IREA Statement on CSD 15

Bonn/ Freiburg/ London, 18 August 2006 - Renewable energy offers solutions to many of the basic challenges mankind faces today. The Millennium Development Goals cannot be achieved without an accelerated deployment of renewable energy technologies. All renewable energy technologies, be it bioenergy, geothermal, hydropower, ocean energy, solar or wind can be harvested in a future energy mix.

The International Renewable Energy Alliance works for the common objective to advise policy makers on the international level on how to design and implement renewable energy programmes and to work for the achievement of high standards and industry guidelines for socially and environmentally responsible development.

IREA participated in both the Bonn and Beijing renewable energy conferences and contributed to and wholly supports the declarations from each. The different technologies have some special characteristics which need to be considered:

Hydropower
Sustainable hydropower converges at the crossroads of two human needs - energy and water – and provides useful tools to cope with the major
challenges facing humanity through:
a) mitigating climate change by offering a renewable, extremely efficient, low carbon electricity source
b) alleviating poverty and sustaining livelihoods through economic development, that includes the provision of affordable and reliable electricity and water supplies.

Hydropower can make a significant contribution to the UN Millennium Goals and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation; the latter in particular urgently calls for a substantial increase of the global share of renewable energy sources (paragraph 9 (a, g) and 20 (b, e). The flexibility of hydropower’s storage capacity makes it a renewable back-up for the further expansion of other renewable technologies.

In November 2003, the International Hydropower Association (IHA) adopted its Sustainability Assessment – guidelines that fully endorse and outline social responsibility, sound business practice and careful natural resource management for all hydropower projects globally. These guidelines have been worked out by industry experts following a thorough public consultation process, that included members of governments, international NGO's and lending agencies. However, it is not enough to establish a code of good practice: the sector must be also able to demonstrate convincingly that its performance meets high standards. Therefore, in collaboration with other international organisations, IHA is developing a simple tool for objective assessment of new project proposals and existing schemes. Independent auditing and detailed documentation will consider the suitability of proposed projects’ locations, their social and environmental credentials, and whether the proposed financing, planning and management are adequate in meeting the sustainability criteria.

Solar Energy
Direct solar energy, like energy from wind and water, is considered to be unlimited in the long term; it is an abundant resource available all over the globe.

Energy from the sun can be used directly to heat or light buildings, and to heat water, in both developed and developing nations. The sun’s radiant energy can also provide hot water or steam for industrial processes, temperatures can be reached as high as to produce electricity in thermalelectric generators or to run heat engines. Of course, solar energy can also generate electricity through the photovoltaic effect. In its multi-functionality, solar energy can be used to enhance public safety, to bring light and hygiene (through refrigeration and cooling of food and medicine) to those 1.8 billion people in the world still without electricity and link them in a global communications network to the rest of the world. Solar energy can be used to produce fresh water from the sea, to pump water and power irrigation systems, and to detoxify contaminated water, addressing the world’s perhaps most pressing need - clean water. It can even be used to process food with solar cookers, replacing the constant wood foraging that
denudes ecosystems and contaminates the air in the dwellings of the poor.

Today, the most visible form of solar energy technology are photovoltaic (PV) systems. PV modules are versatile, easy to install, cheap to maintain,
and provide a valuable product – electricity. Solar photovoltaic technology, together with energy efficiency and sustainable design of buildings, when
integrated into the electrical grid, can make a substantial contribution to the energy needs of almost all countries of the world.

The Millennium Development Goals demand a sustainable renewable energy mix. Existent and newly developed renewable energy technology combined with energy efficiency and energy saving have the capacity to accomplish these goals, but to do so, it will be necessary to implement policies that prepare the ground for a faster implementation of renewable energy technologies – the timeframe we have is limited!

Wind energy
Wind energy is today one of the fastest growing energy sources worldwide with growth rates of 20-30 % per annum and worldwide installations of
more than 60 GW. In some world regions, like in Denmark, wind power already covers 20 % and more of the electricity consumption. Electricity generated from nature’s renewable wind resource already provides electricity to the homes of more than 60 million people. The average size of grid-connected wind turbines has increased continuously, and there are wind turbines available with a capacity of 5-6 MW. One major field of application of such multi-megawatt turbines are offshore wind farms.

At the same time, small-scaled systems become increasingly important for rural electrification especially in developing countries. Only in China,
roughly 300 000 small-scaled wind turbines are providing rural communities with electricity. Further efforts in developing and applying hybrid systems
will be necessary in the future. Such hybrid systems, small-scaled as well as on a large scale, need to be given special consideration in the future in
order to come to the best-possible integration and synergies of all the renewable energy technologies, be it biomass, geothermal, hydro, solar,
wind, etc.

