renewables

If it's a question of a cost-effective clean-energy mix, why not invest more in renewables in the hope of making them more competitive?

"In the end, if they use more renewables domestically, they can export more" fossil fuels, she said. "It's sort of a no-brainer. "

But the share of electricity generated by renewables is still far behind that of dirty-but-cheap coal, which will rise to almost 44%.

"The costs of a complete switch to renewables are a lot less than the costs to future generations that climate change will cause, " he said.

Trying to get there by a pell-mell fielding of the costliest renewables is pointless.

By marking down the shares of renewables firms, the markets seem to be assuming that the government will indeed ignore it.

Most importantly, the overall impact on emissions from investment in renewables could turn out to be much less than meets the eye.

Britain's energy bill is still bogged down in parliament, adding to uncertainty over the future for renewables.

With gas too risky, coal too dirty, nuclear too slow and renewables too unreliable, Britain is in a bind. What can it do to get out of it?

But in many boardrooms renewables are no longer seen as just a way of keeping environmentalists off companies' backs.

"We think the share of renewables and nuclear which is now 18% worldwide needs to go up to 33% by 2030, " he said.

Beijing has given clear indications that it intends to ramp up the use of renewables, and particularly solar power, over the next few years.

As they look to renewables, it may be that energy companies are the best bet for future growth as well as current revenues.

Politicians may have to turn to the nascent renewables industry to help ease the crunch.

The best indication of that is the carbon price that would be required to make investment in renewables worthwhile without subsidy.

So far, renewables account for a small share of its energy supply, although the overall target is a 15% share of total energy by 2020.

"That would be risky and unbalanced. Renewables can provide jobs and help us manage the transition to a low-carbon economy. "

It could go for hydro, nuclear or renewables but the reality is they're going to have to use all of them because demand is so high.

Moreover, the biggest impediment to the spread of renewables in most countries is not an antiquated grid, but the lack of a price on carbon.

But the worried question around Washington now is: to what degree lower prices will crimp investment in renewables and efficiency.

The bank's only such investment is in Statoil of Norway, because of its renewables focus.

The fact that the US didn't support its renewables industry in the same way that other countries did is no grounds for complaining now.

That could leave the U. S. shorthanded on solar at the very time when it's finally gotten serious about renewables.

Or, "If the price of oil would just go high enough, then renewables would become economic, and our economy would be sustainable. "

Another danger is that unconventional gas will push aside not just a swathe of coal-fired power stations, but promising renewables, too.

The lack of new coal-fired capacity creates a real opportunity for alternatives, among them renewables.

Coal, another major competitor of renewables, remains expensive and is facing increasing scrutiny over environmental concerns.

"One of the ways to bridge the time that those renewables need is by reducing the need for new energy, " he says.

There are also signs that research into renewables is beginning to grow rapidly.

Majumdar said India was also shifting from a policy of investment-based incentive to generation-linked incentives for renewables projects.

And the renewables still face tremendous challenges in offering the enormous additional capacity required for the next 20 years.

The energy policies of the new US administration, as in other countries, will emphasise greater energy efficiency and renewables.

Convinced that these are short-term problems, fans of renewables want government cash to see projects through the tough times.

The "wedges" include efficiency, renewables, carbon sequestration, reforestation, and replacing coal plants with natural gas.

She had argued for the extension as a low-cost "bridge" to a future based on renewables.

Nor did I suggest that nuclear should replace renewables, or produce any higher proportion of our electricity than it does already.

The impacts and costs of renewables rise with the proportion of power they supply, as the need for storage and redundancy increases.

"In the medium term, a renewables business depends on adding capacity to sustain growth, " argues Bobby Chada of Morgan Stanley.

Under the stimulus bill, renewables benefit from a tax credit, grants, loan guarantees and an expensive overhaul of the electric grid.

More gas will also mean less take-up for low-carbon energy sources like renewables and nuclear power.

Now renewables account for 15% of electricity and German manufacturers of solar cells and wind-power turbines are among the world's leaders.

When cheap and plentiful gas replaces coal in electricity generation, it often reduces emissions much more cheaply than renewables can.

The Japanese just established a Feed-In Tariff to expand renewables, with a recent poll showing 77 percent supporting a nuclear phase out.

This time Huaneng Renewables will seek to woo investors with a lower price to earnings ratio.

Public money of this scale would be better spent on renewables.

Additional data for natural gas, coal, hydroelectricity, nuclear energy, electricity and renewables.

