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IRENA was established just three years ago but already has 118 full-fledged members
and growing .
We are dedicated to accelerating the sustainable deployment of all renewable
energy resources – including wind, of course.
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IRENA may be best known for its Global Atlas. The wind and solar components are
illustrated here. We are expanding the Atlas this year to hydropower and
geothermal resources. The mesoscale data provided by the Atlas, free of charge, can
help countries identify sites for detailed resource measurements which can then
lead to financing of renewable projects – with resulting impacts on carbon
emissions.
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One key initiative we have to foster the deployment of low-carbon technologies is a
costing alliance to show that renewable power options are cost-competitive – which
should help to spur additional investment in these options. We have now collected
empirical cost data fro 9,000 renewable power plants around the world.
As you can see from this chart, the costs of renewable electricity compare favorably
to those of fossil-fueled generation. Looking at the lower light blue band, which
indicated typical costs for fossil fueled generation, wind in orange, biomass power in
green, hydro in blue and geothermal power in red are all in a competitive range.
Looking at the upper light blue band, which indicates generating costs from diesel
fuel in remote areas, all the renewable options are competitive, including
photovoltaics and concentrating solar power. Of course, with rapid price declines in
the last few years, solar power should soon reach economic parity on power grids as
well.
Renewable power is growing fast and now accounts for half the new electric
generating capacity installed each year around the globe. We are entering a virtuous
circle where high technology learning rates as capacity expands are leading to major
cost declines which in turn encourage further capacity additions.
(Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2012: An Overview)
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Ministers from 19 countries have endorsed our Africa Clean Energy Corridor
initiative, with planks of zoning, planning enabling, capacity building and public
information. We are also developing clean energy corridor initiatives for Central
America, the Middle East, and South East Asia.
With zoning to cluster wind turbines, solar panel and other renewable resources
together, it will be easier to build a cost-effective transmission corridors to load
centers. Potential zones should be ranked in terms of the costs of generation
and transmission, concentration of resources available, and other factors.
With integrated resource planning, power grids can incorporate more renewables an
achieve greater economies.
A third area for action is enabling markets and financing to boost renewable power
investment. Many markets are still closed to renewable power generation by
building owners and independent power producers; regulations can change this.
Africa suffers from real and perceived risks that are higher than elsewhere; improved
understanding of technology costs and resource availability can lower these risks so
that companies can finance renewable power projects at more reasonable rates of
return on debt and equity capital.
Capacity building to ensure the skills are in place to plan, build and operate power
grids with a higher share of renewable generation, is also important.
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The carbon reducing potential of regional clean energy corridors is illustrated well by
the case of Africa. In the southern African Power Pool, 80 percent of the generation
is fired by coal. The Eastern African Power Pool, generates 60 percent from natural
gas and 22 percent from oil. In both pools, less than a fifth is renewable.
Without steady effort, the fossil fuel shares may persist and increase. But with a
commitment to include renewables more systematically in resource plans, to
facilitate investment, and build human capacities, the fossil fuel shares can be
whittled down, with major benefits for regional economies and environment.
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Ministers in Malta in September 2012 requested that IRENA establish a
Global Renewable Energy Islands Network, or GREIN, to pool
knowledge, share best practices and seek innovative solutions to
accelerate the uptake of renewable energy technologies on islands and
virtual islands far from regional power grids.
Costly fossil fuel imports from distant locations can burden island
budgets and inhibit investment in socioeconomic development.
Indigenous renewable energy resources can reduce these expensive
imports and create important business and employment opportunities.
And islands facing similar challenges can benefit by pooling knowledge
and best practices for successfully overcoming them.
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GREIN is organized into several interest clusters, something like the tasks of IEA
implementing agreements.
Many islands could integrate much higher shares of renewables into their power
grids, even small islands. But analysis of grid stability is needed to show that the
system can operate reliably with more renewable generation. This will give
regulators the confidence to authorize investment by utilities, IPPs and building
owners.
There is huge potential for renewable energy in island tourism. Tourists have to have
hot water for showers, and solar hot water heaters provide a profit making solution
for hotels that will grab it. Tourists need air conditioning, and solar absorption
chillers or cool seawater can provide it. Tourists need electricity, and this can be
provided by photovoltaics on hotel rooftops. By documenting the analytic results of
hotel energy audits and the actual costs ad savings of systems installed, we hope to
demonstrate the business case with more hotels.
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IRENA’s REMAP effort to identify cost-effective renewable energy options that could
double the share of renewable energy in the overall energy mix by 2030 reveals that
the net cost is roughly zero. The cost-inducing options on the right are roughly
balanced by the cost-saving options on the right – even without considering
environmental externalities. If an external cost is assigned to greenhouse gases,
there are net cost savings.
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In fact there is a GHG mitigation potential of some 8.6 gigatonnes carbon equivalent
or even 11.6 gigatonnes if early retirement of fossil-fuelled energy facilities is
considered. So renewable can play just important a role as energy efficiency in
moving us toward a lower carbon concentrations in the atmosphere By making
countries more aware of this potential through our analysis, we can empower them
to take the steps to make it happen.
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