Industrial Power & Electronics

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Energy Production & Changing Energy Sources

To better understand these unprecedented changes , World Energy Resources report

highlights the key trends and identifies the implications for the energy sector.

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1. COAL
The world currently consumes over 7 700 Mt of coal which is used by a variety of
sectors including power generation, iron and steel production, cement
manufacturing and as a liquid fuel.

Coal currently fuels 40% of the world’s electricity and is forecasted to continue to
supply a strategic share over the next three decades.

Coal is the second most important energy source, covering 30% of global primary
energy consumption.

Hard coal and lignite (brown coal) is the leading energy source in power generation
with 40% of globally generated power relying on this fuel.
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2. OIL
Oil remains the world’s leading fuel, accounting for 32.9% of total global energy
consumption.

Although emerging economies continued to dominate the growth in global energy

consumption, growth in these countries (+1.6%) was well below its ten-year
average of 3.8%.
The table below shows global oil demand and projected demand by region from
2014 to 2020.

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3. NATURAL GAS

Natural gas is the only fossil fuel whose share of the primary energy mix is
expected to grow and has the potential to play an important role in the world’s
transition to a cleaner, more affordable and secure energy future.

It is the number three fuel, reflecting 24% of global primary energy, and it is the
second energy source in power generation, representing a 22% share.

Advances in supply side technologies have changed the supply landscape and
created new prospects for affordable and secure supplies of natural gas.

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4. URANIUM AND NUCLEAR

The Fukushima accident in March 2011 resulted in a developmental hiatus and a

nuclear retreat in some countries.

However, with the benefit of five years of hindsight, the true proportions of that
accident are becoming clearer: a barely perceptible direct impact on public health,
but high economic and social costs.

The assessments of global uranium resources show that total identified resources
have grown by about 70% over the last ten years.

As of January 2015 the total identified resources of uranium are considered

sufficient for over 100 years’ of supply based on current requirements. 8
5. HYDROPOWER

There has been a major upsurge in hydropower development globally in recent

years.

The total installed capacity has grown by 39% from 2005 to 2015, with an average
growth rate of nearly 4% per year.

The rise has been concentrated in emerging markets where hydropower offers not
only clean energy, but also provides water services, energy security and facilitates
regional cooperation and economic development.

It is estimated that 99% of the world’s electricity storage capacity is in the form of
hydropower, including pumped storage2. 9
Reservoirs with storage offer a high degree of flexibility, storing potential energy
for later use at timescales ranging from seconds, to days, to several months.

Especially pumped storage, provides an array of energy services beyond power,

including black start capability, frequency regulation, inertial response, spinning
and non-spinning reserve and voltage support, which are increasingly important to
the stability of the energy system.

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Technological innovation in hydropower include:

a) increasing the scale of turbines (1000 MW turbine in development),

b) advanced hydropower control technologies that enable renewable hybrids,

c) both conventional and pumped storage hydropower increasingly utilised as a

flexible resource for balancing variable renewable resources.

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Hydropower is the leading renewable source for electricity generation globally,
supplying 71% of all renewable electricity.

Reaching 1064 GW of installed capacity in 2016, it generated 16.4% of the world’s

electricity from all sources.

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6. BIOENERGY
The World Energy Council defines bioenergy to include traditional biomass
(example forestry and agricultural residues), modern biomass and biofuels. It
represents the transformation of organic matter into a source of energy, whether it is
collected from natural surroundings or specifically grown for the purpose.

In developed countries, bioenergy is promoted as an alternative or more sustainable

source for hydrocarbons, especially for transportation fuels, like bioethanol and
biodiesel, the use of wood in combined heat and power generation and residential
heating.

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In developing countries bioenergy may represent opportunities for domestic
industrial development and economic growth.

In least developed countries traditional biomass is often the dominant domestic fuel,
especially in more rural areas without access to electricity or other energy sources.

There are multiple challenges and opportunities for bioenergy as a potential driver
of sustainable development, given enough economic and technological support.

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7. WASTE-TO-ENERGY
WtE technologies based on thermal energy conversion lead the market, and
accounted for 88.2% of total market revenue in 2013.

WtE remains a costly option for waste disposal and energy generation, in
comparison with other established power generation sources and for waste
management.
Combustion plants are no longer a significant source of particulate emissions owing
to the implementation of governmental regulations on emission control strategies,
reducing the dioxin emissions by 99.9%.

