Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
rate, 36%per year, extending over 6 years for renewable energy, is likely to slow down
when the market share becomes larger. Still, we will argue that there is only one
direction, upward, for renewable energy capacity,
firms, and workers. This is a
booming (small) business that has a long period of growth in store. This of course
does not mean that every start-up company will succeed; there is already
erce
competition in the area of solar panels.
We givemore details on the recent growth rates of the renewable categories of solar
and wind capacity (which at present total to less than 1% of worldwide total energy
production). Solar photovoltaic global production doubled in 2010 [148], according to
the report REN21 (p. 12). This report indicates that in 2010, 17 GW of capacity,
representing 100% growth over the previous years growth, was added bringing total
PV capacity to 40 GW. (This global capacity is about 5% of U.S. electric generating
capacity, about 800 GW.) Figure 11.1 gives details of investment in 2010 in several
categories of renewable energy.
The investments indicated in Figure 11.1 total to $211 billion for 2010, and indicate
a preponderance of activity in wind and solar technology, with declining investment
in some other renewable categories. The category solar is composed primarily of
solar photovoltaic and solar thermal (concentrated solar power), and apparently does
not include solar water heating. It appears that the growth for solar of 52% in
Figure 11.1, compared to 100% for photovoltaics (above), indicates that the growth
rate for concentrated solar thermal power (CSP), which was discussed in Chapter 5,
while large, lagged the PV sector in year 2010.
Solar water heating and home heating is not included, although installed capacity
was recently approximately 10 times larger than for solar electrics. These systems
replace electric power from the grid, and according to Richter [149], a recent value of
Figure 11.1 New investments in renewable energy in 2010 by technology, units are $bn and growth
is relative to previous year 2009, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance [146], Figure 6, p. 14.
