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5
Renewable Energy
Abstract
Transitioning to renewable energy is a key process for tackling both air
quality and climate change issues, ultimately benefitting society. Progress
is being made, and new electricity-generating capacity added in 2017 and
2018 included mostly renewable systems. In 2017, wind-generated electricity
became the lowest-cost alternative in a number of markets, and more than
50% of newly installed capacity was solar power. More than 100 cities have
electric power systems with more than 70% renewable generating capacity.
There are also over 100 cities and more than 55 countries that have a goal of
100% renewable electricity at a future date. Developments in technology and
competitive procurement have driven down the cost of new renewable wind
generating capacity to about $0.03/kWh in many locations. The very significant progress in improving wind and solar generating technologies has been
very important in reducing the cost of electricity from renewable sources. We
still need to improve and expand the use of these renewable energy technologies, but there are immense benefits to be realized in our efforts to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality.
5.1 Introduction
The previous chapter, on the electrification of transportation, was about how
to address both immediate emissions from vehicles and “potentiating shifts
in the generation of electricity to cleaner methods”. This chapter now covers
this latter part: Shifting to cleaner, renewable energy. Renewable energy
sources tend, inexorably, to be cleaner than fossil fuels. Part of this is because
of the nature of fossil fuels (i.e. involving a combustion process that emits
large quantities of pollutants), and part of this is because renewable fuel
sources usually take less work to continuously restock.
Thus, one of the more significant Sustainable Development Goals around
the world is to transition to renewable energy. At the end of 2017, there were
57 countries that had 100% renewable electricity targets (Zervos, 2018). In
51
5
Renewable Energy
Abstract
Transitioning to renewable energy is a key process for tackling both air
quality and climate change issues, ultimately benefitting society. Progress
is being made, and new electricity-generating capacity added in 2017 and
2018 included mostly renewable systems. In 2017, wind-generated electricity
became the lowest-cost alternative in a number of markets, and more than
50% of newly installed capacity was solar power. More than 100 cities have
electric power systems with more than 70% renewable generating capacity.
There are also over 100 cities and more than 55 countries that have a goal of
100% renewable electricity at a future date. Developments in technology and
competitive procurement have driven down the cost of new renewable wind
generating capacity to about $0.03/kWh in many locations. The very significant progress in improving wind and solar generating technologies has been
very important in reducing the cost of electricity from renewable sources. We
still need to improve and expand the use of these renewable energy technologies, but there are immense benefits to be realized in our efforts to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality.
5.1 Introduction
The previous chapter, on the electrification of transportation, was about how
to address both immediate emissions from vehicles and “potentiating shifts
in the generation of electricity to cleaner methods”. This chapter now covers
this latter part: Shifting to cleaner, renewable energy. Renewable energy
sources tend, inexorably, to be cleaner than fossil fuels. Part of this is because
of the nature of fossil fuels (i.e. involving a combustion process that emits
large quantities of pollutants), and part of this is because renewable fuel
sources usually take less work to continuously restock.
Thus, one of the more significant Sustainable Development Goals around
the world is to transition to renewable energy. At the end of 2017, there were
57 countries that had 100% renewable electricity targets (Zervos, 2018). In