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Renewable Energy Portal
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Renewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable (naturally replenished). About 16% of global final energy consumption comes from renewables, with 10% coming from traditional biomass, which is mainly used for heating, and 3.4% from hydroelectricity. New renewables (small hydro, modern biomass, wind, solar, geothermal, and biofuels) accounted for another 2.8% and are growing very rapidly.
Wind power is growing at the rate of 30% annually, with a worldwide installed capacity of 198,000 megawatts (MW) in 2010, and is widely used in Europe, Asia, and the United States. At the end of 2010, cumulative global photovoltaic (PV) installations surpassed 40,000 MW and PV power stations are popular in Germany and Spain. Solar thermal power stations operate in the USA and Spain, and the largest of these is the 354 MW SEGS power plant in the Mojave Desert. The world's largest geothermal power installation is The Geysers in California, with a rated capacity of 750 MW. Brazil has one of the largest renewable energy programs in the world, involving production of ethanol fuel from sugar cane, and ethanol now provides 18% of the country's automotive fuel. Ethanol fuel is also widely available in the USA.
While many renewable energy projects are large-scale, renewable technologies are also suited to rural and remote areas, where energy is often crucial in human development. As of 2011, small solar PV systems provide electricity to a few million households, and micro-hydro configured into mini-grids serves many more. Over 44 million households use biogas made in household-scale digesters for lighting and/or cooking, and more than 166 million households rely on a new generation of more-efficient biomass cookstoves. United Nation's Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said that renewable energy has the ability to lift the poorest nations to new levels of prosperity.
Climate change concerns, coupled with high oil prices, peak oil, and increasing government support, are driving increasing renewable energy legislation, incentives and commercialization. New government spending, regulation and policies helped the industry weather the global financial crisis better than many other sectors. According to a 2011 projection by the International Energy Agency, solar power generators may produce most of the world’s electricity within 50 years.
Scout Moor Wind Farm is the largest onshore wind farm in England. The wind farm, which was built for Peel Wind Power Ltd, produces electricity from 26 Nordex N80 wind turbines. It has a total nameplate capacity of 65 MW of electricity, providing 154,000 MW·h per year (average output 17.6 MWe, a capacity factor of 27%); enough to serve the average needs of 40,000 homes. The site occupies 1,347 acres (545 ha) of open moorland and is split between the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale in northern Greater Manchester and the Borough of Rossendale in south-eastern Lancashire. The turbines are visible from as far away as south Manchester, 15–20 miles (24–32 km) away.
A protest group was formed to resist the proposed construction, and attracted support from the botanist and environmental campaigner David Bellamy. Despite the opposition, planning permission was granted in 2005 and construction began in 2007. Although work on the project was hampered by harsh weather, difficult terrain, and previous mining activity, the wind farm was officially opened on 25 September 2008, at a cost of £50 million.
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The Tataragi Dam serving the Okutataragi Hydroelectric Power Station is one of the largest pumped-storage power stations in the world, and the largest in Japan.
John I. Yellott (1908 – 1986) was a scientist internationally recognized as a pioneer in passive solar energy, and an inventor with many patents to his credit. In his honor the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (“ASME”) Solar Division confers a biannual "John I. Yellott Award" which "recognizes ASME members who have demonstrated sustained leadership within the Solar Energy Division, have a reputation for performing high-quality solar energy research and have made significant contributions to solar engineering through education, state or federal government service or in the private sector."
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... that efficient energy use is most often achieved by adopting a more efficient technology or production process ? Energy efficient buildings, industrial processes and transportation could reduce the world's energy needs in 2050 by one third, and help controlling global emissions of greenhouse gases, according to the International Energy Agency. Energy efficiency and renewable energy are said to be the twin pillars of sustainable energy policy.
WikiProjects connected with renewable energy:
- Renewable energy task force
- WikiProject Energy
- WikiProject Environment
- WikiProject Technology
- November 23, 2011 – The IEA said the renewable electricity sector has grown rapidly in the past five years and now provides nearly 20 percent of the world's power generation. (Reuters)
- November 17, 2011 – The 420 MW Macarthur Wind Farm is under construction in Victoria, Australia, and is expected to be the largest wind farm in the Southern Hemisphere. (The Standard)
- November 1, 2011 – International Energy Agency chief economist Faith Birol said that cutting the current $409 billion fossil fuel subsidies would help renewable energies get more market share and reduce CO2 emissions. (Oilprice.com)
- October 27, 2011 – Reinventing Fire: Bold Business Solutions for the New Energy Era, a book by Amory B. Lovins, analyzes the possibility of converting the United States to almost total reliance on renewable energy sources. (NYT)
- September 29, 2011 – Renewable energy in the UK hits record high reaching 9.6% of electricity production. (The Guardian)
- September 29, 2011 – The Belo Monte Dam project in Brazil halted after ruling that it risked damaging fish stocks. (The Guardian)
- September 24, 2011 – First 78 MW of the world's to be largest solar photovoltaic plant connected to grid in Senftenberg, Germany. (SolarServer)
- September 20, 2011 – Developers installed 314 megawatts of solar photovoltaic power in the second quarter, an increase of 69 percent on the same period last year. (Bloomberg)
- September 20, 2011 – More than 100,000 Americans are employed in the US solar industry, twice as many as in 2009. (Bloomberg)
- September 6, 2011 – Renewable energy in Germany sets new record approaching 21% (REW)
Archive...- "Renewable energy provides 18 percent of total net electricity generation worldwide. Renewable energy generators are spread across the globe, and wind power alone already provides a significant share of electricity in some regions: for example, 14 percent in the U.S. state of Iowa, 40 percent in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, and 20 percent in the nation of Denmark. Some countries get most of their power from renewables, including Iceland (100 percent), Brazil (85 percent), Austria (62 percent), New Zealand (65 percent), and Sweden (54 percent)."
- "Solar hot water provides an important contribution to meeting hot water needs in many countries, most importantly in China, which now has fully 70 percent of the global total (180 GWth)... Worldwide, total installed solar water heating systems meet a portion of the water heating needs of over 70 million households. The use of biomass for heating continues to grow as well. Notable is Sweden, where national use of biomass energy has surpassed that of oil. Direct geothermal for heating is also growing rapidly."
- "Renewable biofuels are meanwhile making inroads in the transportation fuels market and are beginning to have a measurable impact on demand for petroleum fuels, contributing to a decline in oil consumption in the United States in particular starting in 2006... The 93 billion liters of biofuels produced worldwide in 2009 displaced the equivalent of an estimated 68 billion liters of gasoline, equal to about 5 percent of world gasoline production."
– Christopher Flavin in REN21 (2010). Renewables 2010 Global Status Report p. 53.
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