Renewable Energy Trends

There are some major renewable energy trends emerging in the wake of the Paris Agreement that in December set a framework for more than 195 nations to rein in greenhouse gases.

They agreed to hold temperatures to “well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius.”

Global Investment in Clean Energy Falls

investment in clean energy has fallen by 18% last year according to new research from Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Solar is  getting cheaper and this is resulting in less investment in total in solar energy.  Offshore wind is now going global.  You can read the full Business Insider article here.

China’s Investment in Renewable Energy Slows

There are now over 92,000 wind turbines in China but they are underused. There is a nationwide economic slowdown that has reduced demand for electricity but their is a strong favouritism toward the coal industry by local officials.

One of the world’s largest wind farms with over 7,000 turbines is idle.  Many turbines in Jiuquan, a city of vast deserts and farms in the northwest province of Gansu, have been shut off because of weak demand.

China, the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, has pointed to its embrace of wind and solar power and other alternatives to coal to position itself at the forefront of the global effort to combat climate change.

But they have no been able to make serious inroads into air pollution and carbon emissions.

Analysts said that China’s success would depend on its ability to overcome both political and practical obstacles, including resistance to renewable energy from local governments and a lack of turbines near major cities.

You can read the full New York Times article here.

Large Companies Question Government Green Commitment

Ikea has said it won’t spend a single penny of its large £524m (€600m) green fund in Britain until the government makes it easier to invest in renewable energy.

Ikea declared it would have to go elsewhere to finance projects, including wind farms, due to the UK’s “political context”.

The company has invested €1.5 billion in renewable energy across the world in the last two decades, but an additional half a billion pounds to be spent by 2020 would not come to Britain.

You can read the full Huffington Post article here.

BHW Solicitors have a specialist team of Renewable Energy Solicitors

 

from bhwsolicitors blog https://bhwsolicitorsblog.wordpress.com/2017/01/17/renewable-energy-trends/