Investments in solar power overtook those in wind power for the first time in 2011, and the latest deals suggest this is only the start, says a new report by energy industry experts GlobalData. As the report explains, renewable energy is becoming increasingly important in developing nations across North Africa and Asia, and with such a readily available and abundant source, it is solar power that is attracting the big money.

In China (a major renewable power investment hub) a series of solar power projects have been declared to meet the demand from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), but also to fulfill its own requirements. Notably, Shandong province is currently implementing its ‘One Million Rooftops Sunshine Plan’, with the stated goal of stimulating the integration of solar panels into building construction.

Now emerging markets across the (MENA), Eastern Europe, Latin America and South east Asia are aiming to grow their renewable energy production with an increased presence in the solar sector. UAE and Algeria, among several other MENA nations, are focusing their renewable energy efforts in solar power, India’s National Solar Mission will drive investment in the Subcontinent, and the Malaysian government has set a renewable energy target of more than 3,140 megawatts by 2020, with solar power expected to account for one-third of the total capacity.

This new focus has upped demand for solar PV modules, set to be met by manufacturers in South east Asia. GlobalData expects Japan, Taiwan, Republic of Korea, and in particular, China, to be the major equipment manufacturers in the years to come.

The explosion in solar power’s popularity is attributed to the glut of PV modules that hit the market last year due to over production – an occurrence that lowered prices and vastly increased capacity installations. As a consequence, cost of generation approached grid parity in certain locations and attracted a wealth of asset financing investments.

According to 2011 figures, investments in solar power accounted for 49% of the $209 billion global renewable energy industry, compared to the once dominant wind sector, which claimed 34%. Biopower, geothermal and small hydro investments made up the remaining 17%.

France has a number of significant natural advantages that are helping the country to establish itself as a major player in the wind-power industry. It has the second largest wind resource in Europe, after the UK, and the French mainland has three coastlines. The country also boasts the world’s second largest maritime area (when overseas territories are taken into account). The country’s wind-energy sector is already worth over €2 billion.

France’s R&D initiatives and industrial expertise mean that it is in a position to develop an innovative and powerful wind-energy sector. Its wind-energy sector currently employs 11,000 people — a number which is set to grow to 60,000 by 2020.

As of the end of December 2011, France’s total onshore installed capacity stood at 6,600 MW. This should reach 19,000 MW by 2020, with offshore capacity, for its part, reaching 6,000 MW. In 2011, the French government issued an initial invitation to tender for 3,000 MW, to be distributed across 500 to 600 wind turbines that will be built off the coastline, in the Channel, in the North Sea, and in the Atlantic Ocean.

French companies involved in the wind-energy sector are taking advantage of this favourable situation and are using the domestic market to develop expertise that has been acquired in other sectors, such as metallurgy, aerospace and shipbuilding. Also thanks to an array of initiatives being implemented by various regional bodies, France’s wind-power sector has been expanding fast.

UBIFRANCE, the French export-support agency, will welcome 35 companies on the French pavilion at EWEA 2012, the leading European event of its kind, organised by the European Wind Energy Association. EWEA 2012 will take place at the Bella Center in Copenhagen (Denmark), from 16 to 19 April 2012.

The power sector is the one of the world’s biggest consumers of water, but one source – wind power – uses very little water to produce electricity. All fossil fuels and nuclear need significant quantities of water to pump crude oil out of the ground, remove pollutants from power plant exhausts, flush residues after fossil fuels are burned and cool power plants.

Coal uses up to 3.2 cubic metres of water per megawatt hour (MWh) of electricity produced, gas uses up to 1.7 m3 per MWh and nuclear around 2.7 m3 per MWh, but wind power uses only a fraction of these amounts.

In the US, the Department of Energy estimates that with a 20% share of wind power in the power system by 2030, as much as 15 trillion litres of water could be saved. That is the equivalent to the annual consumption of more than 9 million US citizens.

“Water scarcity is becoming a global challenge exacerbated by population growth and climate change. Wind energy is key to preserving our water resources and fighting climate change,” argues Remi Gruet, EWEA senior regulatory affairs advisor for environment and climate change. “Governments should therefore take a much more holistic approach to energy policy and promote investments in wind energy with ambitious targets for renewable energy.”
Global water demand is expected to outstrip supply by 2030 as world population grows and demand for power rises, according to the 2030 water resources group.

