Promise of New Renewable Energy Agency in Peril?

After three decades of resistance, the first and only intergovernmental agency to focus solely on renewable energy development is finally ready to launch on July 1st.

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) , has attracted nearly 100 member countries, including most European countries, many developing countries, and rapidly emerging economies like India. The United States, United Kingdom, and China are also expected to join by the end of the month.

IRENA was founded with one goal in mind -- to set the foundations for a global economy fully powered by renewable energy sources. Such an energy shift will solve a multitude of problems -- not just climate change.

For a century, big energy companies have promised to supply the world with enough power through coal, oil gas and uranium. They have not been successful. Today close to 1/3 of the world's population can't access the power needed to cook, keep cool or read a book at night, wars are being fought over dwindling oil and gas reserves, and geo-political tensions from nuclear proliferation are on the rise. IRENA's goal is to help governments implement a better solution: renewable energy.

"Scientists have shown time and time again that renewable energy can satisfy the world's entire energy needs. What all these studies have in common is that they get systematically ignored in most discussions about energy. IRENA will change this." said Dr. Herman Scheer, pioneer of IRENA, and member of the German Parliament.

By helping countries with policy design, technology transfer, and training, IRENA can fill knowledge gaps and give governments the right tools to bring about a renewable energy shift.

The Nuclear Threat to IRENA

But IRENA supporters fear that nuclear interests are actively trying to undermine the agency. On June 29th members will meet in Sharm El Sheik, Egypt to elect a Director General and decide which country will host the agency's headquarters.

Currently, an alliance between France and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is taking shape. French ministerial official Helene Pelosse is proposed as one candidate for IRENA'S Director General, and the UAE is eager to host IRENA's headquarters in its capital Abu Dhabi, a move that IRENA advocates say would cause the agency to become "nuclear tainted."

France is a long-time advocate of nuclear power, and depends on it for nearly 80 percent of the country's electricity generation. The Country is also one of the world's largest suppliers of nuclear technology and atomic expertise. In just over a year, French President Nicholas Sarkozy has signed multi-billion dollar nuclear deals with Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

The French use of the term "low-carbon technology" at a recent IRENA meeting also has supporters worried that under their leadership the agency will become an "International Low-Carbon Agency," supporting both renewables and nuclear options together.

Sending the Wrong Message?

Both France and the United States have shown their support for the UAE bid to headquarter IRENA in Abu-Dhabi. In the meantime, both Governments are actively engaged in the signing of new nuclear power cooperation agreements with the Emirate's.

"An IRENA located in Abu Dhabi under such circumstances would be "nuclear tainted" because the negotiating process used to select a host country would be based on support for nuclear power," said Dr. Eric Martinot, an international expert on renewable markets and policies and a former World Bank expert.

The UAE has set a 7% future target for renewable energy and intends to build Masdar, a carbon-neutral city powered by renewable energy. But, instead of extending their vast solar potential to power the rest of the UAE, the Emirates are looking to build new nuclear plants. They claim that development of renewable energies could only supply a small portion of its energy needs.

"Are the original goals of IRENA being co-opted so that renewables become a mere appendage to a nuclear agenda -- 'sprinkling some renewables on top of our nuclear power?'" asked Martinot.

Renewable Energy Takes Imagination

The pervasive argument that renewable energy is too small scale and can only make modest contribution is widespread and all too common. But one needs only to look at countries like Germany, Denmark, and Spain to see that an energy shift without nuclear is possible.

Right now Germany -- whose solar wind and hydro resources are a fraction of those available in other countries -- remains the world's leader in renewable energy production and exports. Why? Because the Germans have had the courage, determination, and political will to think outside the box.

Visionaries: Germany and Denmark

Many IRENA supporters believe that the most balanced and strategic option to host and lead the agency are Bonn, Germany and Hans Jørgen Koch, Denmark's leading renewable energy policy expert for the last three decades.

Both countries have laws against building new nuclear power plants. Instead, they are focused on producing more renewable energy by implementing effective policies such as feed-in tariffs.

Germany has created close to 300,000 new jobs from renewable energy, and is officially doubling its renewable share of energy production from 15% in 2008 to 30% by 2020, four times more than the UAE's target. They also committed to a minimum of $2.5 billion Euro's to support renewable energy production in developing countries far surpassing the $50 million Abu-Dhabi has proposed.

This is the kind of bold thinking and confidence in renewable energy that IRENA must encourage. The choice of Abu-Dhabi may be a political move for those who see the location of IRENA as an opportunity to expand nuclear or military interests in the Middle East, but it will not serve the promise of IRENA.

It was just a century ago when only 8% of American homes had electricity. By 1950 almost every American and millions around the world has access to power. We've walked the moon, invented the internet, and built a global economy. There is no reason we cannot shift to a renewable energy future. Let's make sure we create an IRENA to do just that.

