The rise in hydrogen as part of the global energy transition is set to reshape global trade and redefine bilateral energy relations as the emergence of new hydrogen exporters and users changes the geopolitical landscape, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency.
Europe’s power sector is under pressure as never before from changes in government policy to technological advances and the explosive growth and falling costs of renewables all of which are undermining the economics of traditional power plants. A recent forecast by IRENA predicted that on current trends, by 2020, “all mainstream renewable power generation technologies can be expected to provide average costs at the lower end of the fossil-fuel cost range".
According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the European gas crisis could accelerate the transition to clean energy and the adoption of green hydrogen as a viable alternative to oil and gas.
IRENA estimates that Africa’s potential for renewables on the continent is around 310 GW by 2030, however, only 70 GW will be reached based on current nationally determined contributions. According to an 2017 IRENA report, 45 African countries have quantifiable renewable energy targets in their NDCs. IRENA Director Policy and Finance expert, Henning Wuester, said that there was less than USD10 billion investment in renewables in Africa and that it needed to triple to fully exploit the continent’s potential.
Hydrogen is estimated to meet 12 percent of final energy consumption by 2050, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), bringing new dynamics to the energy trade and cooperation of countries.
A new report from IRENA has revealed that companies across 75 different countries sourced an impressive total of 465 terawatt-hours’ worth of renewable energy in 2017, highlighting the continued interest in and support of corporate renewable energy purchasing. The new report, Corporate Sourcing of Renewable Energy: Market and Industry Trends, is the world’s first global and comprehensive analysis of corporate sourcing of renewable electricity.
"The green electrification project of Sardinia in the next 10 years has been included by the experts of the United Nations High Level Dialogue on Energy (of which I am honored to be a part) among the 7 'Multistakeholder Energy Compact' projects selected in the world", recalls Valeria Termini, professor of Political Economy at the University of Roma Tre. This is why the project assumes a strategic value for the future of Sardinia, both in environmental and economic terms. "Especially in light of the reduction in costs in the last decade of electricity produced from renewable sources, in just one year the cost has continued to fall by 10% in the world to the point that today the data of the International Agency for Renewable Energy (IRENA) of the United Nations tell us that the cost of renewables is lower both for installation and for operation than that of coal, an absolutely revolutionary aspect that Sardinia can exploit".
French water and waste group Veolia has opened what it says is Europe’s first recycling plant for solar panels and aims to build more as thousands of tonnes of ageing solar panels are set to reach the end of their life in coming years. In a 2016 study on solar panel recycling, IRENA said that in the long term, building dedicated PV panel recycling plants makes sense. It estimates that recovered materials could be worth $450 million by 2030 and exceed $15 billion by 2050.
Plug Power Inc., based in New York, USA, began operating a fuel cell and electrolytic cell manufacturing plant in Rochester, New York in 2021. At that time, the company asserted that "hydrogen produced using clean energy" would be the next big wave. The era of clean hydrogen is imminent. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), about 70% of the energy contained is lost when hydrogen is produced using fossil fuels. However, if hydrogen production using solar energy, which is inexhaustible and free of charge, becomes possible, such inefficiencies will not occur and it will be cheaper than the current major fuels. IRENA states that the cost of supplying the hydrogen is now about 1.5-5 times that of natural gas per unit of energy.
Sometimes the news about our environment can feel a little monotonous. We read the same old headlines about how important the environment is. On World Environment Day 2018, it’s time to inject some hope and inspiration into the mix. IRENA estimates that to limit global warming to 2°C, renewable energy will need to provide 65% of the world’s energy in 2050, up from around 15% today. Please enter content for Here are 6 big ideas to help the environment
IRENA is trying help a local joint venture secure funding for a 1.3-megawatt solar project in Balayan City, Batangas. The global RE energy agency is doing this through its virtual marketplace. Called Sustainable Energy Marketplace, the platform seeks to bolster both public and private investments in RE and energy efficiency in developing and emerging nations to meet global climate and sustainable development goals
The nation may meet President Biden’s interim targets to cut CO2 levels. But the goal of getting to net zero by 2050 is a more formidable challenge. That’s what the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) says, noting that the electrification of the entire economy will play a crucial role. “Hydrogen could prove to be a missing link to a climate-safe energy future,” says Francesco La Camera, director- general of IRENA. “Hydrogen is clearly riding on the renewable energy revolution with green hydrogen emerging as a game-changer for achieving climate neutrality without compromising industrial growth and social development.”
