Domestic Fuel

According to a recent study by the United Nations, less than 1 percent of all patent applications relating to clean energy technology have been filed in Africa, with the majority of this 1 percent filed in South Africa. The study find that Africa is a mecca for clean energy and has the ability to leapfrog existing fossil-fuel energy sources. “Patents and Clean Energy in Africa,” finds the country has an untapped potential for generating clean energy including enough hydroelectric power from its seven major river systems to serve the entire continent’s needs. In addition, the country has great potential for solar, wind and geothermal energy sources.

Hydropower, the most commonly used renewable energy source, is estimated to be utilized at just 4.3 percent of the continent’s total capacity – although recent years have seen efforts to ramp up clean energy, with North African nations leading in solar and wind categories, Kenya in geothermal, Ethiopia in hydro and Mauritius in bioenergy.

The study also points out that intellectual property and patenting in particular have been highlighted as a significant factor limiting the transfer of new clean technologies to developing countries, and identified as a barrier to these countries meeting new emission limits for CO2 and other greenhouse gases. While the lack of patents filed means CETs can be freely exploited in Africa, the lack of these patents to protect their products means source companies may be reluctant to offer up their know-how to promote technology transfer, according to a news release on the study.

“The development and transfer of technologies are key pillars in both mitigating the causes of climate change and adapting to its effects; patents are a crucial part of this process,” said UN Environment Programme spokesperson Nick Nuttall. “In addition to an accelerated response to climate change, boosting clean energy technologies have multiple green economy benefits including on public health – for example, in sub-Saharan Africa more than half of all deaths from pneumonia in children under the age of five, and chronic lung disease and lung cancer in adults over 30, can be attributed to solid fuel use,” he added.

Only 10 percent of African inventors apply for patent protection in Africa; the majority tend to seek protection in four other regions: the United States (27 percent), the European Patent Office (24 percent), Germany (13 percent) and Canada (10 percent), according to the study.  The report adds that there are signs that the situation is changing. Despite low patent application numbers, the overall inventive activity in African countries grew by 5 percent between 1980 and 2009, compared to 4 percent at the global level. With a 59 percent increase, mitigation technologies grew most significantly in that period.

According to the most recent issue of the “Monthly Energy Review” by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), with data through December 31, 2012, renewable energy sources and natural gas expanded rapidly during the Obama Administration’s first term while coal, nuclear power, oil imports and use, energy consumption, and CO2 emissions all declined significantly.

Comparing data for 2008 (last year of the Bush Administration) to data for 2012 (last year of the Obama Administration’s first term), domestic energy production from renewable energy sources (i.e., biofuels, biomass, geothermal, hydropower, solar, and wind) grew by 23.48 percent with wind and solar more than doubling their output.

By comparison, total domestic energy production from all sources increased by just 8.15 percent with domestic natural gas and crude oil production growing by 18.71 percent and 29.47 percent respectively. Moreover, during the same period, nuclear power output declined by 4.47 percent and domestic coal production dropped by 13.28 percent. Total energy use declined by 4.16 percent, petroleum consumption decreased by 6.95 percent, CO2 emissions dropped by 9.38 percent, and imports of crude oil and petroleum products fell by 17.32 percent.

“The numbers speak for themselves – notwithstanding politically-inspired criticism, the energy policies pioneered by the Obama Administration have generated dramatic growth rates for renewable energy during the past four years, while significantly reducing oil imports and greenhouse gas emissions,” said Ken Bossong, Executive Director of the SUN DAY Campaign. “The investments in sustainable energy made by the federal government as well as state officials and private funders have paid off handsomely underscoring the short-sightedness of seemingly endless proposals to slash or discontinue such support.”

Looking at all energy sectors (e.g., electricity, transportation, thermal), renewable energy sources accounted for 11.23 percent of domestic energy production in 2012 – compared to 9.84 percent in 2008. In fact, renewable energy sources provided 10.47 percent more energy in 2012 than did nuclear power, although nuclear still provides a larger share of the nation’s electricity (18.97% vs. 12.22%).

