Renewable Energy across Scales

Over the last two decades, sustainable energy technologies have become a critical part and a major contributor to the global energy supply mix especially in the electricity sector. This is driven by many factors: (i) our... [ view full abstract ]

Over the last two decades, sustainable energy technologies have become a critical part and a major contributor to the global energy supply mix especially in the electricity sector. This is driven by many factors: (i) our desire to use sustainable resources to reduce pollution emanating from the current use of fossil fuels, (ii) to provide a pathway to achieve national and internationally agreed emission reductions (iii) increasing energy security through local resource utilisation, and (iv) the creation of jobs and new industries. Although some of the sustainable energy technologies are in some cases, still driven by what is termed as support mechanisms or subsidies, the sustainable or renewable energy industry has matured, with huge investments being ploughed into it globally. Global new investment in renewable energy (excluding large hydro-electric projects) was around US$241.6 billion in 2016, with over 138.5GW of added renewable power capacity worldwide. This capacity is equivalent to 55% of all the generating capacity and was approximately double that in fossil fuel generation in 2016. A large proportion of the investments have targeted solar and wind electrical power generation. These activities provides the real evidence that renewable energy is now a major industry sector that is likely to grow further, displacing and augmenting traditional electricity generation facilities as we progress in this century. This paper addressed renewable energy technologies and gives a discourse of status of these technologies, their applicability across a wide range of consumption needs and policy implications for future expansion. The paper covers solar, wind, and marine energy and includes economic assessment as well as future prospects for such technologies. Further discussion is also provided for renewable energy deployment at different scales including installations at building, village, city and in farms or arrays.