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8. SOLAR ENERGY
Global installed capacity for solar-powered electricity has seen an exponential
growth, reaching around 227 GWe at the end of 2015.

It produced 1% of all electricity used globally.

Major solar installation has been in regions with relatively less solar resources
(Europe and China), while potential in high resource regions (Africa and Middle
East), remains untapped.

Germany has led PV capacity installations over the last decade and continues as a
leader, followed by China, Japan, Italy and the United States.
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Expansion of solar capacity could be hindered by existing electricity infrastructure,
particularly in countries with young solar markets.

Solar PV and other renewable technologies are highly dependent on rare earth
elements, which, besides general unstainable mining practices, also carry a high risk
of some supply disruption.

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9. GEOTHERMAL ENERGY

Geothermal energy contributes a small proportion of the world’s primary energy

consumption.

Electricity generation, geothermal produces less than 1% of the world’s output.

There were 315 MW of new geothermal power capacity installed in 2015, raising
the total capacity to 13.2 GW.

Turkey accounted for half of the new global capacity additions, followed by the US,
Mexico, Kenya, Japan and Germany. In terms of direct use of geothermal heat, the
countries with the largest utilisation, accounting for roughly 70% of direct
geothermal in 2015, are China, Turkey, Iceland, Japan, Hungary, the US and New
Zealand. 18
The earth’s natural heat reserves are immense.
The estimated stored thermal energy down to 3 km within continental crust, is
roughly 43 x106 EJ, which is considerably greater than the world’s total primary
energy consumption.

Geographically, 72% of installed generation capacity resides along tectonic plate

boundaries or hot spot features of the Pacific Rim.

A disproportional percentage of installed generation capacity resides on island

nations or regions (43%), providing not only a valuable source of power
generation, but also both heat and heat storage over a wide spectrum of conditions.

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10. WIND ENERGY

World wind power generation capacity has reached 435 GW at the end of 2015,
around 7% of total global power generation capacity.

A record of 64 GW was added in 2015.

The global growth rate of 17.2% was higher than in 2014 (16.4%).

Global wind power generation amounted to 950 TWh in 2015, nearly 4% of total
global power generation. Some countries have reached much higher percentages.
Denmark produced 42% of its electricity from wind turbines in 2015, the highest
figure yet recorded worldwide. In Germany wind power contributed a new record of
13% of the country’s power consumption in 2015. 20
The next generation of advanced large offshore wind turbines, reduced costs for
foundations and more efficient project development practices could reduce the
LCOE of offshore wind from US$19.6 cents per kWh in 2015 to roughly 12 cents
per kWh in 2030.

Global installed capacity of offshore wind capacity reached around 12 107 MW

end-2015, with 2 739 turbines across 73 offshore wind farms in 15 countries.

Currently, more than 92% (10 936 MW) of all offshore wind installations are in
European waters.

Floating foundations technologies are in development and several full-scale

prototype floating wind turbines have been deployed.
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With current policy plans, global wind capacity could grow from 435 GW in 2015
to 977 GW in 2030 (905 GW onshore and 72 GW offshore wind).

The global leaders in wind power as at end-2015 are China, the US, Germany, India
and Spain.

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11. MARINE ENERGY

To date only a handful of commercial ocean energy projects have been delivered,
reflecting the current immaturity and high costs of these technologies, as well as the
challenging market environment in which they operate.

0.5 GW of commercial ocean energy generation capacity is in operation and another

1.7 GW under construction, with 99% of this accounted for by tidal range.
Relatively few commercial scale wave, tidal stream or OTEC projects are
operational.

Three tidal stream commercial projects accounting for 17 MW of capacity are to be

commissioned shortly, (two in Scotland and one in France), and a 1 MW
commercial wave energy array in Sweden. 24
Sweden has begun construction of the world’s largest commercial wave energy
array at Sotenas.

It will incorporate 42 devices and deliver 1.05 MW of capacity.

They have also recently installed a second project in Ghana consisting of 6 devices,
together providing 400 kW of capacity

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12. CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGE (CCS)
The world’s first large-scale application of CO2 capture technology in the power
sector commenced operation in October 2014 at the Boundary Dam power station in
Saskatchewan, Canada.

In the US, two additional demonstrations of large-scale CO2 capture in the power
sector, at the Kemper County Energy Facility in Mississippi and the Petra Nova
Carbon Capture Project in Texas are planned to come into operation in 2016-2017.