As horrible as the pandemic has been, it has managed to do two things that can be considered positive; it brought about a rapid drop in national carbon emission levels in the U.S. and sped up the renewable energy adoption rate. According to The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), transforming energy systems based on renewables could boost global GDP by $98 trillion by 2050 and create 63 million new jobs globally in renewables and energy efficiency. If America needs anything now, it needs jobs that people actually want to do.
A new report by IRENA shows businesses are increasingly switching to renewable energy at scale – but that greater and faster action is needed to help deliver on the Paris Agreement by 2050. Corporate Sourcing of Renewables: Market and Industry Trends shows that more and more companies around the world are using, procuring, or investing in renewable energy
The head of the International Renewable Energy Agency says “radical action” is needed to shift away from fossil fuels and ensure global warming doesn’t pass dangerous thresholds.
Countries aiming to sharply reduce their emissions to meet climate goals must be prepared for staggering costs and looming political battles as they seek to overhaul swaths of their economies, climate analysts and economists say. The International Renewable Energy Agency, an intergovernmental organization based in Abu Dhabi, said in March that the world would need to invest $115 trillion through 2050 in clean technologies, such as solar power and electric vehicles, to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit.
More than half a million jobs around the world were created in the renewable energy sector in 2017 , bringing the total number of people employed in the sector to more than 10 million for the first time. Figures from IRENA show that more than 70% of clean energy jobs are in just six countries China, Brazil, the US, India, Germany and Japan suggesting the sector has significant scope to continue growing in years to come.
How green is wind power? It’s not a simple question. Of course the wind blows without carbon emissions, but catching it isn’t easy. They won’t run out of material — the International Renewable Energy Agency predicts that we’ll have to deal with a cumulative 78 million metric tons of antiquated solar panel waste and tens of millions of tons of old turbine blades by 2050.
The world must take "radical action" by investing $5.7 trillion in private and public money each year through 2030 to shift away from fossil fuels and ensure the planetary warming they cause doesn't pass dangerous thresholds, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) says.
The world is moving too slowly to meet targets to provide electric power and clean cooking to everyone on the planet by 2030, with progress on using less-polluting fuels in the kitchen especially poor. “We must be more ambitious in harnessing the power of renewable energy to meet sustainable development and climate goals, and take more deliberate action to achieve a sustainable energy future,” said Adnan Z. Amin, Director-General of IRENA.
Sometime this year a worker will plug in an historic solar panel. Whether on a small rooftop or in a sprawling desert array, that panel will put the world over the edge of the first terawatt of capacity to produce electricity from the sun. That means that the interest rate on upfront payment has a huge impact on the cost of renewable energy, accounting for up to half of the price the electricity needs to be sold for to make economic sense, according to the International Energy Agency. Emerging markets are at a disadvantage compared to developed economies, paying up to seven times more in financing costs, the IEA found in a report last year.
More than 70% of the global carbon emissions in the atmosphere are due to energy generation and use. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), these emissions must fall to zero by 2050, in order to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5 °C, as in the Paris Agreement target. This requires a massive shift towards electrification and renewable energy sources. Power generation should expand three-fold to reach 70,800 TWh/a by 2050, with renewables providing 90% of the supply.
Over 500,000 new jobs were generated by the renewable energy industry last year, a 5.3 percent rise when compared to 2016, according to a report. The number of people working in the renewable energy sector including large hydropower hit 10.3 million in 2017, IRENA study said. Breaking the figures down, IRENA said that the solar photovoltaic industry employed the largest amount of people, with almost 3.4 million working in that sector.
Solar, wind, hydro, nuclear and bioenergy produced more electricity than coal in 2021 with Europe leading the way. Separately, a report from the International Renewable Energy Agency estimated that $5.7tn in annual investment was needed every year until 2030 for solar, wind and other forms of clean power to ensure that global warming does not exceed “dangerous thresholds”.
Just as Brazil’s rivers supply it with hydroelectric power and faults in the earth’s crust provide Indonesia with geothermal energy, so Vietnam hopes abundant sunshine and a shallow coast will provide clean energy to drive economic growth. According to data from IRENA, an intergovernmental renewable energy organisation, Vietnam’s production from solar and wind increased 237 per cent and 60 per cent respectively in 2020, raising the share of these sources to a quarter — almost a decade ahead of schedule.