Johannesburg - Renewable energy's improved competitiveness continues, driven by the rapid deployment of renewables, which is being encouraged by support policies to overcome barriers to their use.
Solar PV costs are declining rapidly due to high learning rates for PV modules and the current rapid deployment. Costs for solar photovoltaic generators declined by around 50% between 2010 and 2014. If these trends continue, grid parity with residential electricity tariffs will soon be the norm in many countries, rather than the exception.
Wind power is now one of the most competitive renewable technologies and, in developed countries with good wind resources, onshore wind is often competitive with fossil fuel fired generation. The wind turbine prices fell in the 1990s and remained steady over the past approximately 10 years. However the average capacity factor steadily grew over the past decade. More efficient turbines generate more electricity per turbine leading to an overall reduction of generation costs.
CSP is increasingly being deployed at scale and costs are coming down. Solar towers are emerging as a particularly important generation option in areas with high direct solar irradiation, while CSP systems can also help with the integration of variable renewables when they are used in combination with low-cost thermal energy storage to generate electricity when there is no sun.
Hydropower capacity additions in the five-year period end-2008 to 2013 were significantly greater than during the earlier part of the decade. Hydropower now has a global installed capacity of around approximately 1,055 GW by 2014 and, is currently the largest renewable power generation source. At good sites it provides the cheapest electricity of any generation technology.
Many biomass power generation technologies are mature and biomass is a competitive power generation option wherever low-cost agricultural or forestry waste is available.
In addition, new technologies are emerging that show significant potential for further cost reduction. Distributed renewable technologies, such as rooftop solar PV and small wind, can provide new capacity without the need for additional transmission and distribution investment and therefore cannot be directly compared with large utility-scale renewable solutions.
Data collected to date suggest that the cost of supporting renewables with well-designed support packages is declining over time and is much cheaper than a static analysis of costs would suggest.
New technologies open new market opportunities and create new jobs. The global renewable energy workforce encompasses a broad variety of jobs and occupations, ranging from low- to very high-skilled. Global statistics about renewable energy employment by country and technology are incomplete and methodologies inconsistent however, an estimate about based on documented employment indicates that between 2004 and 2014 the level of employment doubled, from about 3 million in 2004 to approximately 6.5 million by the start of 2014. By the end of 2014 the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) estimated that direct and indirect job in renewable energy worldwide reached 7.7 million.
In terms of employment ,solar PV is the largest employer with 2.5 million jobs, most of which are concentrated in China due to its undisputed lead in manufacturing as well as a rapidly expanding domestic market. Japan, the United States, and Bangladesh have also boosted their solar PV employment. Global wind power employment crossed the 1 million jobs threshold in 2014.
With renewable energy comprising 27.7% of global power generation capacity and meeting 22.8% of global electricity demand it is clear that renewables have a central role in play in any national energy mix.
Christine Lins is the Executive Secretary of REN21. This article originally appeared in a supplement to The Star.
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