CCS is currently the only available technology that can significantly reduce GHG
emissions from certain industrial processes and it is a key technology option to
decarbonise the power sector, especially in countries with a high share of fossil
fuels in electricity production.
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13. E-STORAGE

The concept of energy storage is not new, though development has been mainly
restricted to one technology until recently.

Pumped hydro storage accounts for well over 95% of global installed energy
storage capacity.

Compressed air energy storage currently has only two commercial plants (in
Germany and the US), in total 400 MW, with a third under development in the UK.

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Environmental Impacts of Renewable Energy
Technologies

All energy sources have some impact on our environment.

Fossil fuels, coal, oil, and natural gas do substantially more harm than renewable
energy sources by most measures, including air and water pollution, damage to
public health, wildlife and habitat loss, water use, land use, and global warming
emissions.

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However, renewable sources such as wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, and
hydropower also have environmental impacts, some of which are significant.

The exact type and intensity of environmental impacts varies depending on the
specific technology used, the geographic location, and a number of other factors.

By understanding the current and potential environmental issues associated with

each renewable energy source, we can takes steps to effectively avoid or minimize
these impacts as they become a larger portion of our electric supply.

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Wind power
Harnessing power from the wind is one of the cleanest and most sustainable ways to
generate electricity as it produces no toxic pollution or global warming emissions.

Wind is also abundant, inexhaustible, and affordable, which makes it a viable and
large-scale alternative to fossil fuels.

Despite its vast potential, there are a variety of environmental impacts associated
with wind power generation that should be recognized and mitigated.

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Solar power

Like wind power, the sun provides a tremendous resource for generating clean and
sustainable electricity.

The environmental impacts associated with solar power can include land use and
habitat loss, water use, and the use of hazardous materials in manufacturing, though
the types of impacts vary greatly depending on the scale of the system and the
technology used photovoltaic (PV) solar cells or concentrating solar thermal plants
(CSP).

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Geothermal energy
The most widely developed type of geothermal power plant (known as
hydrothermal plants) are located near geologic “hot spots” where hot molten rock is
close to the earth’s crust and produces hot water.

In other regions enhanced geothermal systems (or hot dry rock geothermal), which
involve drilling into the earth’s surface to reach deeper geothermal resources, can
allow broader access to geothermal energy.

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Geothermal plants also differ in terms of the technology they use to convert the
resource to electricity (direct steam, flash, or binary) and the type of cooling
technology they use (water-cooled and air-cooled).

Environmental impacts differ depending on the conversion and cooling technology

used.

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Biomass for electricity

Biomass power plants share some similarities with fossil fuel power plants: both
involve the combustion of a feedstock to generate electricity.
Thus, biomass plants raise similar, but not identical, concerns about air emissions
and water use as fossil fuel plants. However, the feedstock of biomass plants can be
sustainable produced, while fossil fuels are non-renewable.

Sources of biomass resources for producing electricity are diverse; including energy
crops (like switchgrass), agricultural waste, manure, forest products and waste, and
urban waste. Both the type of feedstock and the manner in which it is developed and
harvested significantly affect land use and life-cycle global warming emissions
impacts of producing power from biomass.
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Hydroelectric power
Hydroelectric power includes both massive hydroelectric dams and small run-of-
the-river plants.

Large-scale hydroelectric dams continue to be built in many parts of the world

(including China and Brazil), but it is unlikely that new facilities will be added to
the existing US fleet in the future.

Instead, the future of hydroelectric power in the United States will likely involve
increased capacity at current dams and new run-of-the-river projects.

There are environmental impacts at both types of plants.

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Hydrokinetic energy

Hydrokinetic energy, which includes wave and tidal power, encompasses an array of
energy technologies, many of which still in the experimental stages or in the early
stages of deployment.

While actual impacts of large-scale operations have not been observed, a range of
potential impacts can be projected.

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 Benefits of Renewable Energy Use
Wind turbines and solar panels are an increasingly common sight. But why? What
are the benefits of renewable energies and how do they improve our health,
environment, and economy?

This page explores the many positive impacts of clean energy, including the benefits
of wind, solar, geothermal, hydroelectric, and biomass.

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Less global warming

Human activity is overloading our atmosphere with carbon dioxide and other 
global warming emissions.