The UK wind sector has reached a landmark 6 gigawatts of installed capacity – enough to supply electricity to 3,354,893 homes – according to RenewableUK, the trade association representing the renewable energy industries. The 6GW threshold was reached by the Ormonde offshore wind farm, off the coast of Cumbria, which now has 120 megawatts (MW) operational – enough to power more than 67,000 homes.

“There’s a great feeling of pride throughout the industry that we’ve reached a record high of 6 gigawatts, and there’s a further 19.5GW of capacity under construction, consented, or in planning,” comments Maria McCaffery, chief executive of RenewableUK. “The Government’s Renewable Energy Roadmap is calling for 31GW of onshore and offshore wind combined by 2020, and we’re confident that we can deliver this if we continue to get the right level of Government support.”

CAPTION:

Turbine installation at the Ormonde Offshore Wind Farm.

Wind power supplied an average of 5.3% of the UK’s demand for electricity for December and early January, reaching a record share of 12.2% on 28th December. As a result, carbon emissions from the UK’s electricity generators were cut by over 750,000 tonnes, equivalent to taking over 300,000 cars off the road.

Dr Gordon Edge, director of policy at RenewableUK, the trade association for the wind, wave & tidal industry, comments “Wind energy represents a new paradigm in electricity generation, allowing us to harness the power of the weather when it’s available, cutting our fossil fuel bills and lowering our carbon emissions. As we’re generating increasingly large amounts of electricity from wind, feeding those large volumes of power into the system represents an engineering challenge to the National Grid – a challenge we are pleased to see they met over Christmas.”

National Grid is responsible for balancing the output of the UK’s electricity generators with demand from consumers and businesses on a minute by minute basis. Integrating the variable output of wind generators involves taking a range of balancing actions, including reducing the rate at which fossil fuel generators consume fuel when wind output is higher. Last year, National Grid launched a new wind power forecasting system, allowing their engineers to more accurately predict output from the UK’s growing fleet of wind farms.

European wind power production will meet a massive 31% of the emissions reduction required by the current EU climate target. According to a new report by the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) by 2020, the EU wind industry will avoid 342 million tonnes of CO2, equivalent to 31% of the EU’s target of reducing emissions by 20%. If emissions avoided by other renewable electricity technologies are included, the equivalent of almost half (48%) of the EU’s target of reducing emissions by 20% is avoided.

The huge contribution of wind power shows it is possible for the EU to move from a 20% to a 30% emissions reduction target, according to the EWEA. If the EU was to move to a 30% target, wind energy could still provide the equivalent of 20% of the reduction. The report also analyses the impact of wind energy on the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS) emission reduction targets and the international greenhouse gas reduction pledges.

The data backs up an earlier report from the EEA showing that both the crisis and renewables have been the main drivers for emissions reductions in recent years. It comes at an appropriate time, as the European Parliament is discussing the 2050 low carbon roadmap presented by the European Commission in February and is actively considering including a demand to increase the legally binding renewable energy target after 2020.

“An ambitious 2020 climate target is key to maintaining Europe’s leadership in the wind power industry in an environment of fast growing global competition from China, the US, South Korea and Japan,” says Remi Gruet, EWEA’s senior advisor on Climate and Environment. “It is clear that by deploying wind energy and other renewables the EU can move to a 30% greenhouse gas reduction target with ease.”

Wind energy in the EU will more than triple its power output by 2020 with Eur194 billion invested in European onshore and offshore wind farms during this decade, predicts the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA). Electricity production from wind power is expected to increase from 182 Terawatt hours (TWh) or 5.5% of the total EU demand in 2010, to 581 TWh or 15.7% of the total demand in 2020.

By 2020 the electricity production from wind energy will be equivalent to the total electricity consumption of all households in France, Germany, Poland, Spain and the UK together.

By 2030 1,154 TWh (28% of total demand) would be produced by wind power, more than the EU’s predicted 241 million private households are expected to consume in 2030. Today, wind power produces electricity equivalent to the consumption of 50 million average EU households.

EWEA’s ‘Pure Power’ report shows that the 27 EU Member States will have very different increases in wind power capacity over the coming years. According to EWEA, wind power capacity in Ireland will increase fourfold and represent 52% of the country’s electricity demand by 2020. UK capacity is expected to grow by a factor of five to account for 19% of electricity demand by 2020.

Onshore wind energy alone can provide up to 65% of Germany’s electricity requirements, according to a new study published by the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and Energy System Technology (IWES) on behalf of the German Wind Energy Association (BWE).

