The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its 4th Assessment Report. One of its most striking conclusions is that we don’t have to wait for miracles or ingenious new solutions. The technologies, policies, and measures needed to mitigate climate change are known and doable. They just need to be applied.
With this 4th report, the IPCC has confirmed that there is a consensus among experts on what we know about climate change, how serious the earth’s situation may be, and what we can do to mitigate the phenomenon. Its efforts were rewarded with this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, shared with the mediagenic Al Gore.
After a period of serious silicon capacity problems, the price for photovoltaic cells has begun dropping again. Since prices for oil and natural gas have been rising steeply, photovoltaic energy is steadily approaching grid parity. In some sunny parts of California, grid parity is already a reality.
The world record for the largest PV power plant has been broken in Serpa, Portugal.
Thermal solar power has been gaining attention again. It is an old technology, but new developments are being executed and new plants have been proposed.
The exact potential of ocean power systems is still largely an unknown quantity. However there are more and more signs that it can grow into a competitive form of renewable energy. In the past year, we saw more R&D investments, new prototypes, and the first commercial wave power plant inaugurated in Povoa de Varzim, Portugal.
Is nuclear energy facing a revival? It might be, but a real boom is not to be expected.
In the US, for the first time in years, plans for new nuclear reactors are on the table. Europe continues to be divided on nuclear energy. At the inauguration of the new EU High Level Group on nuclear safety and waste management, EU Energy Commissioner Piebalgs declared that 'nuclear [energy] is here to stay', but that it remains 'a competence that lies with the member states'. In the booming countries of Asia, several new nuclear power plants are in the pipeline.
In the rest of the world, only a few new countries are embracing nuclear power. The non-proliferation treaty and the weight of technical and financial considerations no doubt contribute to the slowing of the process. Only in Indonesia, Turkey, and Vietnam, are plans to start with nuclear energy making serious progress. So if we can speak of a nuclear power revival, it is a very moderate one from a worldwide perspective.
Zero-energy houses continue to gain popularity, although they are still only a small percentage of the built environment. In the US, the Building America Program established a Zero Energy House (ZEH) programme which is beginning to yield results. Passive buildings received a lot of media attention in 2007. A passive building does without a major heating system.
Venture capital is increasingly finding its way to the energy sector. The market for photovoltaic solar technology has already held the attention of venture capitalists for several years. Recently, battery technology has experienced a similar boost in attracting investment capital. And increasingly, the boom is exceeding the boundaries of photovoltaic and battery technology and extending out into all kinds of green energy systems. Barclays Equity Fund for instance is offering completely green investment portfolios.
The carbon market has been booming. Growth was exponential this past year. Its main driver was the EU-ETS, but the US is making up its arrears and the World Bank predicts a further rise in carbon prices next year.
Energy efficiency is clearly the cheapest energy resource; although some argue that it is past its peak and that it will dry up as a major resource in the next decades.
But despite being a priority for the EU and for several other countries around the world, energy efficiency has still been struggling for attention among industrial decision makers and consumers. It is still too early to judge the results of the EU Energy Efficiency Action Plan. This plan was launched this year and goes into full force next year.
This past year again saw several targets for mitigating climate change pass in review. In the spring, the European Energy Council agreed on three main targets to be achieved by 2020: a 20 per cent reduction of GreenHouse Gas (GHG) emissions, a 20 per cent share of renewables in the energy sector, and a 20 per cent reduction in energy consumption. The problem is that nobody knows how these targets should be reached or even how they should be divided between the EU Member States. Even more perplexing is that it is still not clear what a one percent energy saving actually means.
As climate change mitigation has heated up as a media topic, more and more companies and individuals want to buy a green image and a good conscience. This has resulted in the stretching and distortion of definitions of concepts like 'zero-emission', 'zero-energy', and 'carbon-free' into all but unrecognizable forms. Sometimes these words turn out to be little more than a very thin layer of green paint. Someone has even claimed that the entire problem of climate change can be solved by painting all cities white. That qualifies, I guess, as a greenwash with white paint.
There was a lot of fuss about electric vehicles and battery technologies the past year. But it looks like we will still have to wait a couple of years before mass production of commercial plug-in vehicles becomes reality. If you can afford it, driving all electric is already possible with the Tesla Roadster. Automotive magazine representatives did a test-drive of this exclusive sports car this week. The first consumer models are to be delivered in the beginning of next year. The Tesla Roadster is living proof that battery technology is making significant progress. This is primarily due to companies like A123 and Altair Nanotechnologies.
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Top 10 stories from R-squared
By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Sat, 2007-12-22 23:14 R-squared has also run an energy top 10, with specific stories selected from 31 contributions.Reply
See also
By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Sat, 2007-12-29 14:03Technology Review: The Year in Energy
Top Stories of 2007 from Renewable Energy Access
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and an outlook for 2008
By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Thu, 2008-01-03 10:00 Clean Break :: 2008 Clean Break LookaheadReply