state and federal incentives are in your town. All this information can be found at the DSIRE (Database of State Incentives for Renewable Energy) database at http://www.dsireusa.org/

4. Always have a local licensed installer put in your system (but make sure he has experience with Grid connected systems) - they know all the local regulations and will be able to give you valuable information regarding these rules.

5. Keep solar panels clean - even if it means getting up onto your roof once a month. A thin layer of dust or dirt on the glass cover will effectively block off some solar power and the system will operate below its maximum efficiency.

6. When calculating the number of panels you need, do so using winter sunshine hours rather than summer hours - there are roughly twice as many hours sunshine in summer and the wrong calculation could leave you needing to use backup power in winter more often than you would like.

7. In any solar system keep your panels as close as you can to the batteries to avoid losing power in the cable. Always make sure that your panels are not shaded.

8. When planning a solar heating system, always consider the use of solar shades or smart glass to augment your system - their use can save you a lot of energy that might otherwise escape from the house.

9. Many states organize tours of homes that are fully converted to solar. Try to get yourself on one of these tours so that you can see a solar home in its working state.

10.Before installing a solar system try to make your home as energy efficient as possible - install double glazing, add new insulation where possible, replace incandescent light globes with fluorescent etc. By reducing your needs you can reduce the size and cost of the system you're installing. 

Benefits of Going Solar

Why have over 1.5 million Americans invested in solar? Surveys taken over the last ten years confirm that the vast majority of owners (94% or more) consider that investment a wise decision. Consumer investment and satisfaction have spawned a small but growing solar hot water (SHW) industry here in the U. S. that is providing even broader benefits to our nation and has the potential to contribute much more.
Clean and Safe Solar hot water systems in use today produce approximately 1000 megawatts of energy annually. That is the equivalent of two medium-sized coal plants. The life-cycle costs of SHW systems are about the same as gas and far better than electric water heating systems. Solar energy is pollution-free, an important benefit when the cost of removing pollutants from the environment is considered. For example, a typical SWH system will, over its lifetime, displace 10.5tons of CO2 if replacing a natural gas system, or 71.5 tons if replacing an electric system.
Readily Available Resource The U. S. Department of Energy estimates that Americans consume approximately 2.5 quads of end-use energy annually to produce hot water at a cost of over $20 billion dollars. Solar energy currently provides only a tiny fraction of that demand, but huge portions of our country possess sufficient insolation to produce much greater quantities of energy. Enough sunlight reaches the earth’s surface each yearto produce approximately 1000 times the same amount of energy produced by burning all fossil fuels mined and extracted during the same period. Sunlight does not have to be explored, mined, extracted, transported, combusted, transmitted — or imported. Quality, Reliability, Durability Solar water heating technology, pioneered in the U. S., is the oldest and most developed of all renewable energy systems. Modern solar water heating systems can provide a large portion (40 - 80%) of household hot water demand depending on local climate conditions and the size and type of system. Most systems pay for themselves in four to sevenyears and continue to provide hot water for many years thereafter.
	Much of the United States receives abundant sunshine, making solar hot watersystems a very economical investment. This map shows the average daily solar radiation available on a south-facing surface measured in megajoules per square meter each day.
Solar pool heating often provides an even better investment. Payback can be as low as two years and the solar system can extend the swimming season by several weeks without additional cost. Many homeowners have regretted the purchase of a conventional pool heating system after receiving their first utility bill. Another cost-efficient application for solar energy is preheating ventilation air for commercial and industrial facilities. The vast majority of U. S. manufacturers of solar equip ment voluntarily comply with national consensus standards devel oped by the Solar Rating and Certification Corporation (SRCC). The SRCC tests and certifies collectors as well as complete systems for performance, reliability and durability. In addition, manufacturers and installers comply with the SRCC’s strict requirements for proper installation, labeling and homeowner information regarding operation and maintenance. Assurances of performance and quality are backed by warranties that in many cases exceed the guarantees of other household appliances. Read Complete Article

China Plans for 30% Renewable Energy by 2050

In the June 2007 issue of the China Renewable Energy and Sustainable Development Report from Lou Schwartz, recent developments in renewable energies in China offer insight into that country's burgeoning challenges between population, energy and the environment.

"Between 2005 and 2030, China will account for 23% of the world's investment in power, spending $1.2 trillion U.S.D. in that period."

-- China Renewable Energy and Sustainable Development Report, June 2007

The report cites that the "Persistent rural poverty in China and periodic power shortages all have impressed upon Beijing that renewable energy must be a large part of China's economy if China is to both complete its economic transformation and achieve energy security."

"Between 2005 and 2030, China will account for 23% of the world's investment in power, spending $1.2 trillion U.S.D. in that period," Schwartz notes. "China's ambitious growth target for renewable energy production will require an investment of approximately 800 billion Yuan (~$100 billion U.S.D.) by 2020. In the long term China has set an objective of having 30% or more of its total energy requirements satisfied by renewable sources by 2050."

Current business opportunities, foreign participation, relevant conferences, and production and consumption are also discussed in this month's China Renewable Energy and Sustainable Development Report.

The in-depth report examines developments across China's renewable energy industry, as seen in these excerpts:

- Solar: "The Chinese government has recently announced that large new buildings will all utilize photovoltaic power generating technology."

- Wind: "Researchers at the Jiangsu Province Macroeconomic Research Institute have advocated that large-scale wind power should be directly used to provide electric power to industries, which are large consumers of power."

- Hydropower: "In 2007 there will be another 500 MW of small to medium sized hydroelectric power generating capacity constructed in Guangxi Province."

- Biomass, Biofuels: "China hasn't yet standardized its macro-economic policies with respect to the bio-diesel industry, but it is now formulating and will soon..."

- Laws and Policies: "These sets of issues include the fact that there are more than 10 million Chinese who do not have access to electric power and the often-spotty access to power among tens of millions of other rural Chinese."

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