With just 2% of land area in Germany available for wind power production, Fraunhofer calculated that with current technology, 198 GW could be installed (as compared with the current installed capacity of 27.2 GW at the end of 2010), yielding 390 TWh/year.

“Based on a current national electricity demand of around 600 TWh per year, onshore wind power alone could cover 65% of Germany’s power requirements. This shows that renewable energy technologies can easily replace nuclear power, with Germany’s wind power potential alone being substantially higher than the share of nuclear power in the country’s current energy mix. In 2010, nuclear plants only delivered around 140 TWh of power to the German system,” comments BWE’s president Hermann Albers.

Looking at the various German Federal states, the study shows that the wind power potential is largest in those states with the least development to date, such as Bavaria, where 80 TWh could be produced annually, and Baden-Wuerttemberg, which could generate 45 TWh. At the moment, this potential is largely untapped.

The study assumes the installation of wind turbines of a rated power of 3 MW, and hub heights of 100-150 meters, reaching an average production of 2,000 full load hours per year.

The International Energy Agency has released its first Clean Energy Progress Report, which assesses global deployment of clean energy technologies and provides recommendations to countries on future action and spending. The report finds that while impressive progress has been made in developing clean energy technologies in recent years, the success stories are being overshadowed by surging demand for fossil fuels, which are outstripping deployment of clean energy technologies.

Coal has met 47% of the global new electricity demand over the past decade, eclipsing clean energy efforts made over the same period of time, which include improved implementation of energy efficiency measures and rapid growth in the use of renewable energy sources.

In order to change this status quo, the IEA argues that more aggressive clean energy policies are required, including the removal of fossil fuel subsidies and the implementation of transparent, predictable and adaptive incentives for cleaner energy options.
“Despite countries’ best efforts, the world is coming ever closer to missing targets that we believe are essential for meeting the goal agreed in Cancun to limit the growth in global average temperatures to less than 2 degrees Celsius,” points out Richard Jones, deputy executive director of the International Energy Agency. “A number of countries have shown that achieving rapid transition to cleaner technologies is possible, and can be done from the bottom up. We must see more ambitious, effective policies that respond to market signals while providing long-term, predictable support.”

Despite the persistent use of coal, the report notes that policy support over the last decade has led to a positive rise in renewable energy. The report cites solar and wind power as two areas where remarkable developments have been made.

In the case of solar energy, at least ten countries now have sizeable domestic markets, up from just three in 2000. Wind power also experienced dramatic growth over the last decade; global installed capacity at the end of 2010 was around 194 Gigawatts, more than ten times the 17 Gigawatts that were in place at the end of the year in 2000.

Despite this, and other progress with renewable sources of energy, the report states that worldwide renewable electricity generation since 1990 grew an average of 2.7% per year, which is less than the 3% growth seen for total electricity generation. Consequently, achieving the goal of halving global energy-related CO2 emissions by 2050 will require a doubling of all renewable generation use by 2020 from today’s level.

China added 18.9 GW of new wind power capacity last year to reach a total installed capacity of 44.7 GW, according to the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC). The new numbers for China also result in revised figures for global wind power growth in 2010, with the new capacity added over the year amounting to 38.3 GW (close to the 2009 market), taking the total to 197 GW, which represents a 24% growth.

“China has become the single largest driver for global wind power development. In 2010, every second wind turbine that was added anywhere in the world was installed in China.” says Steve Sawyer, secretary general of GWEC.

China’s wind market doubled every year between 2005 and 2009 in terms of total installed capacity, and it has been the world’s largest annual market since 2009. In 2010, China overtook the US as the country with the most installed wind energy capacity.

This strong growth in China has had a significant impact on the market shares of wind turbine manufacturers, which see Chinese companies increasing their overall shares of the global wind markets. Indeed, four out of the top ten global wind turbine manufacturers are now Chinese, with Sinovel and Goldwind ranking second and fourth respectively. Domestic manufacturers now supply more than 50% of the equipment used in Chinese wind power projects.

According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the growth in installed capacity was driven by a record level of investment in wind power in China, which exceeded $20 billion in 2009. In the third quarter of 2010, China’s investment in new wind power projects accounted for half of the global total.

The Chinese government report Development Planning of New Energy Industry optimistically calculated that the cumulative installed capacity of China’s wind power will reach 200 GW by 2020 and generate 440 TWh of electricity annually, creating more than RMB250 billion (Eur28 billion or $38 billion) in revenue.

