JoNova:
In June this year the UNEP report announced that Global Renewable Energy investment reached $257 Billion in 2011. It’s so large it rivals the $302 billion invested in fossil fuel power. But how much electricity do we get for all that money? When the details are pulled from the fog, a quarter of a trillion dollars appears to produce only about 3% of all our global electricity, and even less of our global energy. All that money, so few gigawatts.
The 2012 UNEP report “Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment” compares the
“…despite an increasingly tough competitive landscape for manufacturers, total investment in renewable power and fuels last year increased by 17% to a record $257 billion, a six-fold increase on the 2004 figure and 94% higher than the total in 2007, the year before the world financial crisis.”
Renewables growth has slowed somewhat:
“Although last year’s 17% increase was significantly smaller than the 37% growth recorded in 2010, it was achieved at a time of rapidly falling prices for renewable energy equipment and severe pressure on fiscal budgets in the developed world.”
The last couple of quarters have not been good for renewables. (Click to enlarge).
Gross investment in fossil-fuel capacity in 2011 was $302 billion….
So how much electricity does all that investment get us?
At a glance, the numbers in the report look impressive. The UN don’t have much interest in adding graphs like these, though they have 50 figures in the glossy report.
Trick 1, is to refer to “capacity” and not so much to actual production.
– In the power sector, renewables accounted for almost half of the estimated 208 gigawatts (GW) of electric capacity added globally during the year. Wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) accounted for almost 40% and 30% of new renewable capacity, respectively, followed by hydropower (nearly 25%). By the end of 2011, total renewable power capacity worldwide exceeded 1,360 GW, up 8% over 2010; renewables comprised more than 25% of total global power-generating capacity (estimated at 5,360 GW in 2011) …
Source – UNEP: Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2012
The UNEP say renewables comprise 25% of the capacity, and we all know (thanks to Anton Lang) that their capacity is wildly overrated. (Coal fired stations produce at somewhere around 75% of capacity, while solar can be 5 – 20% of its capacity). Capacity is a hypothetical number that is achieved in perfect circumstances. It literally depends on the weather, and when it’s dark and windless, we get nothing from solar and windpower, those moments they are running at 0% of capacity.
One of my Idaho reps sent an email out to the voters telling us that the Federal government REQUIRES the state to buy a certain percentage of our electricy from renewable suppliers, even though we generate electricity for less than they charge.
Look at both of these real-time charts of CA’s ISO electrical grid’s activity.
http://www.caiso.com/outlook/outlook.html
Notice that renewables can account for 100% of our useage?
But then note the real-time place on the clock when renewables are doing great compared with what consumers are using at the same time.
REMEMBER this energy cannot be stored.
Use it or lose it.
Much of CA’s renewables are wasted because they come in at times when we are all not using as much juice.
The one thing renewables does do is cause strain on our grid as it surges then flags.
And it costs so much more to use.
@Nan G: ##2
A lot of the wind farms are being abandoned because of mainteneance costs. The blades last only so long, and have to be replaced. The farms are costing more than they are taking in.
@Smorgasbord: Do you have a reference for this assertion regarding ‘abandonment of wind farms, so that those of us who like to research issues can read more about it?
Here’s some examples.
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/275673/texas-wind-energy-fails-again-robert-bryce
http://www.gresshasissues.com/2010/03/danish-wind-power-bust/#axzz246pfML8X
(a report on this site about the windfarms)
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/02/wind_energys_ghosts_1.html
This is interesting
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/9201071/Wind-farms-are-not-bird-blenders-RSPB.html
Hawaii also has an abandoned wind form problem:
http://www.hawaiifreepress.com/ArticlesMain/tabid/56/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/6350/Broken-promises-The-rusting-wind-turbines-of-Hawaii.aspx
Note my link above about CA’s energy supply.
As our daily need grows, the wind dies down.
As our need wanes each day, the wind kicks up.
@Nan G:
Neither wind, nor solar, can be included within a power grid’s baseline supply. At best they are only suited for peak power periods, and even that is iffy considering when peak power periods occur.
Baseline power production units need to have constant, continuous, and long term operations. In other words, they must be able to be available at all times. Solar and wind power do not meet this criteria, and thus, cannot constitute a majority of a region’s power grid.
Having said that, solar and/or wind power make exceptional personal or local power sources, for those who can afford the initial and continuing maintenance costs, that reduce one’s own power footprint on the power grid itself. Of course, the trick is in obtaining the funds necessary, and/or the permission from local zoning ordinances(especially for wind power systems), in order to have such systems installed.
In my opinion the greenies are marketing these power sources to the wrong part of society, choosing to engage, and even force, these sources upon the general public as full time mega power sources included within a region’s power grid. They would be better off, and have much better luck, attempting to market these sources in the micro, rather than the macro.
@johngalt:
Remember Lichtblick power from 2009?
It was a German power company with just that idea: mini-power stations in your own basement!
Their plan was for 100,000 basements with power plants by the end of 2012.
Their power plants claim to be 100% carbon-neutral.
Their initial base rate/month was going to be 8.95 Euros. ($11.05)
Add another 24.19 Cents per kilowatt hour.
Except for these caveats:
Each monthly electric bill carries a renewable-energy surcharge of about 15 percent.
Electricity prices have jumped approximately 10 percent.
“Excess” electricity MUST be given to the electric company.
Not too bad.
So, where are these?
Only 120 have been put into operation and all of them part of one pilot program to coordinate how tough it actually is to predict and use the so-called excess electricity.
@Liberal1 (objectivity): #4
I’m going to have to start saving aritles about stuff like this. I can’t find anything on the Internet. I must not be putting it in right.