World Energy Revolution? Not Yet
By Paul Hockenos
14 June 2012
No one needs Trotsky around these days to tell us that revolution, even energy revolutions, have to be international, or as we’d say today “global.” An Energiewende confined to a single nation-state alone, even an industrial giant like Germany, won’t add up to more than a pile of agricultural biomass.
Although a worldwide transition to a low carbon, resource-efficient green economy is far away, the new UN Environmental Program annual report is out, which gives us a bird’s eye view of the global picture. The bright side is that in 2011 investment in renewable energies hit an all-time high: 205 billion euros (257 billion dollars) for solar technologies, wind power, and biofuels. For the first time ever, more money was doled out for renewables than for new fossil fuel plants. Horrah, indeed!
If you count hydro, including big, environmentally nasty dam projects, then China is Number One. Without hydro, Germany leads the global pack. Taken as a whole, EU Europe is way out in front of everyone else, accounting for nearly half of all investment in renewables. Well over half of the total went to solar, which jumped 52 percent to 147 billion dollars, thanks to the boom in rooftop installations in Germany and Italy, but also because of the spread of small-scale PV in China and the United Kingdom, and large solar thermal (CSP) projects in Spain and the United States.
World Energy Revolution? Not Yet
By Paul Hockenos
14 June 2012
14 June 2012
No one needs Trotsky around these days to tell us that revolution, even energy revolutions, have to be international, or as we’d say today “global.” An Energiewende confined to a single nation-state alone, even an industrial giant like Germany, won’t add up to more than a pile of agricultural biomass.
Although a worldwide transition to a low carbon, resource-efficient green economy is far away, the new UN Environmental Program annual report is out, which gives us a bird’s eye view of the global picture. The bright side is that in 2011 investment in renewable energies hit an all-time high: 205 billion euros (257 billion dollars) for solar technologies, wind power, and biofuels. For the first time ever, more money was doled out for renewables than for new fossil fuel plants. Horrah, indeed!
If you count hydro, including big, environmentally nasty dam projects, then China is Number One. Without hydro, Germany leads the global pack. Taken as a whole, EU Europe is way out in front of everyone else, accounting for nearly half of all investment in renewables. Well over half of the total went to solar, which jumped 52 percent to 147 billion dollars, thanks to the boom in rooftop installations in Germany and Italy, but also because of the spread of small-scale PV in China and the United Kingdom, and large solar thermal (CSP) projects in Spain and the United States.
No comments:
Post a Comment