Helpful information for all major energy statistics.
Statistics exist where there is a history of events and whilst this part of the site intended to present a picture of the Renewable Energy Industry through data, I was surprised to find that some particular sectors have no statistics as such to report. To give a clearer picture of these established industries, I have presented sources of statistical information for the titles in bold below. This is widely available and easy to cross check, whereas sectors such as fuel cells, hydrogen, wave power and CHP are fragmented and global figures are hard to obtain. The predictions and media releases are all rosy for these emerging industries, but let’s wait until the numbers are up before we can congratulate ourselves.
Scroll down to the Executive Summary of www.martinot.info/re2005.htm for an overall global picture of Renewable Energy Stats and see the full report at www.ren21.net/globalstatusreport/issueGroup.asp.
Wind Power, Solar Power, Solar Water Heating, Batteries
The first 12 pages of this safe to open file contain all the statistics on Wind Power generation up to the end of 2005.
Thanks to this report, it makes it easy for us all to see how quickly wind power has become established as a major energy producer. The current wind turbines available produce 180 times more power than they did in 1990 and at less than half the cost. The total global power capacity from wind up to the end of 2005 stands at 59 Gigawatts (1 Gigawatt = 1 000 000 000 watts or 1 Billion watts or 1000 MWatts) which effectively replaces 59 large nuclear establishments which typically have an output of 1GW each.
A total of 14 billion USD was spent on wind power in 2005 and capacity grew by 24% from the previous year, as it has more or less done for each year since 1990. Since the energy industry itself predicts that 2000GW of new or replacement energy sources needs installing by 2030, there seems to be no end to the potential for wind energy growth, especially since the bulk of current wind generation is to be found in just 4 or 5 nations. With the world standing at over 190 nations (not all with huge areas for wind generation admittedly but there is scope for offshore development), wind power could play a very large role indeed.
The report says it all and has stats for each nation. Interesting reading.
www.gwec.net/Publications/GWEC-GlobalWind05Report.pdf.
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Wind power and many of the others alternative energies are limited by their placement and interference with our modern and natural world. On the other hand, solar panels will not necessarily blight the landscape nor place too much of a burden on our built environment. In other words, solar panels can go just about anywhere and nobody will complain.
The impact solar panels could have on our forced commitment to power companies could be huge. Everyone with a house could have at least 10 of them on the roof and generate 10KW per day. With 2 billion homes on the planet that equates to about 20000 GW per day or 20000 power stations worth of power.
With these vast sums that are admittedly theoretical because money comes into equation, they could nevertheless bring power to the people and almost rid the world of this continuing oil saga being played out with in Israel with Jewish bankers funding the US war machine to expand their nation and simultaneously pressurising OPEC into putting up oil prices to get some of the tremendous 8 trillion (12 noughts) US debt back. Solar panels are not necessarily perceived as the sort of technology that would require years of bloodshed fuelled by an irresponsible sense of greed. And maybe the lack of big dollar signs is the reason alternative energies have been in the backwoods for so long. Not any more.
I digress, but solar panels and alternative energies promise a great deal for the normal guy in the street. Like peace. According to Wikipedia the total installed peak power from solar panels up to end of 2005 is just 5.3 GW and according to a recent report by Frost and Sullivan for period ending Feb 2006, the installed generating capacity is over 4 GW. Which surprises me, because this means that there is about 13 times more power being generated by wind power than by solar at the moment.
For a qualified picture from the solar industry have a look at www.solarbuzz.com/FastFactsIndustry.htm and www.oja-services.nl/iea-pvps/isr/31.htm. Both have concise and interesting facts about solar power.
Statistics in this 2004 assessment show that whilst many forms of alternative energy technologies have been receiving lots of press in Europe and the US, this does necessarily paint a picture of activities elsewhere. China and Japan (No 1 and 2 in capacity) can count Solar Water Heating systems as very much the norm as they have embraced this easy to install technology. The total power being saved by using solar thermal to heat water by traditional rooftop modules is estimated at 70GW (70 Nuclear installations are not needed) where China and Japan account for half of this amount.
Since these figures are a bit dated and by looking at the low figures for Wind Energy in the graphs, you could estimate that a more up to date figure for installed global Solar Water Heating capacity is nearer to 80GW. Growth in Europe averages out at about 20% and with the increase in public awareness, higher power bills and uncertainty in energy supplies, no real barriers seem to exist for the expansion of Solar Water heating.
All the details can be viewed in www.estif.org/143.0.html
Behind every technological breakthrough, there’s always something mundane that never seems to get a mention. The emergence of jet-engined aircraft was great for jet engines but much of the technologies that supported them received no mention. Batteries get the same degree of publicity as the names of the special effects crew for Pirates of the Caribbean, yet they too deserve more.
Since all this power we have the potential to make has to be stored somewhere, the need for batteries is massive. Remote devices like solar powered aircraft warning lights on top of buildings are expected to be utterly reliable, weatherproof and totally durable and the one I have in front of me has the solar panel and batteries completely sealed in plastic which make it a throw away item should it ever fail. Whilst the solar panel seems unique, the battery technology is not far behind yet seems to be overlooked.
The reason why batteries should receive more recognition is because the most unique feature of them is that they can now be any shape because they store their power in paste or gel like substances. Electric vehicles that used to need vast space for the weight of lead acid cells can now have their doors as batteries, or have the battery formed directly under the seat cushion. There are no limits to battery application barring extreme temperatures, so it’s not surprising that they crop up in places where it was previously unheard of.
For a global perspective of the industry, statistics are available below.
http://www.batteriesdigest.com/markets.htm
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