The largest accidental marine oil spill in history, which happened at the Deepwater Horizon rig, poured over four million barrels of petroleum into the Gulf of Mexico last year. Killing thousands of birds and wrecking underwater habitats, the spill not only brought into question oil giant BP’s safety standards, but also the world’s dependence on fossil fuels.

Less than a year later, a nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, triggered by the massive tsunami that hit Japan’s eastern coast in March, came as yet another reminder of the world’s reliance on non-renewable energy sources (nuclear energy is generated by splitting atoms of the metal uranium).

The disaster even prompted Germany to move away from nuclear power completely, promising to support renewable energy sources and to close down all nuclear power plants by 2022.

Following these crises, environmental groups have stepped up their calls for local and national governments to invest more in renewable energy sources.

And it seems to be working. The Renewables 2011 Global Status Report, released by renewable energy policy network REN21 last week, shows that the world increased its renewable energy production in 2010, despite the economic downturn. Total investment in renewable power jumped from $160 billion in 2009 to $211 billion in 2010.

Over the past five years, solar power production has increased seven-fold worldwide, with more than 100 countries adding solar photovoltaic capacity last year, according to the annual report.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change identifies renewable energy as one way to mitigate the effects of climate change. Many say this is incumbent on developed countries that are historically responsible for 75 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. But the report shows developing countries are taking the lead.

ACCESS TO ENERGY WIDENING

“Money invested in renewable energy companies, and in utility-scale generation and biofuel projects increased to $143 billion, with developing countries surpassing developed economies for the first time,” Paris-based REN21 says on its website.

Developing countries are now home to over half the world’s renewable energy power. And of the 119 countries that now have renewable policy targets, or are on their way to setting them, at least half are developing nations.

Fossil fuels account for the majority of human-made greenhouse gas emissions released into the atmosphere. At the end of 2010, CO2 concentrations were 39 percent above pre-industrial levels, according to a May report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It’s clear that global warming can’t be slowed without increasing renewable energy production.

“The spread of renewables to more regions and countries helps more of the world’s people gain access to energy services not only to meet their basic needs, but also to enable them to develop economically,” the REN21 paper states.

“Today, more people than ever before derive energy from renewables as capacity continues to grow, prices continue to fall and shares of global energy from renewable energy continue to increase.”

Soumya Karlamangla is an AlertNet Climate intern.

The growth of renewable energy will lead to opportunities in manufacturing, federal Climate Change Minister Greg Combet says.
Mr Combet was joined by South Australian Premier Mike Rann in suburban Adelaide today to tour the RPG Australia plant, a company that supplies steel towers for wind farms.
Mr Combet said the visit highlighted the economic benefits from growth in renewable energy including opportunities for the manufacturing industry.
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Mr Combet said the government’s new programs would promote clean energy including the $10 billion Clean Energy Finance corporation, $3.2 billion investment through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and the $200 million Clean Technology Innovation Program.
“The Clean Energy Finance Corporation will play a vital role in unlocking significant new private investment into clean energy projects and the supply chain that feeds into these projects,” he said in a statement.
The visit comes after Prime Minister Julia Gillard visited Adelaide this month to spruik the federal government’s controversial new carbon tax.
The new tax will see carbon priced at $23 a tonne, paid by Australia’s 500 largest polluting companies from July 1, 2012.
It will also set an ambitious new target of cutting greenhouse emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.
The tax has led to concerns of job cuts among pollution-heavy industries and manufacturers.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/energy-smart/renewables-will-lead-to-job-growth-combet-20110726-1hy78.html#ixzz1TCq1VQXa

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — African governments should consider investing in renewable energies like wind, solar and hydro power to help feed the continent’s growing energy demands and combat threats of climate change, the head of a new international energy agency said Friday.
Adnan Amin also told nearly 30 African energy and foreign affairs ministers at the start of a two-day meeting that the key to ramping up renewable energy deployment was for countries to develop regulatory framework needed to convince institutional investors it’s safe to put their money into these cutting edge technologies.
“If Africa continues to grow at pace it is growing and intensifies that growth and uses only carbon-emitting forms of energy, it will exponentially change the picture on climate change and make it much worse,” said Amin, a Kenyan who is director general of the International Renewable Energy Agency.
“We need right now to start making the kinds of investment that will lead Africa on a very different path,” he said.
There is a global push to reduce dependence on traditional forms of energy like oil and coal as part of efforts to combat global warming and keep temperatures from rising more than 3.8 degrees Fahrenheit (2 Celsius) above preindustrial-era levels, which could trigger catastrophic climate impacts.
Until now, African has largely been left on the sidelines of discussions about climate change, mostly because its poor nations only use 5 percent of the world’s energy.
But that thinking is beginning to change, as Africa’s economy picks up steam and demands intensify to provide electricity to the more than half a billion mostly rural residents who live without it. There is also a push in Africa to find cleaner sources of energy, since almost half now come from burning wood and charcoal.
Rajendar Pachauri, who chairs the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, told the meeting in Abu Dhabi that he sees great potential for renewable energy in Africa, especially hydro, solar and wind.
He said renewables will be cheaper than traditional sources and that Africa has an abundance of land that could be used to solar and wind farms.
“The potential is enormous,” he said on the sidelines of the meeting. “Given the fact we have over 500 million people without access to electricity, that is huge niche market that could be tapped in an economically viable way. If you would provide this section of society with electricity from the grid, it would turn out to be far more expensive.”
Ministers and officials from the African Union and African development agencies all talked up the potential for renewables, with many saying the best hopes lie with hydro power in countries with large rivers, geothermal in Kenya’s Rift Valley and solar almost everywhere on the continent.
Sugarcane producing countries could also burn the refuge to produce energy in a process known as biogas.
“We have sun in abundance and that is an area we can tap,” Gambia’s Foreign Minister Mamadou Tangara said. “The initial investment is very high but in terms of sustainability and the long term impact, renewable energy is the way forward for Africa.”