During the first four years of the Obama Administration, hydropower production grew by 7.01 percent, geothermal by 18.23 percent, biofuels by 40.66 percent, solar by 138.20 percent, and wind by 149.27 percent. Only biomass dipped – by 0.89 percent. Hydropower accounted for 30.21 percent of domestic energy production from renewable sources in 2012, followed by biomass (27.61%), biofuels (21.94%), wind (15.30%), geothermal (2.55%), and solar (2.39%). Note” These figures may not fully reflect the total contribution from renewable energy sources inasmuch as EIA data does not totally account for distributed, non-grid connected applications.

According to the latest issue of the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) “Electric Power Monthly,” renewable energy sources (biomass, geothermal, solar, wind) increased by 12.8 percent last year compared to 2011 and provided 5.4 percent of net U.S. electrical generation. Solar increased by 138.9 percent while wind grew 16.6 pecent, geothermal by 9.6 percent, and biomass (i.e., wood, wood-derived fuels, and other biomass) by 1.6 percent. Since 2007, non-hydro renewables have more than doubled their contribution to the nation’s electrical supply.

At the same time (2012 compared to 2011), total net U.S. electrical generation dropped by 1.1 percent with petroleum coke & liquids down by 24.1 percent, coal by 12.5 percent, and nuclear by 2.6 percent. Less than a decade ago, coal provided more than half the nation’s electricity, fell to 37.4 percent while nuclear fell below 19 percent. Conventional hydropower also declined by 13.4 percent due to last year’s drought and lower water flows, but natural gas expanded by 21.4 percent to provide 30.3 percent of net electrical generation.

Conventional hydropower and non-hydro renewable sources combined accounted for 12.22 percent of net U.S. electrical generation. However, as EIA has noted in the past, these figures do not comprehensively reflect distributed, non-grid connected generation and thereby understate the full contribution of renewables to the nation’s electrical supply.

EIA’s report also reveals the top renewable-electricity generating states for 2012: top five wind states: Texas, Iowa, California, Oklahoma, and Illinois;  top five biomass states: California, Florida, Maine, Georgia, and Alabama; top five geothermal States: California, Nevada, Utah, Hawaii and Idaho; and top five solar states: California, Arizona, Nevada, New Jersey, and New Mexico.

“Technical advances, falling costs, and the desire to address climate change have combined to rapidly expand the contribution of renewable energy to the nation’s electrical generation,” said Ken Bossong, Executive Director of the SUN DAY Campaign. “With the right policy incentives, one can foresee these cleaner energy sources providing the bulk of the nation’s electrical needs within a generation.”

According to a new report from the Worldwatch Institute, although the global consumption and installed capacity of hydropower and geothermal technologies have increased steadily since 2003, both types of energy saw slower growth in 2011. Global installed capacity of hydropower reached 970 gigwatts (GW) but there was only a 1.6 percent increase from the year before. Total geothermal capacity reached 11.2 GW, slowing to below 1 percent for the first time since 20o2, according to the report, authored by Evan Musolino.

“Despite the recent slowdown in growth, the overall market for hydropower and geothermal power is increasing in part because these two sources are not subject to the variability in generation that plagues other renewable energy sources such as wind and solar,” explained Musolino, a research associate with the Worldwatch’s Climate and Energy Program. “The greater reliability of hydro and geothermal can thus be harnessed to provide reliable baseload power.”

Among members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), hydroelectricity accounted for almost 6 percent of primary energy consumption. It played a more important role in other countries—-at a little over 7 percent of usage—-and these non-OECD nations accounted for 60 percent of worldwide hydroelectricity consumption. On a regional basis, South America and Central America are most dependent on hydroelectricity relative to total energy use.

Although some 150 countries produce hydropower, half of the global capacity was concentrated in just five nations at the end of 2011. China remains the leader, with 212 GW installed, followed by Brazil (82.2 GW), the United States (79 GW), Canada (76.4 GW), and Russia (46 GW).