These gases act like a blanket, trapping heat.

The result is a web of significant and harmful impacts, from stronger, more frequent
storms, to drought, sea level rise, and extinction.

In the United States, about 29 percent of global warming emissions come from our
electricity sector.

Most of those emissions come from fossil fuels like coal and natural gas 52
What is CO2e?

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most prevalent greenhouse gas, but other air pollutants
such as methane also cause global warming.

Different energy sources produce different amounts of these pollutants.

To make comparisons easier, we use a carbon dioxide equivalent, or CO2e, the

amount of carbon dioxide required to produce an equivalent amount of warming.

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In contrast, most renewable energy sources produce little to no global warming
emissions.

Even when including “life cycle” emissions of clean energy (ie, the emissions from
each stage of a technology’s life manufacturing, installation, operation,
decommissioning), the global warming emissions associated with renewable energy
are minimal.

The comparison becomes clear when you look at the numbers.

Burning natural gas for electricity releases between 0.6 and 2 pounds of carbon
dioxide equivalent per kilowatt-hour (CO2E/kWh); coal emits between 1.4 and 3.6
pounds of CO2E/kWh. 
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Wind, on the other hand, is responsible for only 0.02 to 0.04 pounds of CO2E/kWh
on a life-cycle basis; solar 0.07 to 0.2; geothermal 0.1 to 0.2; and hydroelectric
 between 0.1 and 0.5.

Renewable electricity generation from biomass can have a wide range of global

warming emissions depending on the resource and whether or not it is sustainably
sourced and harvested.

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Increasing the supply of renewable energy would allow us to replace carbon-
intensive energy sources and significantly reduce US global warming emissions.

For example, a 2009 UCS analysis found that a 25 percent by 2025 national
renewable electricity standard would lower power plant CO2 emissions 277 million
metric tons annually by 2025 the equivalent of the annual output from 70 typical
(600 MW) new coal plants.

In addition, a ground-breaking study by the US Department of Energy's National

Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) explored the feasibility of generating 80
percent of the country’s electricity from renewable sources by 2050. They found
that renewable energy could help reduce the electricity sector’s emissions by
approximately 81 percent.
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Improved public health
The air and water pollution emitted by coal and natural gas plants is linked with
breathing problems, neurological damage, heart attacks, cancer, premature death,
and a host of other serious problems.

The pollution affects everyone: one Harvard University study estimated the life
cycle costs and public health effects of coal to be an estimated $74.6 billion every
year. That’s equivalent to 4.36 cents per kilowatt-hour of electricity produced about
one-third of the average electricity rate for a typical US home .

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Most of these negative health impacts come from air and water pollution that clean
energy technologies simply don’t produce.

Wind, solar, and hydroelectric systems generate electricity with no associated air
pollution emissions. 

Geothermal and biomass  systems emit some air pollutants, though total air

emissions are generally much lower than those of coal- and natural gas-fired power
plants.

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In addition, wind and solar energy require essentially no water to operate and thus
do not pollute water resources or strain supplies by competing with agriculture,
drinking water, or other important water needs.

In contrast, fossil fuels can have a significant impact on water resources: both coal
mining and natural gas drilling can pollute sources of drinking water, and all
thermal power plants, including those powered by coal, gas, and oil, withdraw and
consume water for cooling. 

Biomass and geothermal power plants, like coal- and natural gas-fired power plants,
may require water for cooling.

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Hydroelectric power plants can disrupt river ecosystems both upstream and
downstream from the dam.

However, NREL's 80-percent-by-2050 renewable energy study, which included

biomass and geothermal, found that total water consumption and withdrawal would
decrease significantly in a future with high renewables.

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Inexhaustible energy
Strong winds, sunny skies, abundant plant matter, heat from the earth, and fast-
moving water can each provide a vast and constantly replenished supply of energy.
A relatively small fraction of US electricity currently comes from these sources, but
that could change: studies have repeatedly shown that renewable energy can provide
a significant share of future electricity needs, even after accounting for potential
constraints.
In fact, a major government-sponsored study found that clean energy could
contribute somewhere between three and 80 times its 2013 levels, depending on
assumptions.

And the previously mentioned NREL study found that renewable energy could
comfortably provide up to 80 percent of US electricity by 2050.
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Jobs and other economic benefits
Compared with fossil fuel technologies, which are typically mechanized and capital
intensive, the renewable energy industry is more labor intensive.