Global investment in green energy rose by 32 per cent in 2010, driven largely by wind farms in China and small-scale solar panels on rooftops in Europe, the United Nations Environment Programme says in a new report on renewable energy trends.

Investors put a record $211 billion into renewable energy projects last year, about a third more than the $160 billion invested in 2009, and a 540 per cent rise since 2004, according to the report, entitled “Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2011,” prepared for UNEP by the London-based Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

For the first time, developing economies overtook developed countries in terms of new investments, spending on utility-scale renewable energy projects and the provision of equity capital for renewable energy companies.

About $72 billion was invested in developing countries, compared $70 billion in developed economies, which contrasts with 2004, when new financial investments in developing countries were about a quarter of those in developed countries, according to the report, which was launched by UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner and Udo Steffens, President and chief executive officer of the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, the UN News Centre reported.

China, with $48.9 billion in new investments in renewable energy, up by 28 per cent, was the world leader last year, but other emerging economies also showed strong growth.
Investments in South and Central America rose by 39 per cent to $13.1 billion, while in the Middle East and Africa they were up by 104 per cent to $5 billion. India’s investment rose by 25 per cent to $3.8 billion, while other developing countries in Asia saw a 31 per cent increase to $4 billion.

Another positive development highlighted in the report, with implications for long-term clean energy developments, was government research and development. That category of investment rose by 120 per cent to well over $5 billion.

“The continuing growth in this core segment of the Green Economy is not happening by chance,” Steiner said. “The combination of government target-setting, policy support and stimulus funds is underpinning the renewable industry’s rise and bringing the much-needed transformation of our global energy system within reach,” he said.

He said the UN climate change conference in Durban, South Africa, later this year, and the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in Brazil next year offered key opportunities to accelerate the positive transition to a low-carbon, resource-efficient green economy.

“The finance industry is still recovering from the recent financial crisis,” Steffens said. “The fact that the industry remains heavily committed to renewables demonstrates its strong belief in the prospects of sustainable energy investments,” he said.

THOUSANDS of new green energy jobs could be created in east Hull within four years.

The Mail can today reveal details of a new blueprint outlining how millions of pounds of renewable industry could be brought to the city as early as 2015.

​Alexandra Dock as it will look with the Siemens turbine plant in production.
.Ten plots of land have been identified as part of Hull’s bid for a new Enterprise Zone along a three-mile stretch of Hedon Road.

If given the go-ahead by ministers, firms moving into any of the agreed sites within the zone will be offered a range of start-up incentives.

They include not having to pay business rates for five years, saving up to £255,000 per company.

With the 100 per cent discount only available to businesses moving in by April 2015, the scene is set for a period of frantic activity along Hedon Road.

In addition, developments linked to the renewable energy sector will not require planning permission.

Grants for new plant and machinery could also be available as an alternative incentive to business rate discounts.

Thousands of new jobs are likely to created if the ambitions behind the zone bid are realised.

Green energy expert Sam Pick said: “This area of Hull will form a renewables cluster, being home to companies at all stages of the vast supply chain for offshore wind power and other green energy sources.”

The zone includes the site of the proposed £80m Siemens wind turbine factory at Alexandra Dock, which is expected to be operational by 2014, creating up to 800 jobs.

Other sites include a vast 118-acre undeveloped site between Saltend and the village of Paul.

Developer Paul Dixon, who is leading a consortium aiming to create a business park at the former Humbrol factory site on Hedon Road, said. “It is essential the bid of Enterprise Zone status is successful.

“Getting a zone here would be great news for the city because it provides a incentive for new investment.”

Expected to create 300 jobs, the Marfleet Environmental Technologies Park will eventually feature ten new units, alongside a refurbished existing warehouse.

Mr Dixon said his consortium was in the final stages of negotiating for European funding to help cover some of the infrastructure costs at the site.

“We have applied for a grant worth £4.7m, which will be part of an overall investment of around £15m in the site,” he said.

“It is a speculative development but if Siemens do come to Hull then we will have something ready for them if they need it.

“We have already received some enquiries from potential occupiers looking at units of between 20,000 and 30,000 sq ft.”

Councillor Steve Bayes, cabinet member for regeneration at Hull City Council, said: “Having an Enterprise Zone is important because we need facilities and land for the supply chain that will come with the proposed wind turbine factory development.”

John Clugson, chairman of the pan-Humber Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) bidding for Zone status, said: “The whole aim is to get more business into the area and create more jobs.

“With that in mind, we can see the clear importance of renewables.

“We have got to push for this like mad.”

Humber LEP officials met civil servants from two Government departments earlier this week to continue talks over the zone bid, which has to be submitted by the end of the month.

They are hoping to get agreement on a zone covering both the Hedon Road corridor and a site on the South Bank.

Firms operating across the UK should look to take advantage of the popularity of renewable energy training courses at present, it has been stated.

Keith Tolwin, sales director at MET UK, said businesses throughout the UK could benefit from the uptake of renewable energy in order to improve their green credentials, although all installations should be carried out by trained professionals.

Indeed, failing to do so could have serious implications for the health and safety of workers in the future.

He commented: “There are certain [courses] that are far more difficult than others, but the renewable energy ones generally are fairly straightforward.”

Meanwhile, Department of Energy and Climate Change minister Greg Barker recently wrote in a ministerial statement that future regulations for businesses in terms of CRC compliance will be less burdensome and more practicable.

He added that a simplification of the CRC energy-efficiency scheme should be a top priority for the government.

Rapid Electronics is a leading UK supplier of energy saving products, electronic components, electrical and power products.

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.