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Renewable Energy Generation Increasing Rapidly Wind and solar power generating capacity is increasing very rapidly in many parts of the world, but it is still a tiny fraction of total energy capacity.  By Michael Lindemann Start Date: 1/25/99 First the good news: Renewable electric generating capacity, mainly commercial wind-power and solar photovoltaic (PV) power, is growing very rapidly, driven not only by increasing awareness of fossil-fueled energy's downside but also by the rapidly declining cost of renewable energy. On a percentage basis, installation of commercial solar and wind power is growing more than ten times faster than fossil-fueled power generation. Nuclear power is not growing at all in recent years, and, barring some unexpected development, nuclear power will represent a steadily shrinking percentage of global electric power in the new millennium. According to the Worldwatch Institute, wind-powered electricity generation was up a wopping 25% worldwide in 1997. Germany alone installed 530 megawatts (MW) of wind power in 1997. Other countries out in front on wind power installation include Denmark, Spain, India and China. But the United States has lagged. U.S. growth in wind powered electricity was only 11 MW in 1997, Worldwatch said. However, U.S. wind power did grow much more during 1998, with major new wind generation plants in Oregon and Wyoming accounting for more than 65 MW additional capacity. According to the American Wind Power Association (AWPA), nearly three dozen major wind power installations are planned by various U.S. utilities in the next few years. The AWPA estimates that a total of 40,000 MW additional wind power generation will be installed worldwide by the year 2010. Even so, the total percentage of electricity generated by wind and solar is a tiny fraction of the whole, and it will take a great increase in commitment to renewables to make a substantial improvement in the environmental impacts of electric power generation. At the end of 1997, total installed wind generation worldwide was only 7,630 MW, Worldwatch said. This total is barely 1% of the estimated 714,600 MW of installed hydroelectric power, which accounts for about 23% of the overall electricity generated worldwide. Hydroelectric, the "original renewable" source of electricity, is non-polluting but is blamed for endangering many sensitive river systems and threatening whole ecosystems with destruction by flooding, particularly in Amazonia. Growing resistance to further hydroelectric development in water-rich locales like Amazonia mean that total hydroelectric capacity will no longer increase at the rate seen during most of the 20th century. Solar photovoltaic power (PV) remains far less significant, in percentage terms, than wind power. But rapidly falling costs will encourage increased installation. From a cost per installed watt of about $80 in 1975, commercial PV today installs for less than $4 per watt, and that price is expected to drop even more in the next few years. Installed PV worldwide increased by over 15% in 1997, to a total of about 800 MW, slightly more than 10% of the total installed wind power. According to "Trends in Renewable Energies, Issue 60" of Dec 14, 1998 (energy@renewables.ca), a new milestone in PV power occurred recently with the commissioning of Sun Power Station #1, the first all-solar commercial power plant in the United States, operated by Sun Power Electric Company of Boston, Massachusetts. When fully online, the plant's 156 photovoltaic panels will generate 50 KW of power, or 60,000 KWH (kilowatt hours) annually. There is now a push on several fronts to commit the United States to rapidly increase the renewable fraction of total electric capacity. Growing awareness of the likely role of fossil fuel pollution in global climate change, along with improvements in renewal energy technology and concomitant cost reductions, are incentives to seek ten-fold growth, or more, in renewable energy capacity by 2020. A new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) says that renewable energy could assume ten times its current percentage of U.S. energy production and still see an overall reduction in the cost of electricity of 13% over the next 20 years. A big payoff would be zero increase in carbon dioxide emissions from power generation, the UCS says. Vermont Republican Senator James Jeffords is pushing to increase renewables to 20 percent of electricity generation by 2020. Jeffords says he is now revising and will soon reintroduce his "Electric Benefits Protection Act of 1997" in the Senate. The bill supports states in developing renewable energy sources, universal electric service and conservation. Meanwhile, the Clinton administration is proposing a plan to raise the renewable share of electric power to 5.5 percent by 2010. Critics, including Senator Jeffords, have called the plan "weak." At issue is whether or not the United States will commit to reduce overall carbon emissions to at least 5.2% below the 1990 level by the period 2008-2012, as called for in the recently negotiated Kyoto accords on global climate change. President Clinton signed the Kyoto agreement last November, but has not submitted it to the U.S. Senate for ratification because it faces almost certain defeat. Many Senators currently believe the Kyoto agreement spells bad news for the U.S. economy, and that it unfairly burdens developed industrial nations with stringent emissions reductions while allowing developing countries more leeway. On the other hand, a group of environmental and business leaders, under the banner of the Sustainable Energy Coalition, are pushing the Clinton Administration to go well beyond the Kyoto accords, at least with respect to U.S. government facilities. In a recent letter to Vice President Al Gore, a strong proponent of environmental concerns, the Coalition called on the government to "lead the nation in reducing carbon emissions by setting a government-wide goal of 20 percent below 1990 baseline by 2010" in all government-related facilities. The group also asks the U.S. government to commit to using at least 10% renewable energy in federal facilities by the year 2005, raising that level to 25% by the year 2020. Although the Clinton administration has not directly responded to the Coalition's challenge, the president in his January 19 State of the Union address did refer to global climate change as "our most fateful new challenge," and noted that "last year's heat waves, floods and storms are but a hint of what future generations may endure if we do not act now." Clinton proposed a variety of new incentives for U.S. businesses to take "voluntary early action" to curb carbon emissions.
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