Energy transformation continues despite recession

The new Penascal Wind Power Station is located on the Texas Gulf Coast near Sarita
(Photo/Business Wire)

In the midst of the recession the transformation of the world’s energy markets is still going strong. New investments reached $120 billion in 2008 and a Renewable Energy Policy Network (REN21) report released Wednesday found the global power capacity for new renewable energy sources to have reached 280,000 megawatts (MW) - a 16 percent rise from 2007 and nearly three times the capacity of the U.S nuclear sector.

“The recent growth of the sector has surpassed all predictions, even those made by the industry itself", said Mohamed El-Ashry, chairman of REN21 a Paris based advocacy group, adding that for the first time ever, more renewable energy than conventional power capacity was added both in the European Union and the United States.

But developing countries are not far behind El-Ashry points out. China and India are increasingly playing major roles in both the manufacture and installation of renewables, and China has, for example, doubled its wind power capacity in 2008 for the fourth year in a row. Many countries have also directed economic stimulus funding towards the renewable energy sector and 73 countries have set renewable energy policy targets, up from 66 at the end of 2007.

“Now is not the time to relax policies that support a global, expanding renewable energy sector”, Mr. El-Ashry said. “By maintaining and expanding these policies, governments, industry and society will reap substantial economic and environmental rewards when the economic rebound requires energy markets to meet rapidly increasing demand”.

And the economic rebound may come sooner than we think. Economists participating in a Wall Street Journal survey presented today see the recession coming to an end by the autumn but say it will take years for the economy to fully recover.