Similar to  hydropower, the report finds geothermal resources are highly location-specific.
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Newport, Oregon has been selected as the home for future site of a utility-scale, grid connected, wave energy test site. The project will be hosted by the Pacific Marine Energy Center (PMEC) and run by the Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center (NNMREC) based at Oregon State University. As part of the project, PMEC, will test energy generation potential and the environmental impacts of wave energy devices, at an ocean site about five miles from shore. Subsea cables will transmit energy from the wave energy devices to the local power grid, and data to scientists and engineers at on-shore facilities.

“PMEC represents a major step toward the development of energy from Oregon’s ocean waters,” said Jason Busch of the Oregon Wave Energy Trust. “I’m certain that Oregon will reap benefits from PMEC for many years to come, and the research and development performed at PMEC will help usher in this new form of reliable electricity from the sea.” The first installment of funding for PMEC was received in September, 2012, consisting of $4 million from the U.S. Department of Energy, along with a non-federal cost match.

PMEC design and specific site characterization will begin soon, along with the permitting and regulatory process. The exact ocean location for the PMEC site will be finalized in the next few months in a zone that has been selected in collaboration with ocean stakeholders. The goal is to install the wave energy technology in an area that will not impede shipping lanes and takes environmental impacts into consideration.

The project will consist of four “test berths,” open spaces of water dedicated to testing individual devices or small arrays of devices, each of which will be connected to the community’s electrical grid. Data associated with environmental and human dimension impacts will also be collected. Completion will take several years.

“This site selection builds on the global reputation of Oregon State University in both renewable energy research and marine science,” added Rick Spinrad, OSU vice president for research. “Future research results from this site will help ensure our state’s leadership in these critical areas.”

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Office of Energy Projects has released its latest “Energy Infrastructure Update,” and finds that renewable energy sources including biomass, geothermal, solar, water, and wind, accounted by 49.10 percent of all new domestic electrical generating capacity installed during 2012. The total was 12,956 MW and more than a quarter of that new capacity, or 3,276 MW, came online during December 2012 alone.

Wind power led the way in 2012 with 164 new “units” totaling 10,689 MW installed. Solar power followed with 240 units totaling 1,476 MW installed. Biomass added 100 new units totaling 543 MW while geothermal steam and water each had 13 new units with installed capacities of 149 MW and 99 MW respectively. By comparison, during 2012, new natural gas generation in service totaled 8,746 MW (33.15%) followed by coal (4,510 MW -17.09%), nuclear (125 MW – 0.47%), and oil (49 MW – 0.19%).

New capacity from renewable energy sources in 2012 increased by 51.16 percent compared to 2011 when those sources added 8,571 MW. In 2011, renewables accounted for 39.33 percent of all new in-service generation capacity. Renewable sources now account for 15.40 percent of total installed U.S. operating generating capacity: water – 8.47 percent, wind – 4.97 percent, biomass – 1.30 percent, solar – 0.34 percent, and geothermal – 0.32 percent. This is more than nuclear (9.24%) and oil (3.57%) combined.

“If there were still any lingering doubts about the ability of renewable energy technologies to come on-line quickly and in amounts sufficient to displace fossil fuels and nuclear power, the 2012 numbers have put those doubts to rest,” said Ken Bossong, Executive Director of the SUN DAY Campaign. “Not only has renewable energy become a major player in the U.S. electrical generation market, but it has also emerged in 2012 as THE reigning champion.”

With the support from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Uruguay is planning to expand its wind power generation through the construction of two wind farms: Libertador and Palmatir. Loans totaling $107.7 million will help the country diversify its energy mix and reduce its dependence on hydroelectric generation, which during dry seasons, increases the country’s dependence on energy produced from fossil fuels.

“These projects will be the first two wind farms to be financed by the IDB that are developed within the program launched by UTE, the state-owned electricity company, to promote private sector participation in the renewable energy sector,’’ said Jean-Marc Aboussouan, Chief of the Infrastructure Division at the Structured and Corporate Finance Department, the IDB unit responsible for large-scale private sector project financing.

Aboussouan continued, “The long-term financing provided by the IDB will allow Uruguay to take advantage of the global advances in the wind energy sector as well as improvements in technology and cost reductions that have made wind power a competitive energy source.”

