Global renewable
energy resources offer abundant opportunities
for providing clean and sustainable energy for
everyone. They are the answer to imminent fossil
fuel shortages affecting electric power, heating
and transportation needs.
Looking at
these maps you will discover the abundance of
renewable energy resources all over the world.
Great potentials for solar, wind,
geothermal, hydro, ocean
and bioenergy can be found on every continent.
Deserts can provide solar energy on an
enormous scale, coasts in the temperate zones
offer huge potential for wind energy, great
geothermal energy resources are located
along the circum-Pacific "Ring of Fire", mountainous
countries with sufficient rainfall offer high
potential for hydropower, along the coastlines
ocean power (wave and tidal) can be generated
and subtropical regions feature a large resource
of bioenergy.
The technical
potential for the utilization of renewable energy
is nearly 20 times greater than current global
energy demand. Yet, today renewable energy only
provides 17% of the world's primary energy needs
and traditional renewable energy use (biomass
and large hydro) make up the greater share (9%
and 5.7% respectively). New renewables such as
wind and solar provide only 2% of total global
primary energy consumption. (IEA) (1)
Jeremy Leggett argues that power generated by
solar photovoltaics could provide 10,000 times
more energy than the world currently uses. (2)
According to Hermann Scheer, General Chairman
of the WCRE, the renewable energy supply potential
for our planet is 15,000 times as great as the
annual consumption of nuclear and fossil energy.
(3)
The efficient
deployment of these renewable resources requires
a removal of trade and investment barriers between
countries. The goal is the electrical interconnection
of regions with abundant renewable resources to
those nations with the highest consumption.
"The Stone
Age didn't end because we ran out of stones. It
ended because there were better ideas about how
to meet society's needs. Similarly, the end of
our current 'oil age' won't end because we run
out of oil - even though that is quite possible
in the next 30 years. It will end because we have
better ways to meet our energy needs. Those better
ways exist now, are proven, cost-effective and
have multiple benefits to ... society."
-- Amory Lovins, Rocky Mountain Institute