Oil firms, carmakers, power generators, nervous of being outmanoeuvred, are jacking up their investments in renewables and biofuels.

But we know renewables can deliver and there is so much more potential.

Lest readers think I am against renewables let me be clear: I've put my money into this technology.

If you get renewables that are actually cost competitive with fossil fuels then it's a very very different world.

And, happily, gas-fired stations can boost the prospects for renewables, by smoothing out fluctuations in supply from renewable sources.

By 2020, North America will be energy independent by taking full advantage of our oil, our coal, our gas, our nuclear and our renewables.

Renewables are a problem for the grid, as currently configured, because supply has to match unfettered demand minute-by-minute.

Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS) and Feed-in Tariffs are two main systems in promoting the renewable energy development abroad.

A green industrial policy, it hopes, would not only help a bit with the power shortage but also boost Japan's struggling renewables firms.

"Without a lot of renewables, the business model for CAES is not that strong, " Holst said.

The immediate imperative was to find a way of rescuing the renewables industry from Wall Street's collapse.

Lower oil prices, sagging demand for energy and hard-to-get credit have caused many firms to cut back on renewables worldwide.

The IEA called for greater investment in renewables and nuclear power to ease pressure on scarce and ever more expensive commodities.

While renewables were struggling to get off the ground, the world's demand for energy would grow quickly.

Professor Petros Axaopoulos demonstrated his educational software on solar energy, which helps to enhance students' education in renewables.

This means increased public and private investment in energy research, particularly in renewables.

But renewables are only a problem when demand is taken as the given.

Unlike other renewables, such as the wind or sun, the Earth's heat never stops.

Other renewables are not, but incremental improvements are steadily making them competitive.

Those future fuel costs, Greenpeace says, massively outweigh the extra investment costs of renewables.

And ever more countries are making "renewables" even more attractive through subsidies or taxes on grubbier fuels.

Shale could also rival renewables that require big subsidies, and new pipeline and liquefied natural gas projects.

Without investment in renewables, new nuclear and carbon capture and storage, emissions will remain too high.

It is seen as an essential step towards the European Union's pledge to source 20 percent of its electricity from renewables by 2020.

We have done studies on micro-energy and renewables, but they are expensive.

Well, I think out ahead of us a few decades is peak gas, and beyond that, peak renewables.

Hard choices loom in energy among dangerous nuclear power, dirty coal and expensive renewables.

Today, nuclear cannot compete on cost with fossil fuels, and cannot compete on quality with renewables.

It's by far the national leader in green jobs, green patents, supply from renewables and savings from efficiency.

Among the most ambitious is New Jersey's, which will require 22. 5% of energy to come from renewables by 2021.

Blue Fire Renewables, meanwhile, also is undergoing a growth-induced identity crisis.

And rising prices for traditional fuels could help, raising the market to reach the renewables' costs.

Europe committed itself to generating 20% of its energy from renewables by 2020, and banned incandescent light bulbs.

Topics include energy independence, electricity rate reform and the role of renewables.

With more aggressive action on climate change and promotion of renewables, the IEA projects that share would increase to just 11 percent.

Many more promote ethanol, or renewables, or energy-efficient buildings.

One way to get the money: the expanded tax credits for renewables in Obama's stimulus plan.

The need to get first movers access to financing is the rationale for all loan guarantees, whether nuclear or renewables.

We do not have the luxury of choosing between gas and renewables.

Yet solar is considerably more expensive even than other renewables.

Renewables will play a greater role than either nuclear or carbon capture and storage by 2050, the scientists predict.

But in many places, renewables get something even better: quotas.

Unlike most renewables, geothermal power has the advantage of operating 24 hours a day.

Cost will be one obstacle to a general shift to renewables.

But the simple fact is that there is no way renewables and energy efficiency alone will get us where we need to go.

Wind was the clear winner among renewables in 2009.

The school offers its MBA students electives in Clean Technology and Energy Finance that incorporate renewables.

China is the world's largest investor in wind energy and has set ambitious targets for renewables.

To shift fully to renewables, Germany needs to boost storage capacity by a factor of 500.

For renewables a gigawatt of power is a massive amount; for nuclear power it is the basic unit.

We need to look at tried and tested technologies like renewables that work and can start reducing the threat climate change now.

Share prices for renewables surged on the news.

To fill the gap, renewables are likely to receive a boost.

Renewables, too, will grow beyond the 2 per cent share suggested by the IEA.

For some companies in the US, however, China's rise in renewables is a threat.

