Fastest growing renewable energy technologies

Fossil fuels have dominated the energy mix of both developed and developing countries since the industrial revolution. Fuel price instability, increasing costs, climate change, as well as efforts to reduce pollution, have led to an unprecedented investment in renewable energy sources in recent times globally. Fossil fuels are a major contributor to the surge in carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere, causing air pollution that causes the death of significant number of people every year.

It may not be too late to mitigate some of the significant impact of climate change. It will need many interventions, primarily expansion and investment in clean technologies and local actions on city and regional level; for example, upgrading public transport, improvements in energy efficiency, and sustainable city planning. In this article the focus is on the fastest growing renewable energies as one of the interventions in fighting climate change.

Renewable energy comes from sources that can be regenerated or naturally replenished. By 2035, renewables are expected to account for more than half of global electricity production. We often hear about the fast growth of renewable energy technologies in media reports, but how much accurate information do we have on growth of renewables around the world? What technologies look promising in the transformation of the energy mix?

Hydropower

Hydropower is the most extensively used form of renewable energy, producing 1295 GW of energy globally. This is equal to 54% of the global renewable power generation capacity. China has the biggest hydroelectricity generation in the world and generates around 15% of its energy from hydropower (122.5 GW from the three Gorges Dam alone). Big investments made in hydropower have helped to reduce China’s dependency on coal in recent decades.

Wind Energy

Wind energy is the second most used renewable sources in the world. generating 563 GW and coming in at 24% of the world’s renewable energy generation capacity. The UK is the 6^th biggest producer in the world, producing 13603 MW. Offshore wind farms are constructed in bodies of water, and power the equivalent of 4.5 million homes in the UK alone. Onshore wind farms, whilst important, delivered only around 10% of UK energy in 2020.

Solar Energy

Solar power operates by converting light from the sun into energy. The UK is installing solar panels faster than any other European nation. The largest solar power plant in the world – the Noor Abu Dhabi project in UAE - produces 117 GW, supplying electricity to 90,000 people. This will help to reduce the country’s carbon footprint by 1 million metric tonnes per year.

Bio-Power

Modern biomass comprises of biofuels and wood pellets and agricultural by-products. The products (fuel) are burnt to create steam, which powers a turbine that generates energy. The UK, China, and India reported more than half of the world’s total bioenergy size expansion in 2018.

Geothermal

Geothermal energy is generated and stored in the earth. In 2018, global geothermal energy production surpassed 13.2 GW. Iceland is one of the world’s biggest producers of geothermal electricity, producing 26.5% of the country’s electricity and 87% of their housing and building needs from natural hot water sourced underground.

Renewable energy technologies in the global energy mix serve as a huge opportunity to fight climate change and assist both developed and developing nations to reach net zero emissions by 2050. However, there are lot of challenges to be addressed if renewables must completely replace fossil energy sources. Fossil fuels are more dependable, capable of meeting suppliers demand and flexible than intermittent renewables that depend on weather conditions. These challenges must be overcome for renewables to compete economically with fossil fuel-based systems. For e.g. to connect big offshore wind farms, may need grid extension and grid capacity expansion to convey energy from remote locations to cities. And increasing the geographical opportunity of grids can open so many places to locate wind farms, solar plants, and other renewables, that intermittency may not be a challenge anymore and ultimately, there may always be adequate systems that produce energy.

Furthermore, the energy transition decision-making process involves many players-policy makers, investors, scientist, NGOs, and Engineers who will consider the legacy system, consider many, sometimes competing developments, opportunities, evaluate barriers and make trade-offs. Energy systems constantly change and develop over time; the energy systems of today are the outcome of many years of development. The energy transition needs new systems, new technology, new and expanded networks, new storage systems. Certainly, these involve investments – in equipment, but also in education, knowledge, to train people how to build and use them. To facilitate the transition of fossil-based energy system to renewable energy systems.

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