reegle Blog

Weblog of reegle – Information Gateway for Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency

Welcome to a new series of regular two weekly Events Listings. We kick off with a free online training programme, plus face-to-faces in Liechstenstein, London and Lisbon, San Francisco and Singapore.

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It is today, honestly, and there’s plenty going on in RE & EE over the next few months.

The new Renewable Energy Directive gives pan-European support to renewable energy and sets ambitious targets – 20% renewable energy by 2020 – for its constituents. Having mandated that all member states must have implemented the Directive by December 2010, this is a key moment for European Energy policy. There is no questioning that Europe is a major player on the global renewable energy stage, having accounted for 44% of all deals in 2009, up from 38% in 2008. Make sure you are up-to-date with the latest happenings in this market by attending the 12th Renewable Energy Finance Forum – London, 20-21 September.

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Reuters wrote on Monday that scientist called for the IPPC  (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) to undergo for thorough reform in terms of sticking to solid scientific evidence and avoid policy advocacy in order to stay credible.

The IPPC has been criticized over the last few months about admitting its 2007 report wrongly warning about Himalayan glaciers vanishing as early as 2035 as well as exaggerating how much of the Netherlands was below sea level. The the InterAcademy Council (IAC), an Amsterdam-based organization of the world’s science academies requested that such forecast can only be made on the basis of solid scientific evidence. Errors such as the ones mentioned could lead to the whole science of global warming being questioned.co2.gif Read more

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Geothermal Energy Methods - Source: Wiki CommonsThe utilization of hot steam from geothermal resources to generate electricity has the potential to diversify the global energy mix and enhance all our efforts to address climate change and global warming, says Magnus Gehringer, Senior Energy Specialist at the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP). “Our dependence on fossil fuels has lasted too long and we will reach the point when we can no longer continue on this path, due to economical, financial and environmental issues. We have to look for other ways to produce electrical power.

Geothermal power generation has immense benefits but little has been done to assist developing countries establish geothermal projects.  Worldwide, geothermal power generation has reached a total capacity of over 11 gigawatts in over twenty countries. The United States of America leads with over 3,000 megawatts of geothermal power installed, with rapid expansion planned.

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In late August, the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program-ESMAP launched its new website, which provides  access to information on  ESMAP’s programs, activities, knowledge products and achievements. The Energy Sector Management Assistance Program is a global, multidonor technical assistance program aimed at promoting environmentally sustainable energy solutions for poverty reduction and economic growth. Their new Web site (http://www.esmap.org) focuses on assisting low- and middle-income countries to increase know-how and institutional capacity in order to achieve environmentally sustainable energy solutions for poverty reduction and economic growth.

While reviewing the new website I found a lot of interesting articles and studies, which I thought are worth sharing with you. I am planning to highlight their thoughts on how Geothermal Energy could help to diversify the global energy mix in an separate article later today … in the meantime feel free to review their E-Bulletin or take a look into their latest publications:

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Walter Kohn, Ph.D., a Nobel Laureate, expects direct wind and solar power to become the world’s main sources of energy over the next decades. The last decade has already seen an increase of factor 90 for solar and factor 10 for wind energy.

This new Sol/Wind era is brought about by the need to satisfy our ever-growing need for power and the finiteness of traditional sources. He expects oil and natural gas production to peak in about 10-30 years from now, followed by a rapid decline. Kohn explained at a special symposium at the American Chemical Society’s 240th National Meeting that this new era in human history is the result of two unprecedented global challenges faced by humankind: a global shortage of accessible and acceptable power and the dangers associated with climate change.photovoltaic.gif Read more

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On 15 July 2010, the ’Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century’ (REN21), which aims at facilitating  policy development for the rapid expansion of renewable energies in developing and industrialised economies, released the ‘Renewables 2010 Global Status Report’, the 5th edition of its annual flagship publication.

What is the purpose of the REN21 Renewables Global Status Report: Changes in renewable energy markets, investments, industries, and policies have been so rapid in recent years that perceptions of the status of renewable energy can lag years behind the reality. This report captures that reality and provides a unique overview of renewable energy worldwide as of early 2010.

Since our last blog has already given an overview over those three distinct market sectors in which renewable energies continue to play an increasing role (power generation, hot water and space heating and transport fuels), today’s article will focus on Chapter 4 of the ‘Renewables Global Status Report 2010’, which examines the policy landscape of renewable energies, including policy targets, promotion policies,  as well as green power purchasing  in 2009/ early 2010.

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When lives are at stake after natural disaster, environmental issues tend to be disregarded in the effort. Yet situation where more charcoal becomes necessary due to uncooked food-aid and the increased amount of rubbish from packaging can leave an area vulnerable to further problems in the future. Read more

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Delhi International Action Programme

In conjunction with the Delhi International Renewable Energy Conference (DIREC), the host government of India together with REN21 is honoured to invite governments and other stakeholders to pledge voluntary actions towards advancing renewable energy deployment and policy development (online submission form).

What is the Delhi International Action Programme (DIAP)?
The DIAP is a continuation of the International Action Programme (IAP) that was initiated at the first International Renewable Energy Conference in Bonn 2004 (renewables2004). It is a set of non-binding commitments by Actors from different stakeholder groups worldwide, who at the occasion of an international conference and at the initiative of one government, voluntarily pledges to carry out, in the foreseeable future, individual measureable Actions to promote a common purpose, and to cooperate in reviewing and progress reporting. It has proven to be a powerful and flexible way to stimulate voluntary action on renewables.

REN21 has developed and administered the IAP, also known as the renewables Pledge Programme, and today maintains a database of more than 340 pledges from both the Bonn 2004 and Washington 2008 (WIREC) International Renewable Energy Conferences. The database is a rich collection of concrete actions, programmes and initiatives on international, national or sub-national levels, constituting an invaluable source of information on specific steps and best practices in advancing the uptake of renewable energy.

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The State Information Center in China was cited that a “newly developing energy industries” plan involving $739 billion in investment through 2020 has been approved by the National Development and Reform Commission and will be submitted to the State Council for approval.

Officials announced that such energy industries include nuclear, wind, solar and biomass energy, as well as clean coal, smart grid, distributed energy and new energy sources for vehicles.  An agreement to close at least 10,000 megawatts of outdated coal-fuelled power capacity before October this year is already signed, a step towards reducing the current situation where coal still  accounts for 70% of China’s primary energy sources. A domestic market for trading carbon emissions is also likely to be set up by 2014.photovoltaic.gif Read more

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On 15 July 2010, the ’Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century’ (REN21) released the ‘Renewables Global Status Report 2010’, the 5th edition of its annual flagship publication. REN21 was founded as a global policy network in response to a commitment of the International Conference for Renewables Energies 2004 in Bonn, Germany. Its main goal is to facilitate policy development for the rapid expansion of renewable energies in developing and industrialised economies.

What is the purpose of the REN21 Renewables Global Status Report: Changes in renewable energy markets, investments, industries, and policies have been so rapid in recent years that perceptions of the status of renewable energy can lag years behind the reality. This report captures that reality and provides a unique overview of renewable energy worldwide as of early 2010.

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