WPE, a fully-owned subsidiary of Brazilian-based IMPSA, will develop the El Libertador wind farm that will feature 44 Vensys IMPSA wind turbines and be located in the department of Lavalleja. The project will receive a $66 million IDB loan. Abengoa S.A. will develop the Palmatir wind farm that will be located in the department of Tacuarembó. This wind farm will feature 25 Gamesa wind turbines and receive a $41.7 million IBD loan.

When the two wind farms are completed, they will have the capacity to produce 115 MW of electricity.  Today, Uruguay has 2.578 MW of power generation capacity, of which approximately 60 percent provides from hydropower plants, 33 percent from fossil fuels and the remaining from biomass and wind energy.

During the COP18 climate talks in Doha, The WindMade organization announced the development of a new consumer label for companies and products made using renewable energy. The label is backed by UN Global Compact, WWF, Vestas Wind Systems and the Global Wind Energy Council. WindMade was launched in 2011 as the first global consumer label for companies powered with wind energy.

“Expanding WindMade is a natural progression, and this move follows strong demand from the market,” said Steve Sawyer, WindMade’s Chairman. “Today’s announcement will allow us to engage a wider range of interested partners and supporters for this new renewable energy label, which is built on the success of WindMade.”

The new label will recognize a wide variety of renewable energy sources, including wind, solar, and geothermal, as well as hydro power and biomass from approved certification programs. This will offer added flexibility to companies that use multiple renewable energy technologies in their energy mix.

Georg Kell, executive director of the UN Global Compact, added, “This new label continues the progress made by WindMade to successfully engage companies in addressing the impacts of climate change. It is fully aligned with the UN Global Compact’s efforts to promote greater corporate sustainability through the use renewable energy.”

A global survey of 24,000 consumers across 20 countries, conducted earlier this year, showed that 92 percent of consumers believe that renewable energy is a good solution to mitigating climate change, and that if presented with a choice, most of them would prefer products made with renewable energy, even at a premium. As a result of the survey, the new label, that will be launched in 2013, will build on the technical foundations of the WindMade standard and will be applicable to organizations, buildings, events and eventually products.

Despite global struggles with the economy, investments in renewable energy technologies have continued to grow in 2011. New investments in renewable power and fuels (excluding large hydropower and solar hot water) reached $257 billion, and increase $37 billion from 2010. This according to research conducted by the WorldWatch Institute’s Climate and Energy program. In addition, during 2011, investments in renewable energy were $40 billion greater than in fossil fuel based technologies.

In 2011:

• Total renewable energy investment in industrial countries accounted for 65 percent of global investment. This is an increase of 21 percent to $168 billion in total.
• The 35 percent of global new investment that went to developing countries increased 10 percent to $89 billion. Of this total, China, India and Brazil accounted for $71 billion.
• “Financial new investment” in renewable energy installations in industrial countries outpaced investments in developing world. In 2010 investments in this category in developing countries surpassed those in industrial countries.
• Driven by a 50 percent reduction in price from 2010 to 2011, $147.4 billion was invested in solar compared with $83.8 for wind projects and $10.6 billion for biomass and waste-to-energy.
• Biofuels attracted the fourth highest total investment with $6.8 billion, followed by $5.8 billion for small hydro and $2.9 billion for geothermal installations.
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Africa and Latin America are taking great leaps to hydropower according to a new report by GBI Research.  Today, hydropower leads the renewable category for the generation of power and is expected to remain in the lead globally despite investments in other renewable resources.  Around the world, hydropower has large support in the form of financial policies and incentives. This had made it gain interest as a viable way to meet increasing electricity demand.

The report predicts that Africa will have become a leading hydropower market by 2020 due to the large amount of water in the country, especially in Mozambique and Ethiopia.  Develop has gone further yet because of the lack of proper infrastructure and investment, which hinders both maintenance of current plants as well as the development of new hydropower plants. Yet there is increasing demand for energy and as a result governments are putting policies and incentives in place to secure industry investments.

In addition to Africa, South and Central America also hold high levels of untapped hydropower energy.  In 2009-2010, Venezuela suffered through a national electricity crisis while ironically it has large amounts of unexploited hydropower energy. Once realized, the government changed it focus towards the development of the industry and several hydropower projects are already underway in the country and being executed by Corpoelec.

