In August 2022, the US Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), ultimately the Biden administration’s climate protection package. The investment into the hundreds of billions was billed as a “moonshot moment,” and applauded almost everywhere. Let’s take a look at what’s happened thus far. Paul Hockenos reports.
All posts tagged: renewable energy
Challenges to Latin America’s geothermal boom
Geothermal energy prospects remain largely untapped in many parts of the world. Latin America with its numerous volcanos and seismic activities along the Pacific Ocean has a particularly high potential to develop this renewable resource. What is holding it back? Rebecca Bertram reports.
Will the new Polish government launch a renewable energy revolution?
Even though ecology is a key economic and social theme, it was most definitely side-lined during the Polish parliamentary elections of 15 October 2023. The campaign was dominated by other issues: the surveillance of opposition politicians by special services, the role of state-run media, migration policy and the unprecedented enrichment of politicians from the governing Law and Justice (PiS) party through state assets. These subjects stirred a lot more emotion than the future of a coal-based economy or the need to unfreeze the stunted development of wind energy. Michał Olszewski reports. Read More
With renewables growing, nations at COP28 vow to triple rate of expansion
The adoption of renewables, especially wind and solar, continues grow — though certainly not fast enough. In 2022, solar and wind power accounted for an impressive 12% of electricity generated worldwide. According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) in 2023 solar adoption surged above 50 percent. Going forward, the IEA’s Net Zero Scenario (NZS) calls for an anticipated 25% growth rate for solar generation annually through by the end of the decade. To ensure this happens, during COP28 in Dubai, many nations agreed to set a goal of tripling renewable capacities by 2030. While certainly the world faces many challenges to hold to only 1.5 degrees of heating – as lead blogger Michael Buchsbaum relates, the necessary rapid build out of renewables looks like it’s starting to happen. Read More
The Ugandan energy sector – Renewables’ enormous potential is yet to deliver
A high percentage of Uganda’s energy consumption comes from renewable sources, but mainly from traditional firewood and charcoal. Modern renewables accounted for only 22% in 2020. So, a rapid transition towards renewable energy, and bioenergy in particular, is needed to avoid further deforestation, emissions, and health risks. Sarah Helen Rüdenauer reports.
Sunny breezes: Latin America’s energy transition set for swift expansion
With nearly a billion solar panels’ worth of large-scale clean-electricity projects slated to come online in the next seven years, Latin America is poised to become a major renewable energy producer. A newly published report by the Global Energy Monitor (GEM) tallies more than 319 gigawatts (GW) of utility-scale solar and wind-power projects continent-wide due to be launched by 2030 – nearly equal to 70 percent of the region’s combined total of all current electrical capacity today. Since 2022, investing in this region’s energy potential has both accelerated and taken on more importance as Europe races to replace Russian fossil fuels with cleaner sources, including soon truly green hydrogen. Lead blogger and podcaster, Michael Buchsbaum reviews how clean energy growth throughout Latin America is reaching a tipping point – and how they’ll be competing with China too.
How to modernize Poland’s outdated electric grid
Obsolete power grids are putting the brakes on Poland’s renewable energy rollout. According to the Energy Regulatory Office (URE), more than a third of overhead lines are over 40 years old, while a third of power stations were built before the year 1982. This aging infrastructure may slow the nation’s rapid increase in renewable sources. Agata Skrzypczyk has the details.
Why Nuclear Power and Renewables Don’t Mix
Toby Couture, director of the independent Berlin think tank E3 Analytics, argues that nuclear power doesn’t properly balance off variable clean energy. Paul Hockenos has the story.
Setting sail renewable energy technologies from Berlin to Bamako and beyond
In an earlier series on articles of the Paris Agreement, Michael Davies-Venn analysed policy options to implement Article 6. Focus here is on Article 10, which provides a technology development and transfer framework premised on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) Technology Mechanism. Developed countries promised to “promote, facilitate and finance, as appropriate, the transfer of, or access to, environmentally sound technologies” to particularly developing countries, to help reduce global emissions. But what does this actually mean and how does it tangibly translate in developing countries in dire need of such technologies?
Good news from Chile
Chile is the new renewable energy champion of Latin America. It has overtaken Brazil and Mexico in attracting more foreign direct investment in the sector. Smart and stable energy policy lies behind this success as Rebecca Bertram reports.