The Chinese government’s twelfth Five-Year Plan, which was passed by the Chinese Parliament in March 2011, reflects the Chinese government’s continuous and reinforced commitment to wind power development, with a target of building an additional 90 GW of wind energy by 2015.

The recent start-up of the grid interconnection between the UK and the Netherlands is a major step forward for a better interconnected electricity grid in Europe. The European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) is a strong supporter of an integrated power grid in Europe and believes that the BritNed link, which has just gone live, is very significant.

“The Eur600 million investment for the 260 kilometres long High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) cable with a power capacity of 1000 Megawatt between the United Kingdom and the Netherlands will provide a substantial boost to electricity trade between these two market regions. This will ultimately serve for an optimised power system operation and smoothen out the variable output of wind power plants over a large geographical area,” explains Paul Wilczek, EWEA grids advisor. “Europe is still far from a truly integrated electricity market, but every step towards a single market helps the cost efficient integration of renewable electricity generation like wind power.”

Another recent development was the day-ahead market coupling of the regions of Central-Western Europe, including France, Germany, the Benelux countries and Scandinavia last November. “In addition we now need functioning intraday markets which are crucial for efficient integration of large amounts of wind energy and for cost-efficient system operation in general,” he adds.

Honoured as 2011 European Green Capital by the European Commission, Hamburg, Germany is seizing the opportunity to accelerate its growth as a city of the future. Educational programmes that reach across the community and across the Continent , ambitious carbon emissions reduction targets, aggressive leadership in the management and servicing of renewable energies, and major sustainable urban development projects are the hallmark activities of the city’s Green Capital year.

The Train of Ideas, a mobile international, interactive exhibition highlighting best practices in urban sustainability, launches in Hamburg just prior to Earth Day on April 15th and will be on display in 17 European cities before returning home in late September. Hamburg Green Capital’s reach will expand to the US later this year with events planned for Washington, DC, and New York.

Four out of five Europeans live in urban areas today and these urban areas account for 75% of Europe’s greenhouse gas emissions. Despite facing enormous challenges, cities are in the forefront of developing solutions to the ecological issues of future.

In 2009 the European Commission recognised the vital role of cities in providing the blueprint towards sustainability by creating the designation of ‘European Green Capital’ for cities that have achieved high environmental standards, set ambitious goals for improvement, and are role models for other cities. The first European Green Capital title was awarded in 2010 to Stockholm. In fact, Hamburg received a higher score than any of the 34 European cities competing for the title, but, as Germany was already hosting a European Cultural Capital in 2010, the Green Capital award went first to Stockholm.

The Train of Ideas enables the Green Capital of Hamburg to become mobile. The international, interactive exhibition shines a spotlight on how cities can be made both liveable and sustainable in the future. Six ‘containers’ or train cars will display more than 100 best-practice projects from European cities in more than 70 exhibits and on 26 touchscreens.

Metropolitan Hamburg has a total population of 4.3 million people. It has more than 500 industrial plants and, right in the heart of the city, is home to Europe’s third-largest port. The city boasts high environmental standards including a 15% reduction in carbon emissions since 1990, despite the city’s continued growth; an excellent public transportation system that is accessible within 1000 feet to 99% of the population; high quality drinking water combined with low per capita consumption and minimal leakage; highly efficient waste water treatment; and nature conservation that maintains 16.7% of the city’s total area as woodlands, recreational areas and green spaces.

The city has adopted a series of ambitious development goals such as increasing the number of citizens using bicycles as their main form of transport to 18% (over 12% in 2008) and increasing public bike stations around the city; a solid climate action strategy to cut carbon emissions by 40% over 1990 levels by 2020; and a strategy for high-quality internal growth.

Innovative development visions are being put into practice throughout the city, with a number of model projects well under way. They include carbon neutral residential quarters, zero-energy and passive houses, a low-carbon heat supply for the HafenCity Hamburg, Europe’s largest inner-city development, as well as the ‘Energy-Bunker’ – a former flak bunker being converted into a renewable energy-power-plant. Many of these projects are part of the International Building Exhibition 2013 (IBA) and predominantly implemented on city-owned land.

Hamburg is already Germany’s number one wind power development and management centre. By the end of the Green Capital year, more than 10 megawatts of Hamburg’s electricity will be produced by solar power and local universities provide a wealth of internationally-regarded data and research in the field of renewable energy. The vision is to position the Hamburg metropolitan region as the leading site worldwide for management and innovative services in the field of renewable energy.