The Ocean of Renewables – I came across this fascinating “Salon.com” post recently, Exajoules of Hope, by Andrew Leonard. Leonard writes “How the World Works,” a regular “conversation about globalization.” In the piece, we learn that “A joule is one watt of power for one second. An exajoule is 10 to the 18th power joules. Current estimates are that the world demand for energy in a year is 428 exajoules.” That’s succinct!
Now for the really good stuff. In researching carbon trading, Leonard came across a paper on “The Potentials of Renewable Energy.” He finds a chart saying that the technical potential for hydro in the world is 50 exajoules, biomass is 250, solar 1,600, wind is 600, and geothermal is 5,000. That’s about 7,500 and doesn’t count ocean energy.
The conclusion: the total technical renewable potential is 17 times current demand. That, my friends, is one of the messages I’ve been trying to convey: we are swimming in renewable energy. Let’s get on it!
Leonard cites another study, “The price of power: poverty, climate change, the coming energy crisis and the renewable revolution” from the New Economics Foundation. The conclusion here? As Leonard says, ” small-scale renewable energy installations are increasingly appropriate for deployment in impoverished nations where millions still live far from the electricity grid.”
Kenya Geothermal – Which brings us to this: Kenya energy goes green to meet electricity boom. In this AFP story, courtesy of the WBCSD‘s “Energy & Climate News,” we learn that Kenya intends to triple its 1 gigawatt energy output in the next ten years, with 85% of the new capacity coming from geothermal. I’ve written a number of times about geothermal, including here and here.
I’ll quote in full from more than a year ago at the blog on a study done for the US: “On geothermal, in January [“07] a major new report found enormous ” potential for geothermal energy within the United States” and ” that mining the huge amounts of heat that reside as stored thermal energy in the Earth’s hard rock crust could supply a substantial portion of the electricity the United States will need in the future, probably at competitive prices and with minimal environmental impact.” See this from the M.I.T. news service and the report itself.”
Nepal – The headline from a recent issue of “The Hindu” is Nepal to raise climate change at SAARC meet. SAARC is the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation and has Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka as members. Nepali Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat is quoted in the article as saying “The glaciers are melting in the Himalayan region faster than before; mountains are melting and agricultural cycle is also affected, we’ll be raising these issues at the Summit.” He called for regional cooperation on energy and climate. He also noted Nepal’s considerable hydropower potential.
And how! See this paper on hydropower’s potential in Nepal from a few years back from the South Asia Regional Initiative for Energy (SARI/Energy) and USAID. The report notes: “Nepal has a huge hydro-power potential of 83,000 MW, out of which 42,000 MW is considered to be economically feasible in the present condition. The present hydro-power capacity is about 500 MW. Only 18% of the population has access to electricity.” Sound evocative of what Andrew Leonard was saying?
China Green – Besides all the smoke (literally) and mirrors of the attempt by the PRC to mask their massive, killing pollution ahead of the Olympics, there’s an ongoing story, noted here among other places at the blog, about how China is trying to break through to a new, clean tech era. Now see Reuters’ recent article, Green Revolution Emerges in Smokestack China. The article notes that a new report from The Climate Group, “China’s Clean Revolution,” says that China is now ” the world’s top maker of solar power panels, is set to become the top exporter of wind turbines and has two-thirds of the global market in solar water heaters. China is also a leading producer of energy efficient domestic appliances and rechargeable batteries.”
Can you say leapfrogging?
IEA Database – What exactly is going on throughout the world on renewables and energy efficiency? You can find out a lot about projects and policies here with the International Energy Agency’s comprehensive and interactive database. Have fun.
