Renewables: The best value energy solution

In other words, technologies that were once considered “alternative” are proven to be viable and have become mainstream. Now, we need to take bold steps to increase the share of renewables in the energy mix.Over the past five years, renewable energy has become cheap. The cost of solar panels has fallen by 75 per cent. […]

In other words, technologies that were once considered “alternative” are proven to be viable and have become mainstream. Now, we need to take bold steps to increase the share of renewables in the energy mix.
Over the past five years, renewable energy has become cheap. The cost of solar panels has fallen by 75 per cent. Onshore wind has become the least-cost option for new grid supply in many countries worldwide – even in countries with cheap shale gas, such as the United States. The falling cost of renewable energy heralds a transformational turn of events whose importance is still not fully realised. What it means is that we have a viable answer to rising greenhouse gas emissions, which not only allows us to meet our present and future energy needs, but does so potentially more cheaply than using fossil fuels.
How often do we face a serious crisis and then find that the solution makes us wealthier and healthier in the process? This is a genuine breakthrough, which presents us with a clear objective. Our job is to move renewable energy from the mainstream to the majority as soon as possible.
It is worth repeating some basic facts: By 2030, our planet will be home to eight billion people. They will be richer and they will want to buy more things. Middle class spending is expected to soar, from US$21 trillion to $56 trillion annually. Under business-as-usual scenarios, the consequence of all this activity is clear. Energy demand and emissions will grow, and they will do so in a way that causes catastrophic climate change.
So how do we stop this? The answer seems clear. More than 80 per cent of human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide come from burning fossil fuels. We need to use energy more efficiently, and we need to replace fossil fuels with renewables. The good news is that this is entirely within our grasp.

 Cheaper to act than to delay
 IRENA analysis shows that we already have the technology and the know-how to double the share of renewable energy by 2030, from 18 to 36 per cent. But in fact, since half of today’s renewable energy still consists of traditional biomass uses, which is unsustainable and entails pollution and health risks, we need to quadruple the use of modern renewables, including sustainable biomass and biofuels. The even better news is that under the REmap 2030 initiative, IRENA has worked out that we can do this more cheaply than not doing so – when we take into account the cost of pollution, including ill health, environmental degradation and carbon emissions.
“How many crises do we face, where the solution makes us wealthier and healthier in the process?”
These developments have not gone unnoticed, and the process of transformation has already begun. Renewables last year accounted for more than half of new global power capacity, and investment in new renewable power capacity has outpaced investment in new fossil-based power generation for three years running.
Governments everywhere are beginning to act. China increased its installed photovoltaic (PV) capacity in 2013 to 13GW, about one-third of the world market. It now accounts for half of the global hydro and PV market, and hosts 90 per cent of world solar thermal and biogas capacity. And there are plans to accelerate this transition further.
Regulation in the US is acting as an effective brake on coal investments. Italy already produces 8 per cent of its electricity from solar PV. Germany has raised the share of renewables in power generation from 5 to 30 per cent. A growing number of island nations have completely converted to renewable power, or will do so in the coming five years.
 The shift to renewable energy is effectively underway. And the more we invest, the cheaper it gets. This allows us to cut the Gordian knot of climate diplomacy, in terms of who pays and who benefits. With renewable energy, we all invest, and we all benefit. The stalemate between developed and developing countries disappears when the best route to reducing carbon dioxide emissions is also the best strategy for economic growth.
 So why worry? If renewable energy is so obviously the solution, will markets not take care of the transition organically? The unfortunate answer is that, if business continues as usual, they will not.
Amin is Director-General, International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)