Solar panels need humans to install them; wind farms need technicians for
maintenance.

This means that, on average, more jobs are created for each unit of electricity
generated from renewable sources than from fossil fuels.

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Renewable energy already supports thousands of jobs in the United States. In 2016,
the wind energy industry directly employed over 100,000 full-time-equivalent
employees in a variety of capacities, including manufacturing, project development,
construction and turbine installation, operations and maintenance, transportation
and logistics, and financial, legal, and consulting services.

More than 500 factories in the United States manufacture parts for wind turbines,
and wind power project installations in 2016 alone represented $13.0 billion in
investments.

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Other renewable energy technologies employ even more workers. In 2016, the solar
industry employed more than 260,000 people, including jobs in solar installation,
manufacturing, and sales, a 25% increase over 2015.

The hydroelectric power industry employed approximately 66,000 people in 2017;

the geothermal industry employed 5,800 people.

Increased support for renewable energy could create even more jobs.

The 2009 Union of Concerned Scientists study of a 25-percent-by-2025 renewable

energy standard found that such a policy would create more than three times as
many jobs (more than 200,000) as producing an equivalent amount of electricity
from fossil fuels.
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In contrast, the entire coal industry employed 160,000 people in 2016.
In addition to the jobs directly created in the renewable energy industry, growth in
clean energy can create positive economic “ripple” effects.

For example, industries in the renewable energy supply chain will benefit, and
unrelated local businesses will benefit from increased household and business
incomes.

Local governments also benefit from clean energy, most often in the form of
property and income taxes and other payments from renewable energy project
owners.

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Owners of the land on which wind projects are built often receive lease payments
ranging from $3,000 to $6,000 per megawatt of installed capacity, as well as
payments for power line easements and road rights-of-way.

They may also earn royalties based on the project’s annual revenues.

Farmers and rural landowners can generate new sources of supplemental income by
producing feedstocks for biomass power facilities UCS analysis found that a 25-by-
2025 national renewable electricity standard would stimulate $263.4 billion in new
capital investment for renewable energy technologies, $13.5 billion in new
landowner income from? biomass production and/or wind land lease payments, and
$11.5 billion in new property tax revenue for local communities.

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Reliability and resilience
 Wind and solar are less prone to large-scale failure because they are distributed and
modular. 

Distributed systems are spread out over a large geographical area, so a severe

weather event in one location will not cut off power to an entire region. 

Modular systems are composed of numerous individual wind turbines or solar

arrays.

Even if some of the equipment in the system is damaged, the rest can typically
continue to operate.

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For example, Hurricane Sandy damaged fossil fuel-dominated electric generation
and distribution systems in New York and New Jersey and left millions of people
without power.

In contrast, renewable energy projects in the Northeast weathered Hurricane Sandy

with minimal damage or disruption.

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Water scarcity is another risk for non-renewable power plants. Coal, nuclear, and
many natural gas plants depend on having sufficient water for cooling, which means
that severe droughts and heat waves can put electricity generation at risk.

Wind and solar photovoltaic systems do not require water to generate electricity and
can operate reliably in conditions that may otherwise require closing a fossil fuel-
powered plant.

(For more information, see How it Works: Water for Electricity.)  

The risk of disruptive events will also increase in the future as droughts, heat waves,
more intense storms, and increasingly severe wildfires become more frequent due to
global warming increasing the need for resilient, clean technologies

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Stable energy prices

Renewable energy is providing affordable electricity across the country right now,
and can help stabilize energy prices in the future.

Although renewable facilities require upfront investments to build, they can then
operate at very low cost (for most clean energy technologies, the “fuel” is free).

As a result, renewable energy prices can be very stable over time.

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Moreover, the costs of renewable energy technologies have declined steadily, and
are projected to drop even more.

For example, the average price to install solar dropped more than 70 percent
between 2010 and 2017.

The cost of generating electricity from wind dropped 66 percent between 2009 and
2016 .

Costs will likely decline even further as markets mature and companies increasingly
take advantage of economies of scale.

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In contrast, fossil fuel prices can vary dramatically and are prone to substantial price
swings.

For example, there was a rapid increase in US coal prices due to rising global
demand before 2008, then a rapid fall after 2008 when global demands declined.

Likewise, natural gas prices have fluctuated greatly since 2000.

Source: Energy Information Administration (EIA). 2013. 