In 2005-2010 the global hydropower capacity increased at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 4.2% for an increase of 601.1 Giga Watts (GW) in 2005 to 739.2 GW in 2010. The report estimates that installed capacity will grow to 1,051.1 GW by 2020.

You can read the report abstract,  Hydro Power Market to 2020 – Energy Management Strategies and Green Funds to Drive Emerging Markets in Latin America and Africa, here.

A new report commissioned by Paris-based Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21) shows that the renewable energy sector continues to perform well despite the continuing economic recession, incentive cuts and low natural gas prices. In fact, “Renewables 2011 Global Status Report” calculates that renewable energy supplied around 16 percent of global final energy consumption and accounted for nearly 20 percent of global electricity production. The report was authored by Janet Sawin, a senior fellow with the Worldwatch Institute along with a global network of research partners.

When you include large and small hydropower, which is estimated to have added 30 gigawatts of power in 2010, renewable energy accounted for approximately 50 percent of total added power-generating capacity in 2010. Also increasing in capacity last year was the solar water and space heating industry which added approximately 25 gigawatts-thermal (GWth) or about 16 percent.

“The Global Status Report shows that despite the recession, renewables are growing at an enormous rate,” said Director of Climate & Energy Alexander Ochs who contributed to the report. “Still, there are 1.5 billion people who don’t have any access to energy, and 3 billion people relying on traditional biomass sources and coal. If we want to prevent climate change from spinning out of control, we need to scale up our efforts to accelerate renewable energy development and deployment at all levels. Worldwatch will continue to provide guidance as to how this can be done.”

The driver for growth continues to be renewable energy policies. By the beginning of 2011, there were at least 119 countries that had some policy target or renewable energy policy at the national level. In 2005, this number was only 55. The report details that more than half of these countries represent the developing world and at least 95 countries have policy specifically to grow renewable power generation. In the United States, for example, 30 states (plus Washington, D.C.) have Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS).

While feed-in tariffs are somewhat taboo in the United States, they remain the most common mechanism worldwide to encourage adoption of renewable energy sources. Also somewhat lacking in the U.S. private investments in the industry on a global scale reached $211 billion last year, up from $160 billion invested in 2009. Money invested in renewable energy companies, utility-scale generation, and biofuel projects increased to $143 billion, with developing countries surpassing developed economies for the first time, according to the Global Status Report’s recently released companion report, “UNEP’s Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2011.” Not surprisingly, China attracted $48.5 billion, or more than a third of the global total.

In addition to the report, REN21 also launched its Renewables Interactive Map, a tool for gathering and sharing the renewable energy developments.

Global opportunities for hydropower are reviewed and analyzed in a new report, “The Hydropower Market 2011-2012,” by Visiongain. According to the report, the global hydropower market, as defined by spending on new hydropower projects as well as spending on upgrades and expansions, to be worth $56.61 billion in 2011. Today, hydropower currently contributes nearly one-sixth of all worldwide electricity, but the authors of the report believe it will play in increasingly important role in the future as the world shifts away from fossil fuel-based energy to renewable energy.

The report examines the hydropower market over the next decade and provides detailed market forecasts for each of the regional markets as well as offers in-depth analysis of the opportunities and challenges facing the industry. The report provides information on recently awarded contracts in more than 50 national markets and profiles the top 50 companies within the hydropower market.

In addition, the report highlights the most important technological changes withing within the industry as assesses their importance in the long-term growth of the industry. Also evaluated are various drivers and restraints of the hydropower market as a means to provide the industry with specific insights into the future direction of the market.

Spain’s first wave power plant has gone into production in the Basque seaport of Mutriku, located between Bilbao and San Sebastian. The Mutriku wave power plant, consisting of 16 units, will generate an estimated 300 kilowatts in power, enough electricity to supply 250 homes. Utility Ente Vasco de la Energia (EVE) inaugurated the wave power plant today in a special event.

