NEW ENERGY – WHAT A DEAL!

Wind energy just 15 years from grid cost parity; Study finds renewables could provide 40 per cent of global electricity by 2050
James Murray, 11 March 2009 (Business Green)

"Renewable energy technologies could meet 40 per cent of global electricity demand by 2050 as long as governments show the sector the same degree of support they provide the nuclear and traditional fossil fuel industries.

"That is the conclusion of new research from the Helsinki University of Technology unveiled at the Climate Congress conference in Copenhagen, which estimated that financial support of just €10bn (£9.3bn) to €20bn a year – a fraction of recent stimulus packages – would establish wind and solar energy as mainstream technologies over the coming decades…"

click to enlarge)

"…[The research predicted the wind and solar] sectors were currently 30 to 50 per cent more expensive than fossil fuel power and needed subsidies to cover this gap, but…this gap would close as the industries scale up…[W]ithout such support the sector would be marginalised and would account for no more than 15 per cent of global electricity supply by 2050.

"…[W]hile current grids could cope reliably with up to a fifth of their power coming from intermittent sources, there would need to be a major overhaul of grid technologies to support a shift to a 40 per cent mix…

"The study was released on the same day as new research from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Africa calculated that £50bn of government investment over the next decade would enable an ambitious plan to deliver solar power from giant solar thermal systems in the Sahara to Europe."