During the last century, the Earth's average surface temperature rose by around 0.6°C. Evidence is getting stronger that most of the global warming that has occurred over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities, especially the rapid consumption of the fossil fuels. The levels of greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide have reached unmatched levels. This has lead to the governments and industries thinking seriously about alternative sources of energy. This need was further affirmed by the 1973 oil embargo and the ever increasing oil prices since then. These issues along with declining availability of the fossil fuels has led to the fast development of renewable energy resources like solar energy, wind energy, etc.

Renewable energy is defined as the energy derived from resources that are regenerative or for all practical purposes can not be depleted. Renewable energy offers tremendous benefits for meeting global energy needs. Building on a foundation of hydropower, biomass combustion, and geothermal power pioneered during the industrial revolution, new forms of renewable energy began to be developed and commercialized, including solar, wind, and several forms of advanced bioenergy. Today, the global renewable power capacity has almost reached 200 GW and by 2030, the overall demand for energy resources is expected to almost double the current levels. And it is almost certain that renewables will play a major role in fulfilling most of that demand. These technologies are the fastest growing energy technologies – particularly wind and solar – and are cost competitive in a variety of grid, off-grid, and remote applications worldwide. They utilize locally available resources, off setting the need for costly fuel imports, are environmentally beneficial, without the harmful emissions of conventional energies, provide diversification to a country’s energy mix and create local job and income opportunities.

Nonetheless despite their advantages, the bulk of renewable energy development to date has occurred in industrialized countries, with the limited exception of a few emerging economies like China and India. The countries most in need of the positive attributes of these technologies are not yet beneficiaries. This is due in large part to a number of barriers that hinder renewable energy advancement. Most notably, renewable energy continues to be comparatively expensive for a variety of developing country needs. Further, many of these countries have not yet put in place the policy and regulatory frameworks needed to induce investment in renewable energy, or eliminated subsidies for conventional fuels that make it difficult for the technologies to compete. Moreover, many developing countries have imperfect capital markets and insufficient access to affordable financing for developers and consumers, as well as inadequate institutional capacity to support the technologies.

Global Renewable Energy Market reports focuses on the current developments in the sector and its potential worldwide. History, current status and future for each of the renewable source – hydropower, solar, wind, biomass and geothermal – is discussed. Further, assessment of the major markets has been done along with policies around the world and profiles of key companies in the industry. Also, report presents a detailed cost analysis of various renewable resources.


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Pages: 29
Publication Date: Rev.: August 2008
Publisher: Energy Business Reports