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RENEWABLES: Sun Shines on New Energy

Sanjay Suri

BONN, Jun 10 2004 (IPS) - The sun god and the wind god had a big row once, the story goes. One said he is more powerful than the other. So they decided to test their strength on a man in a hat.

The wind blew and blew to get the hat off the head. Then the sun shone and shone to get the man to take it off. The result? Never mind.

The two have been rivalling one another in the field of renewable energy for some years now. But it has been a friendly fight. From rivals they are now turning partners.

The International Conference for Renewable Energy produced a historic agreement last week between wind and solar energy. The World Wind Energy Association (WWEA) and the International Solar Energy Society (ISES) signed a memorandum of understanding.

The agreement focuses on closer cooperation between the two organisations in key areas including conferences, projects and shared representation. It sets out plans for concerted long-term cooperation.

"The formalisation of the cooperative and mutually supportive relationship that ISES has had with WWEA for several years now could not come at a better time," said ISES president Yogi Goswami.

"Transitioning to a renewable energy future required close integration and coordination of various technologies, policies and strategies," he said. "And that transition needs organisations actively supporting renewable energy at a global level to work closely together to achieve the end result we are all working towards – a sustainable energy future."

WWEA president Preben Maegaard said at a ceremony to bring the energies together that "there is still quite a long way to go and we appreciate very much that we can bundle our efforts to achieve jointly our common target, a 100 percent renewable energy supply."

WWEA which set up new offices in Bonn last week represents wind energy associations from 55 countries. ISES has offices in more than 50 countries and is headquartered in Freiburg, also in Germany.

Germany has about 15,000 windmills, with a rated capacity of producing about that many megawatts. Its wind power is expanding rapidly. Denmark already meets more than a quarter of all its energy needs through wind power.

The German solar power industry doubled its production last year, and is expecting similar growth this year. This year around 20,000 solar power systems with a total power of more than 200 megawatts will be installed, with an overall power of more than 200 MW. The sun is catching up.

Turnover in the solar energy business crossed a billion dollars last year. The solar power industry currently has 43 manufacturers in Germany, and solar production and power generation employs about 27,000 people. Solar power is expected to employ about 100,000 by 2010 as demand and production shoots. But Germany is still behind Japan in production of solar energy systems.

Solar production is rising in part because costs are coming down. System costs have fallen 60 percent over the last ten years.

Use of solar energy is rising also because photovoltaic panels are particularly suitable for small installations in developing countries. The availability of micro finance to install solar panels has also given solar energy a strong boost in Bangladesh, India and several countries in Africa.

Micro finance institutions have provided credit to buyers of solar home system (SHS) in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Morocco and Kenya among other countries. The Indian Solar Loan Programme has introduced systems of collaboration with SHS manufacturers.

In Bangladesh a village based micro finance company Grameen Bank has set up a rural energy service company, Grameen Shakti to supply renewable, mostly solar energy to unelectrified villages. The Grameen Bank has been able to lend successfully to poor people without assets û and get the money back, Dipal C. Barua, managing director of Grameen Shakti told the conference..

Like Grameen, 21 other micro finance institutions have provided credit for SHS and 19 others plan to introduce new credit for SHS in Ethiopia, Bolivia, Cambodia, Guatemala, Uganda, the Philippines, Benin, Tanzania and Nigeria. Several other countries are also being considered.

Hermann Scheer, the German member of parliament who has led the political push to renewable energy in Germany, and whose initiatives led to the renewable energy conference told the conference there is no choice.

Fossil fuels are running out and nuclear energy cannot be an option, he said. There are questions about uranium reserves, their security, and about disposal of nuclear waste which cannot be allowed to grow indefinitely. "The nuclear option can only fail," he said.

Besides, use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes can easily be diverted to make nuclear weapons. "The truth is that civilisation faces a turning point, because we are at the limit of the present global energy system."