Coal news and markets report.

Using more renewable energy can lower the prices of and demand for natural gas
and coal by increasing competition and diversifying our energy supplies. And an
increased reliance on renewable energy can help protect consumers when fossil fuel
prices spike.  73
Overview
Renewable energy (RE) technologies' market is on the rise, and the world is
witnessing a new energy transition with many factors and drivers pushing it.

To properly understand this phenomenon, it is vital to apprehend the correlation

between the development of economies and the different energy transitions through
history.

It is also important to understand the rationale behind the current transition to

renewables and their economy, This article presents and discusses both points.

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The histories of energy transitions, development of economies and industrial
civilizations, all go hand in hand. 

Going back in time, people only needed to cover their basic needs, such as food,
which -at the very beginning- was met by using firewood for cooking and heating. 

Further in time, people started practicing agriculture in the first formed human

communities, essentially depending on the sun for that practice, in combination
with biomass. 

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As economies evolved and developed into complex forms, firewood and other
biomass were no lonager able to meet the increasing demand in energy.

So people started turning into hydropower, then to coal during the 19th century, oil
and natural gas in the 20th, in addition to nuclear that was introduced in mid-
20th century as well.

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Therefore, it is apprehendable that each critical change in the economic system -
along history- was always accompanied with a major energy transition -and vice
versa-, shifting from one major energy source to another. 

Currently, while fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) are the dominant energy
sources, the transition is already taking place from these sources into renewables
(solar, wind, hydro... etc.). 

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Though, the 21st century energy transition is going underway, not mainly because of
change in human needs, but due to other factors as well:

Concerns about environmental impacts (degradation, greenhouse gas emissions

GHG, climate change… etc.).

The ongoing depletion of current energy sources, as they are limited and on the
decline (millions of years to form, decades or less to consume).

The continuous price and technological change of different energy sources and their
technologies
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Considering the added costs to mitigate, adapt to or fight the environmental side
effects of using fossil fuels, renewables might be the only option that
people/societies/governments have to adopt, in order to reform the current
economic system at least in the energy sector into a new one

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 Challenges to Consider
Assuming that renewable energy sources will actually be able to take hold in the
near future, then a few questions need to be argued and discussed beforehand:

What renewable energy sources are available? How to determine an optimal

renewable energy mix?

How will optimum mixtures of renewable-energy sources differ based on location?

How to determine and calculate the direct and external costs of renewable energy
sources?

How will the existing achievements of the renewable-energy sector affect the way
energy is processed in current economy? What kind of changes in sectors as
engineering, economy and policy would be needed to adapt to renewable energy
sources? 80
Scale is also an important issue.

This is due to the fact that fossil-fuel technologies have been developed, improved
and manufactured on an increasing scale for a century.

This is not yet the case for renewables.

Economically, projections of energy sources’ prices and their technologies are vital
for forecasting the economic options of the energy supply, also with few critical
questions in mind: Should the choice of a technology be based on its current market
price or because of its potential future cost reductions?

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Rationale for Renewables

Reasons which have contributed to the acceleration of both public and private
investment in renewable energy:
The growing demand for energy, which consequently requires a certain economic
development.

The fact that fossil fuels are finite, and negatively affecting the climate and
polluting the air.
The current critical environmental and climatic conditions, which drive the need to
redirect energy technologies into more diverse, environmentally sustainable supply
sources.

The need to ensure future energy security. 

Mostly for developing countries in particular: Rapid urbanization, economic 82
Utilizing renewables would help to avoid these problems, create new job
opportunities and reduce the drain on hard currency for poorer countries. Because
conventional fuels have received long-term subsidies in the past, it is vital that
governments support the development of renewables in the form of financial
incentives that can create a level playing field.

The future of the renewables industry depends on finance, risk-return profiles,

business models, lifetime's investment and a sum of other economic, policy and
social factors. Many new sources of finance are possible such as insurance funds,
pension funds and sovereign wealth funds along with new mechanisms for financial
risk mitigation. Many new business models are also possible for local energy
services, utility services, transport, community and cooperative ownership, and
rural energy services .
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 Global Investements in Renewables
In 2011, the global investment in renewable power and fuels increased to a new
record. Significantly, developing economies made up 35% of this total investment .

In addition, the whole period 2004-2017 has witnessed a remarkable increase in

investments in renewables, either in different sectors, or for different technologies,
in different countries with different economic systems, as illustrated in the
following figures.