The more work we expect renewables to do, the greater the impact on the landscape will be, and the tougher the task of public persuasion.

While the US has been moving toward renewables for several years, he explains there is a time lag in higher education.

By 2020 it plans for 15% of its total energy mix to come from renewables and nuclear.

Yet the biggest source of renewables, hydropower, and the smallest, geothermal, both only added 3% to capacity.

A senior Commission official has admitted that "we don't know how to get from A to Z" to hit the renewables target.

California's politicians are keen on renewables too.

A lot of those reductions come from support for renewables.

this is one reason why nearby Austin Energy, which is owned by the tech-centric city of Austin, has an unusually strong renewables standard.

Anyone who thinks turning away from nuclear will lead to more renewables need only look at what has happened in Germany.

Like most greens, I favour a major expansion of renewables.

Government planners hope that by 2020, renewables will account for 15 per cent of energy needs.

"If you can't borrow money, you can't develop renewables, " Mr. Book said.

The country's current goal is to get 10 percent of its power from renewables by 2020.

That was partly due to the bad economy, and partly to the increased use of renewables and natural gas.

China has said it wants 16 percent of its energy mix to come from renewables by 2020.

Yet tiny Malta (a sun-drenched but crowded rock near Italy) has been given a renewables target of just 10%.

Renewables remain too expensive and the industry too important to France's economy.

A case in point is the generating capacity of renewables.

Personally I think we could reach the target of having renewables provide 20% of total energy consumption.

Yet for all the bold plans and ambition, there are still plenty of obstacles facing the Chinese renewables sector.

With the anticipated growth in the renewables market, there is potential for expansion of the facility in the future.

Ministers will argue that the tax will also benefit low carbon generators of electricity such as clean coal and renewables.

But even leaving costs aside, there are practical limits to how fast renewables can grow.

To prevent that from happening, we need to invest in nuclear energy, and drop funding for renewables.

Renewables, including wind, solar, and hydro, currently account for barely 8. 5 percent.

In principle, these should be the ideal conditions for development of renewables such as wind, nuclear power and biofuels.

But renewables should provide 30-45% of the nation's energy by 2030, says the Committee on Climate Change (CCC).

Oil rich countries are also going in for Renewables in a big way.

Energy companies such as Centrica and EDF, a French firm, are re-evaluating their British renewables projects.

"The secular move to renewables such as solar is an unassailable shift, " he says.

A move to renewables is inevitable?

Initial Chinese solar and wind subsidies were not accompanied by any massive growth in domestic sales of renewables in China.

We want to match the hour-by-hour power supply. You can do that by combining renewables.

Globally, renewables provide only about 3. 5 percent of electricity and even less of transportation fuels.

This comes on top of $10 billion in loan guarantees for renewables initially authorised by the Energy Act of 2005, but not yet disbursed.

Renewables will only make up 15 percent of total energy by 2020.

In addition to renewables such as wind, solar and hydro, China is also including areas such as unconventional gas in the stimulus package.

Renewables would have a clearer run at that segment of the market.

Since then, renewables like solar and wind have expanded their share from 6. 6% to 16. 5%.

The program hasn't been restarted, despite growing attention to renewables, but that's not because it's considered a bad idea.

Huaneng Renewables is the third-largest wind farm operator in China, generating about 6 per cent of the country's wind power.

According to Energy Department projections, renewables will account for 14 percent of total energy use by 2035, up from 8 percent in 2008.

Under current legislation, the Renewables Obligation will peak at 15. 4% in 2015, which is too low to support Round 3.

Renewables now account for 6. 7% of energy consumption, up from 5. 5% in 2006 and 3. 5% in 2003.

Germany supplies 18 per cent of its energy needs through renewables, against a paltry 1 per cent in Japan, once a leader in solar power.

Tim Helweg-Larsen explains how energy bonds could be used to fund Britain's renewables revolution Link to this video

much increased investment in research and development in renewables, nuclear power and carbon capture and storage;

Energy Technologies, Renewables and Energy Saving Department

The world's third and fourth biggest economies have abandoned plans for new reactors, believing renewables and efficiency can fill the gap

Datacentre will be powered mainly by renewables and handle all data processing from Europe, the Middle East and Afric

Each extra percentage point that can be added to the renewables target by 2020 is estimated to save 150 million tonnes of coal equivalent

to obtain 20% of overall EU energy from renewables like wind, waves and plant waste;

Growth in renewables comes at a high price;