Massive untapped solar radiation advantage of Africa - click for numbers

This positive report on the opportunities for Renewable Energy in South Africa is a starting point for a series of posts that will report on developments in and linked to the use of Renewable Energy in South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Where is Renewable Energy Going in South Africa?

An almost ten fold growth in revenue from renewable energy is predicted by business research and consulting firm Frost and Sullivan’s. This emerges from their Southern African Renewable Energy Equipment Market analysis, which sees the current renewable industry in South Africa having revenues of only $28.4 million in 2008 but projects a growth to over $250 million by 2015.

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This post consists of a few lines and a link to what’s happened since some of my recent posts where there has been significant action. Each item is identified and linked by the date and title of the original post.

July 2009 - Sable Antelope - One Sold for $ 385 000 and Giant Species Rediscovered in Angola.

Three more Giant Sable Antelopes, have been sighted in Angola. This brings to six the number of this rare species, which was feared to have become extinct, that have been sited in the last few weeks.

July 2009 - Mauling of Baboon by “Fighting Dogs”, Reopens the Cape Peninsular Baboon Debate

Two men were attacked by Pit Bulls in Ocean View ,the same Township in Ocean View this week, prompting a warning from welfare group TEARS.

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Lack of foreign investments owing to the global financial crisis and its own negotiating stance at climate talks could throw back India’s schedule to implement plans of setting up large scale solar energy projects.

India is looking to invest billions of dollars in setting to large scale solar and wind energy projects. These projects are essential for meeting the growing power demands and also for countering any demands from the developed countries to reduce carbon emissions.

India currently generates only 3 percent or 12,000 MW of its electricity from renewable sources, mostly comprising of wind energy while solar energy contributes only 2 MW. The government recently announced ambitious plan to boost electricity generation from solar energy to 20,000 MW by 2030.

Tapping solar energy is essential for India as it’s power plants are in short supplies of coal. Thus for various reasons ranging from energy security and international pressures to reduce its carbon emissions to environmental problems related to conventional energy sources, India has announced these massive plans to expand its solar energy infrastructure.

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What Is the Challenge

In 2003 the Government set a target of 10,000 GWh of energy to be produced from renewable energy sources by 2013. At that time the strategy expected the energies to be biomass, wind, solar and small-scale hydro.

Very little progress has been made on reaching this goal although six of the 10 years have already passed.

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India’s special envoy on Climate Change has demanded that developed nations invest more in renewable energy projects and do more to reduce their carbon emissions.

The Indian government wants the developed nations to ‘re-double’ their efforts on funding clean energy projects and not let the current economic crisis be a roadblock in those efforts. The envoy also reiterated that his government was not yet in a position to pledge to any mandatory emission reduction goals. He reminded the developed nation of the ‘historical responsibility’ to bring down their carbon emission levels.

Continuing with his hawkish tone, the envoy added that the developed countries should carry on with their effort to reduce carbon emissions but should not expect the same from developing countries. He said that any efforts to pressurize developing countries to sign up for mandatory emission cuts under the next climate treaty could jeopardize any international treaty. 

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Japan and South Korea have announced that their governments will be investing billions of dollars to develop new green projects which would help creating new jobs and hopefully bring their battered economies back on track.

Continuing the global trend, the Asian industrial powers announced ambitious plans to tackle the rising carbon emissions, depleting energy resources and sliding economic growth. South Korea plans to invest $38 billion in the next four years to create almost a million new jobs. The new investments will be made in projects aimed at recycling waste, increasing energy efficiency, forest conservation and developing renewable energy resources.

Japan, too, has unveiled plans to expand its $745 billion green business sector to $1 trillion by 2020 thus creating about 800,000 new jobs. Japan, although, a huge producer of green technologies has been facing economic downturn primarily because of falling exports, now the government wants to create a market for these green technologies at home.

These investment plans are part of a series of measures announced by various global leaders to stimulate economic growth and build basis for low-carbon economies. Although crude prices are low at the moment, world leaders have understood that energy security is a major issue which requires urgent actions. As the world prepares for the next climate change treaty it becomes important to address the problem of rising carbon emissions.

Natural gas was a viable alternative to oil as it was cheaper and relatively less polluting but now it easy availability is in question since Russia announced that it would forming an OPEC-like cartel to control production and prices. In addition, Russia’s use of gas supplies as an instrument of wielding power raises serious questions about the future supplies of fuel to Europe and possibly other nations. Therefore energy security is an issue of prime importance and the world leaders now have an opportunity to present a solution by investing in clean energy projects to ensure almost complete energy independence.

In the United States, where the housing industry has been suffering from falling prices, some experts have suggested that the values of the homes be increased by providing buyers with subsidized solar panels; this project has already been initiated in some parts of California. Japan, too, is looking to relaunch the subsidized solar project for home owners. Australia already has a feed in tariff system in place similar to that practiced in Germany.

Helping people live ‘off the grid’ is important economically as well and may be the simplest solution available at the moment. Firstly, investors for big clean energy projects are hard to find in this time of economic crisis and secondly, even if big projects are established there is a fear that distribution infrastructure would need a massive upgrade to integrate these projects with the existing grids, which would require huge investment.

Establishing clean energy projects is very important at this time but even more important is the way in which they are planned and executed. The world leaders now have a responsibility to solve a whole lot of problems by a single solution. The projects they approve, a) Must reduce the carbon emissions; b) Must help create jobs and stimulate economic growth and c) Must be targeted at achieving energy independence.

Image source: swanksalot at Flickr under Creative Commons License.

According to the Ernst & Young’s latest Renewable energy country attractiveness indices, Germany has overtaken United States as the most sort after market for investment in renewable energy. The auditing firm blames the economic downturn for what has been a challenging year for renewable energy investment across the world.

The indices - which track and score global investment in renewable energy – also reveal that there has been a record reduction in the attractiveness of all 20 countries included for the first time since its creation five years ago.

Germany has been successful in attracting foreign investment due to its feed-in tariff system under which consumers can sell electricity produced from solar panels or wind turbines installed at their homes to power companies at a price higher than the market price. Although feed-in tariff has its roots in California where it was first used, the US failed to capitalize on this scheme whereas Germany mastered it so well that now other countries are adopting the same model.

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“Inslee’s legislation would require utilities — at the request of any new renewable energy facility owner — to enter into a 20-year fixed-rate power purchase agreement. Uniform national “renewable energy payment” rates would be set by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission at levels that would provide a 10% internal rate of return on investment for available commercialized technologies in regions constituting the top 30^th percentile of renewable energy resource potential in the U.S..”

In plain English, this means that if you install solar PV panels on your home, the utility has to buy the electricity you generate at a higher rate than retail, guaranteeing you a return on your investment. Extending this power purchase agreement for 20 years gives everyone — especially those who want to invest in renewables or start a small business installing solar panels — assurance of return on their investment.

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