However, recent years have seen investments in renewable energy in the power
sector stagnate. Yet, renewable power generation capacity continued to be installed
at record pace mainly thanks to continuously falling technology cost.

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Notable trends for 2018 were that investments continued to be geographically more
widely spread, with 29 countries now recording USD 1bn or more in investments
(25 countries in 2017), and an additional 14 countries exceeding USD 500m. 

2018 also marked the fourth year in a row, where investments in developing
countries were higher than in developed countries.

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Renewable energy technologies (RETs) continue to face a number of barriers. 

However, the major challenge is mainly economic, as the issue of renewable energy
technologies' costs is vital and central for the prediction of how rapidly the current
energy transition will be taking place.

The costs include: infrastructure investment, day-to-day operations, market costs of

supply and the environmental costs of the different energy sources.

Therefore, the debate remains mainly focused on the economic and financial
perspectives, particularly on the cost-effectiveness of renewable energy
technologies, and the possible various economic incentives to promote renewables
globally in terms of: regulatory design and affordability. 
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 The Market Situation
Costs of Renewables
According to the most recent reports on renewable energy technologies, from
IRENA, REN21 and IEA, electricity costs from almost all the renewable projects
that were commissioned in 2017, have continued to decline.

Projects of bioenergy power, hydropower, geothermal and onshore wind, which

were commissioned in that year, have widely fallen into the generation costs' range
of fossil-generated electricity, and furthermore, some of these projects have actually
undercut those of fossil fuels-based ones.

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The most common methodology for comparing different energy sources, is to
calculate the Levelized Cost Of Energy (LCOE).

LCOE measures lifetime costs, including building and operation of a power plant,
divided by lifetime energy production/output.

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As shown in the figure above, Global weighted LCOE of utility-scale solar PV has
witnessed a remarkable drop (approximately 27%) since 2010, reaching USD
0.10/kWh for the new commissioned projects in 2017.
Under the right conditions, it will potentially decline to USD 0.03/kWh from 2018
onward.

Onshore wind is already one of the most competitive sources for generation
capacity.

Recent auctions in Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Mexico and Morocco have
resulted in LCOE as low as USD 0.03/kWh.

On the other hand, many auctions predict that by 2020, both Concentrated Solar
Power (CSP) & offshore wind would have the potential to provide electricity with
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LCOE within the range of USD 0.06 - 0.10/kWh.
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The varying fall ranges in LCOE for solar and wind power in particular have been
mainly driven by the reduction in total installment costs, which is affected by three
main forces:

Technology improvements, Competitive procurement and the rise of patents and

innovators in the sector.

The consequent emergence of a large base of experienced medium-to-large project

developers, who are actively seeking new markets globally

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Based on current installed projects and auction data, in combination with mass
production increase and specific investment costs, electricity from renewables -
sooner rather than later- will be cheaper than that from fossil fuels.

All the renewable power generation technologies are expected to fall within the
fossil fuel cost range, with the majority having the potential to undercut it.

This will significantly lower the LCOE of all technologies, eventually leading to a
market potential increase and development for renewables.

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 Costs of Fossil Fuels
Costs relative to fossil fuels are also important particularly because:
1. Fossil-fuel energy does not reflect its full social and environmental costs.

Climate change has been described as the "biggest market failure in history" (Stern
Review, 2006) because the environmental costs associated with carbon emissions
are not included in market prices.

Furthermore, fossil fuels are subsidized for about US$300 billion per year.

Removing theses subsidies and incorporating externalities into fossil fuel costs
would dramatically change relative costs.

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An IMF working paper analysing 35 countries also found that fossil fuel subsidies
are inefficient in supporting the poor with 93% of subsidies going to the top 60% of
income groups.

Also the external costs which are related to the use of fossil fuels, stemming from
different causes: pollution and environmental degradation as a consequence of
extraction of resources, indoor and outdoor air pollution, resulting from direct fuel
combustion, as well as non-combustion emissions (e.g. industrial processes).

Fossil fuel subsidies act as a negative price on carbon.

Their removal has the potential to reduce CO2e-emissions by 6.4 to 8.2% by 2050
while resulting in significant fiscal savings.
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Further side effects, which also could add to the externalities, as fossil fuels
produce: Sulphur oxide SO2, mono-nitrogen oxides NOx, particular emissions PM2.5,
ammonia NH3 and volatile organic compounds VOCs, which can cause: adverse
human health effects, reducing agricultural yields, damaging forests, buildings, and
infrastructure.

