The unstoppable growth of renewables

development of renewables

Not long ago, it has been published by REN21 (Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st century, the 2017 edition of the global report on the situation of renewable energies in the world (Renewables 2017 Global Status Report)).

REN21 unites different governments, NGOs, universities and international organizations such as the World Bank, the International Energy Agency, the United Nations, and a long etcetera.

Renewable energies in the world report

It states that in 2016 a new record was set in terms of worldwide electrical power facility renewable with a total of 161 gigawatts. With countries like China or India in the head

floating solar plant

This represents an increase of almost 9% over the previous year, which adds up to a total electrical power of 2.017 gigawatts worldwide.

california generates too much solar energy

If we differentiate between the different renewable energies, it is the Photovoltaic Solar Energy the one that stands out above the rest with approximately a 47% of total installed power, followed by wind power with 34% and hydraulic with something more than 15%.

Wind farm in the sea

The future to come

The report adds several very important questions regarding the future evolution of renewable energies worldwide.

In certain countries such as Denmark, Mexico or the United Arab Emirates, the price of electricity from renewable sources was set at $ 0,1 / kWh, which means a lower figure to the generation costs that most conventional installations have, and also, without having any type of premium.

Record in Dubai for a solar thermal

The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) announced a few weeks ago the bidding prices of the four consortia bidding for the development of the 200-megawatt fourth phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum solar park. The lowest bid submitted for this concentrated solar energy project it is 9,45 US cents (about 8.5 euro cents) per kWh.

This price represents a new record, since the previous one was 40% higher than the lowest price offered so far. Two other offers they also presented lower prices at 10 euro cents per kWh.

The tender for the fourth phase of the solar park of a thermosolar plant with tower technology includes energy storage for up to 12 hours, which means that this complex will be able to continue supplying electricity throughout the night, and it is the first phase of a development that plans to have 1.000 MW of solar thermal energy with tower technology.

tsk

Unfortunately, in Spain we cannot say the same, as a result of the cuts made to solar thermal power plants.

Solar panels

These price levels will encourage many countries to plan the incorporation of solar thermal power plants in Spain after many years with no facilities, It seems that the demands of the EU also animate the market.

These exchanges are necessary to incorporate new capacity that provides network manageability and stability that other technologies apparently cheaper, they are not able to give.

Thermosolar energy

For most executives of solar companies, "solar thermal is the only manageable technology with advantages for grid stability with more than enough resources to cover electrical needs of any country with regular sun. In addition, after many years of R&D effort, the technology has matured a lot, currently it can compete in price with any technology.

Chile

Denmark

This has occurred, for example, in Denmark, a fully developed country with high energy needs.

Wind Sweden

The report also includes that energy storage projects have been carried out for a total of 800 megawatts of installed power, which represents a total global capacity of 6,4 gigawatts.

It also indicates that it is necessary to make efforts in the thermal use of renewable sources or in their use in the transport sector, since these have not yet developed sufficiently against fossil fuels.

Caring for the environment

The importance of the use of renewable energy resources from the environmental point of view must be emphasized, if what is intended is to comply with global commitments on climate change, specifically with the Paris Agreement, where the increase in the average annual temperature is limited to below 2 ºC.

Year after year, more power is being installed using renewable sources than that of conventional technologies.

This is associated with the need for energy infrastructure such as transmission and distribution networks, information and communication systems, energy storage, etc., so the investments to be made in the coming years will be very high.


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