Follow Lily Riahi on Twitter: www.twitter.com/lilyriahi

Comments

[agnuxo]

Spanish company touts process to turn urban waste into biodiesel

A group of Spanish developers working under the company name Ecofasa, headed by chief executive officer and inventor Francisco Angulo, has developed a biochemical process to turn urban solid waste into a fatty acid biodiesel feedstock. “It took more than 10 years working on the idea of producing biodiesel from domestic waste using a biological method,” Angulo told Biodiesel Magazine. “My first patent dates back to 2005. It was first published in 2007 in Soto de la Vega, Spain, thanks to the council and its representative Antonio Nevado.”

[research]

Rooftop Solar and Waste BioChar can provide all of the worlds energy and fuel needs, cheaper, safe, clean and

Forever.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/users/profile/research

[Rhetticent]

This is just exactly what we need. Another government agency to suck in tax dollars and spew out propaganda. Why not do something that will actually work, like mass conversion of vehicles to CNG, and use the money we DON'T spend for foreign oil to do R&D on solar and wind? And to build the transmission lines we need if we're going to use those renewables with any effectiveness at all? Do you guys realize that because of the relatively small size of the countries in Europe, it's much easier to get power from wind farms to users. But getting power from West Texas to New York is a vastly different deal, and of course the wealthy libs on the East Coast won't tolerate those nasty windmills blocking their view of the ocean.....

[DavidHarnasch]

"Right now Germany -- whose solar wind and hydro resources are a fraction of those available in other countries -- remains the world's leader in renewable energy production and exports. Why? Because the Germans have had the courage, determination, and political will to think outside the box."
This country (Germany) does it the utterly wrong way: Instead of subsidizing renewables with tax money and therefore stand in for this as a government the law forces energy suppliers to pay enormous prices to the producers of RE and then bill it to ALL customers. I'd much rather have cheap, clean and safe nuclear power, but there is no way for me to choose. Means: 389 US-$ monthly energy bill just for my 914 sqft. apartement.

[Craig Morris]

"I'd much rather have cheap, clean and safe nuclear power, but there is no way for me to choose."

Dear David, I'd love to have cheap, clean and safe nuclear, too. Everyone would. Why don't you invent it so we can get rid of this expensive nuclear we have today?

I'm with you, David. I have no problem getting cheap energy today and leaving the waste for future generations to deal with. I'm only worried about economics, not ethics. After 60 years of research, we have not made any progress with nuclear waste disposal, so put it in the ground and let our children deal with it!

BTW, if you are paying "389 US-$" a month for power, at an average retail rate of 10 cents per kWh, you are consuming 130 kWh a day. You blow through some 5.5 kW around the clock - 24 hours a day. How many plug-in Priuses are you charging?

Ciao

[leduck]

his article states: "Scientists have shown time and time again that renewable energy can satisfy the world's entire energy needs."

That's a heck of a statement. I don't see anything in the article to back it up, but it sounds good. Unfortunately, not all forms of energy are the same. Some are primary, some aren't. our problems can only be solved by dealing with the core issues, and one of those is replacing non-renewable primary energy forms such as fossil fuels, with primary renewable ones that have a fair amount of net energy or good EROIE (energy return on invested energy), plus can be adaquately scaled up. But even if all of this is done, it still ignores the primary problem of ECONOMIC GROWTH AND OVER POPULATION, which leads to problems like depletion (peak oil) and loss of topsoil and fossil water and mineral depletion.

"The pervasive argument that renewable energy is too small scale and can only make modest contribution is widespread and all too common. But one needs only to look at countries like Germany, Denmark, and Spain to see that an energy shift without nuclear is possible."

I'm sure Germany, Denmark and Spain still rely primarily on fossil fuels. It's good that they are moving towards renewable energy. I especially love solar concetrators, but we are not Europe. Our cicties are not dense enough. They are not foot friendly which makes mass transportation problematic.

[ecacofonix]

You mentioned Germany is thinking of "officially doubling its renewable share of energy production from 15% in 2008 to 30% by 2020" - 15% in itself is truly admirable. For countries such as the USA, solar+wind contribute less than 2% of the total production, though that share is fast increasing.

I salute countries such as Germany, Denmark for doing a remarkable job of promoting renewables. There is no doubt that the governments in these countries are giving enormous incentives for renewables - which make some skeptical whether such renewable energy programs are sustainable - but these European countries are showing the way for many other countries in the world.

I read recently that the total world installed capacity in renewables is about 280 GW, and the total installed capacity for electricity from all sources is about 4500 GW. This makes renewables contributing over 5% all over the world, that makes me optimistic in itself. I suspect most of this renewable comes from hydro because wind and solar together is not more than 120 GW or so. Still, that does not make me any less happy - hydro is as renewable as anything else.

I'm not fully convinced that international bodies such as IRENA can do much which individual countries cannot do on their own. I think most countries act on renewable policies out of their own self-interest and I doubt presence of international bodies will make little difference. But time will tell!

NS @ Alternative Profits - http://www.altprofits.com/blog