Although external costs of conventional (fossil and nuclear) energy sources are not reflected in market prices in most cases, wind energy already today can and does contribute to stabilising and even decreasing energy prices. Due to continued price reductions and increasing prices of conventional energy sources, wind energy can be expected to become in general one of the cheapest energy sources in the mid-term. However, market distortions still require favourable frameworks for an increased market penetration by wind energy.

In order to ensure an optimised and sustainable application of wind energy technologies, WWEA has adopted the WWEA Sustainability and Due Diligence Guidelines.

Future challenges:
The IREA partners have identified the following key areas for the future development of renewable energy:

1. Remove all subsidies and enforce the internalisation of all externalities to achieve a level playing field in the electricity and energy industry;
2. Until this is achieved, pursue compensatory regulatory frameworks that encourage renewable energy developments, and that provide sufficient
financial security to promote long-term investment;
3. Increased interaction of global networks and alliances that contribute to greater cooperation and prioritisation between renewable energy
technologies, accompanied by new dedicated international institutions;
4. Financial and technological support, through institutions such as the World Bank, Regional Development Banks and other international and
national organisations, and for developing nations to facilitate the greater and more rapid uptake of sustainable and renewable energy
technologies, through new dedicated institutions and funds;
5. Improvement of the post-Kyoto framework to make it more favourable for renewable energy investment;
6. Creation of an international certification system for sustainable hydropower projects, based on consultation with key stakeholders and
taking into account the powerful benefits of hydropower.

Statistical summary
IREA participated, through a member of the REN21 Steering Committee, in the preparation of the Renewables Global Status Report 2006 and now
incorporates and adopts the executive summary describing some of the startling growth rates in the investment and deployment of renewable
energy: Record investment in new renewable energy capacity occurred in 2005 – $ 38 billion, up from $ 30 billion in 2004. Germany and China were the
investment leaders, with about $ 7 billion each, followed by the United States, Spain, Japan, and India. Wind power registered the second highest
added capacity, almost as much as large hydropower, with existing capacity growing 24 percent to reach 59 gigawatts (GW). Biomass power production saw 50–100 percent increases in annual production in several countries in 2004. High growth rates also occurred in biodiesel (85 percent
increase in annual production) and grid-connected solar PV (55 percent increase in existing capacity). Solar hot water existing capacity grew by 23
percent in China and reached record levels across Europe as well. And construction began in the United States and Spain on the world’s first utilityscale solar thermal power plants in 20 years. Country leadership changed or broadened in several areas. Germany leapt ahead of Japan in grid-connected solar PV, adding 600 megawatts (MW) in one year to achieve a higher cumulative capacity. The United States was the leader in wind power additions for the first time since 1992, while at the same time India’s existing capacity surpassed windpioneer Denmark. Ten countries added over 300 MW of wind, up from five countries that did so in 2004. India passed Japan in total renewable power capacity. In ethanol, U.S. production caught up to Brazil, long the world’s leading producer, and three new European Union (EU) countries became producers. In biodiesel, nine new EU countries became producers.

The renewables industry captured investors attention, as the number of renewable energy companies or divisions with market valuations greater
than $40 million increased from 60 to 85. The estimated total valuation of companies in this category was $50 billion, double the 2004 estimate, as
several high-profile initial public offerings took place. The solar PV industry invested record amounts in new plant and equipment (about $6 billion), as
did the biofuels industry (more than $1 billion). The wind industry continued international production expansion, including in Australia and China, where
Vestas, Gamesa, Suzlon, Acciona, and GE Energy were all establishing manufacturing facilities. Policies were extended, revised, and added. Several EU countries revised or supplemented feed-in policies. The United States extended its production tax credit through 2007. A number of countries dramatically stepped up targets for biofuels and at least 10 states/provinces and six countries added blending mandates. Several EU countries enacted new biofuels tax exemptions. New feed-in laws were enacted in four states/provinces in India and Canada. Spain became the first country to mandate solar PV in new construction and the second country (after Israel) to mandate solar hot water in new buildings as a national policy. Initiatives for grid-connected solar PV multiplied, including California’s new policy for a million solar roofs by 2017 and programs in several U.S. states, Australia, China, and the EU. New city-level targets appeared, including a proposal by Tokyo to reach a 20 percent share of renewables in primary energy consumption by 2020. Developing countries took new steps in record numbers to incorporate renewables into their energy systems, including programs and new policy developments in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, India, Iran, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Africa,
Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, and Uganda.