“The rising global demand for green energy proves to be a strong catalyst for the implementations of innovative forms of renewable energy,” said Dr. Roland Muench, Chief Executive Officer of Voith Hydro Holding who provided the equipment for the wave power plant. “The Mutriku project shows: Our wave power technology is commercially viable and ready for wide deployment on the global markets. To further this development, adequate feed-in-tariffs for wave power, as they already exist for a number of renewables, can now set the right legal framework.”

According to Voith Hydro, its wave power technology can be deployed in both new and existing breakwater as well as in purpose-built structures. The company says its oscillating water column (OWC) technology is the only one that has been successfully proven with regard to commercial utilization. The company has been operating the Limpet wave power plant on the Scottish island of Islay for more than a decade and the plant has been running for more than 65,000 grid-connected hours.

It is estimated that worldwide potential of ocean energies is 1.8 terawatts and today still remains largely untapped.

Renewable energy production has surpassed nuclear energy production in the U.S. according to the latest issue of Monthly Energy Review published by the Energy Information Administration. Production of alternative energy is also beginning to close in on domestic oil production.

During the first three months of 2011, energy produced from renewable energy sources (biomass/biofuels, geothermal, solar, hydro, wind) generated 2.245 quadrillion Btus of energy equating to 11.73 percent of U.S. energy production. During this same time period, renewable energy production surpassed nuclear energy power by 5.65 percent. In total, energy produced from renewables is 77.15 percent of that from domestic crude oil production.

When looking at all energy sectors, production of renewable energy has increased by a little over 15 percent when compared to first quarter of 2010, and by more than 25 percent when compared to the first quarter of 2009. Of this total, biomass/biofuels accounted for approximately 48 percent of this total followed by hydropower at 35.41 percent, wind at 12.87 percent, geothermal at 2.45 percent and lastly solar at 1.16 percent.

Despite a seemingly low number for solar power, when compared to first quarter last year, solar power has increased by 104.8 percent while wind power increased by 40.3 percent. Hydropower and geothermal energy also increased by 28.7 percent and 5.8 percent respectively. While nuclear energy has seen a slight increase in power generation, for the most part it has remained steady.

“Notwithstanding the recent nuclear accident in Japan, among many others, and the rapid growth in energy and electricity from renewable sources, congressional Republicans continue to press for more nuclear energy funding while seeking deep cuts in renewable energy investments,” said Ken Bossong, Executive Director of the SUN DAY Campaign. “One has to wonder ‘what are these people thinking?’”

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released a paper on the potential of renewable energy and its impacts on reducing greenhouse gas emissions that are believed to contribute to global climate change. The report found that close to 80 percent of the world’s energy supply could be met by renewables by mid-century if supported by the right policies.

More than 120 researchers worked with IPPC on the report, “Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation (SRREN),” and the findings also indicate that the rising penetration of renewable energies could lead to cumulative GHG savings of 220 to 560 gigatonnnes of carbon dioxide between 2010 and 2050.

“With consistent climate and energy policy support, renewable energy sources can contribute substantially to human well-being by sustainably supplying energy and stabilizing the climate,” said Professor Ottmar Edenhofer, Co-Chair of Working Group III at the report launch. “However, the substantial increase of renewables is technically and politically very challenging.”

According to a news release, the upper end of the scenarios assessed, representing a cut of around a third in GHGs from business-as-usual projections, could assist in keeping concentrations of greenhouse gases at 450 parts per million. If this were the case, it could help to hold the increase in global average temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius, a goal laid out in the Cancun Agreements (COP-16).

Youba Sokona, Co-Chair of the Working Group III, said: “The potential role of renewable energy technologies in meeting the needs of the poor and in powering the sustainable growth of developing and developed economies can trigger sharply polarized views. This IPCC report has brought some much needed clarity to this debate in order to inform governments on the options and decisions that will needed if the world is to collectively realize a low carbon, far more resource efficient and equitable development path.”

The six renewable energy technologies reviewed were bioenergy, solar energy, geothermal energy, hydropower, ocean energy and wind energy. The report, which is a summary of a longer, 900 plus page research document, will feed into the broader work of the IPPC as they prepare its Fifth Assessment Report that is scheduled to be released in September 2014.