onlooker wrote:Oh great I am jumping up and down. Now look at this link I posted. See the percentage of Renewable both as part of Total Energy consumption and also in generation of Electricity of the planet. How do you propose that Renewable will really make a much greater proportion?
The answer lies in looking at trends in power plant construction. The majority of power plants being built today are renewable. This is in sharp contrast to decades past where the majority of power plants were non renewable. As this trend continues in the years to come the proportion of electricity coming from renewables will grow.
The power sector is leading the charge to decarbonise
With 60 cents of every dollar invested in new power plants to 2040 spent on renewable energy technologies, global renewables-based electricity generation increases by some 8,300 TWh (more than half of the increase in total generation), equivalent to the output of all of today’s fossil-fuel generation plants in China, the United States and the European Union combined. The net result is that the share of coal in the global electricity mix drops from 41% to 30%, with non-hydro renewables gaining a similar amount, while gas, nuclear and hydro broadly maintain their existing shares. By 2040, renewables-based generation reaches a share of 50% in the European Union, around 30% in China and Japan, and above 25% in the United States and India: by contrast, coal accounts for less than 15% of electricity supply outside of Asia.
The balance is shifting towards low-carbon technologies
Policy preferences for lower carbon energy options are reinforced by trends in costs, as oil and gas gradually become more expensive to extract while the costs of renewables and of more efficient end-use technologies continue to fall. By contrast, cost reductions are the norm for more efficient equipment and appliances, as well as for wind power and solar PV, where technology gains are proceeding apace and there are plentiful suitable sites for their deployment.
World Energy Outlook 2015onlooker wrote:Remember, any money spent on Renewable is less money for exploration and production of fossil fuel energy sources which in turn means less economic activity and vitality in the here and now and short term future
Don't forget that renewables don't have fuel costs. Yes it costs capital/fuel to initially create/install them but once they are up and running the country will have a lower energy bill. And in the short term, renewables add more jobs than fossil fuels. Creating/installing renewables is labor intensive. While exploration and production of fossil fuels is heavily mechanized. During the global recession when most industries where shedding jobs, green energy was adding jobs and economic activity.
Also, because of efficiency improvements, recycling, and sectoral shifts in economic activity, each unit of economic activity generated is requiring less and less energy inputs. It costs
less to implement energy efficiency improvements than it does to consume fossil fuels BAU.
Renewable energy projects are creating ten times more jobs than similar-sized fossil fuel projects, according to a new study from the UK Energy Research Centre. The report used data from 50 different studies published since 2000 on the relationship between green energy investment and job creation in the USA, Europe and China. Energy efficiency projects also create more jobs than dirty energy.
Of course, many could argue that by creating jobs in one energy sector, you could be displacing them from elsewhere. But factoring this into calculation the UKERC was also able to work out the overall ‘net’ picture. And the picture remains positive, showing an average 0.5 jobs were created per GWh of renewables compared to 0.25 jobs per GWh for fossil fuels. For every £1 million invested in green energy, around 10 jobs are created.
The report also showed that when the economy is under-performing, for example during a period of recession, it is sensible to focus government expenditure on these labour-intensive sectors. Renewable energy is preferable as it is much more labour intensive than the fossil fuel industry, which relies on mechanised and capital intensive technologies.
"Government-led investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency can offer short-term benefits, helping the economy to grow in times of recession by promoting employment. - See more at:
http://tcktcktck.org/2014/11/renewable- ... tNePq.dpuf"
Renewable energy creates ten times more jobs than fossil fuelsA global transition to clean energy would cost $44 trillion but save $115 trillion in avoided fuel costs, according to a new report. Such benefits would be spread out over the course of decades.
Transitioning to a cleaner, more-efficient energy mix will save the global economy trillions of dollars in avoided fuel costs, according to a report released Monday by the International Energy Agency (IEA). Much of the savings will come in the form of efficiency upgrades for buildings and vehicles, but deployment of more wind, solar, and other renewable technologies will also play an important role.
Energy efficiency stands to play a primary, low-cost role in reducing carbon emissions worldwide. In the IEA's most aggressive vision of a sustainable energy future, efficiency accounts for 38 percent of cumulative emissions reductions, compared with 30 percent from renewables. This would come in the form of more fuel-efficient cars, and building codes that promote more sustainable architecture and design. The building sector already uses 50 percent of global electricity generated. If you could do something there to halve that, that would be a huge, huge achievement.”
Decarbonizing most of the global energy system by 2050 would require an additional $44 trillion investment, according to the latest IEA report, up from the estimated $36 trillion in last year's assessment. Those costs are offset by $115 trillion in fuel savings, according to IEA, resulting in net savings of $71 trillion through 2050.
IEA: Clean energy shift will save world $71 trillion through 2050And efficiency measures are gathering strength
Energy efficiency plays a critical role in limiting world energy demand growth to one-third by 2040, while the global economy grows by 150%. Mandatory targets in China and India (following on from first-mover Japan) have increased the global coverage of efficiency regulation in industry from 3% in 2005 to more than a third today, and such energy policies continue to expand their reach and effectiveness through to 2040. In OECD countries, efficiency measures reduce demand growth to 60% of what would otherwise be expected. We estimate that the energy efficiency of new equipment bought worldwide in 2030 can be increased by a further 11%, with the average cost of the energy saved being $300 per tonne of oil equivalent (toe), far below the weighted average energy price of $1 300/toe. Energy consumption in trucks and heavy-duty vehicles is currently regulated only in the United States, Canada, Japan and China, with regulation planned also in the European Union: wider geographical coverage and more stringent standards could cut oil demand from new trucks in 2030 by 15%. Changing product design, re-use and recycling (“material efficiency”) also offers huge potential for energy saving; for energy-intensive products such as steel, cement, plastics or aluminium, efficient use and re-use of materials can save more than twice as much energy as can be saved by efficiency measures in the production process to 2040.
World Energy Outlook 2015The oil barrel is half-full.