Currently, the climate change and air pollution's external effects -alone- are
approximately in the range of 2.2-5.9 trillion USD per year, while the all-in-all cost
of the global energy supply is around 5 trillion USD per year.

The externalities of air pollution, caused by fossil fuels in Europe alone, were
recorded ranging between 330 billion-940 billion USD in 2010.

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2. It is more expensive to deliver non-renewable energy in some places than
others.

For example, rural or remote communities in developing countries are often not
connected to the grid, resulting in "off-grid" energy production - particularly solar
power - being more competitive than extending the grid[3].

3. Fossil Fuels are fast depleting and scarcer than RE

Fossil fuels are finite, as upon being consumed long enough, global resources will
eventually run out.
For a proper estimate of how long can current fossil fuel reserves be consumed for,
the following figure (Fig,16), has been plotted by dividing the quantity of known
fuel reserves by the current rate of production (Reserves-to-Production R/P)[.
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 Market Competition - Renewables V.s. Fossil Fuels
As the markets develop, the costs normally do as well, as both developments go
hand in hand.

The previously mentioned factors push the market to increase its renewables'
volume, leading to economies of scale.

On one hand, this reduces the price and later the actual costs of the technology,
while on the other hand, reduced prices increase market volumes, again producing
economies of scale, eventually resulting in a feedback loop, that either way paves
the path for renewables.

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The continuous pressure on market prices and its margins is rapidly forcing the
market to change, as renewables' costs have considerably declined and are still on
the decline.

Their costs are expected to go down even further over the coming few years.

Furthermore, adding to renewables' economic evolution, both public commitments

and the maturing technologies, investments in renewables have rapidly increased
turning the renewables industry to a very competitive sector against other energy
resources. 

However, the competition is not only limited within the energy or power sector
itself, but different renewables are even starting to compete against each other
within the renewables' sector itself. 104
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With costs of renewables are continuing to fall, drastically in solar PV, followed by
wind and concentrated solar power closely behind, the global installed capacity has
exponentially grown.

A world record amount of recently installed renewables' (especially solar PV, wind,
CSP & hydro) capacity has been added in the past few years.

Thus adding up to almost two thirds of the all new generating capacity installed
globally in 2016.

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Renewables' power capacity investments have by far surpassed those of fossil fuels
in the year 2017.

The renewable energy market has been catalyzed by increasing innovation,

competition and policy support.

Hence, radical technological advances and sharp cost reduction in renewables'

sector have been achieved, pushing renewables to outpace any other technology
source.

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Economically Accelerating the Energy Transition to Renewables

Though renewables' market is inclining, and most probably will do so for the
coming decades, most of the recent reports suggest that it would still not be
enough to meet the global goals by 2030.

Therefore, the following section presents some strategies that can push and
encourage investment in the sector.

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Expansion of Renewable Energy Use:

The basic economics of renewable energy need to be artificially altered, either by

increasing the cost of fossil fuel-based energy (e.g. through taxes, removing
subsidies or equivalent mechanisms), or by reducing the costs of renewable energy
(e.g. subsidies), or by boosting the returns to renewable energies (e.g. through
paying a premium for this form of energy).

Removal or gradually reducing governmental fossil fuels subsidies is being carried

out in some cases (e.g. Egypt in the past 2-3 years).

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Developing countries should not necessarily be required to meet these costs.

This is particularly so where the development of renewable energy capacity may

place countries at a competitive disadvantage and/or these countries bear no
responsibility for climate change.

The costs should be met by countries that do bear these responsibilities. 

Declining renewables' costs, which is also already taking place.
Implementing new renewables' financial policies.

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The following points provide a set of requirements and recommendations for a
successful and more efficient cost reduction policies for renewables:

Encouraging domestic manufacturing of renewables' equipment: the example of the

Chinese case would be the best to illustrate this point, since the Chinese low-cost
equipment have achieved a lot for the promotion of affordable renewable projects
around Asia. 

Reducing institutional barriers: experience has shown that institutional dysfunction

always leads to delays, consequently having a major impact on the economic value
of the projects in hands.

Grounding renewables in the economic analysis and applying market principles.

Enhancing transmission grids and supporting transmission integration
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