Future Renewable Power Generation Technologies

The future costs, impact and growth of green energy

Publication Date	September 2006
Publisher	Business Insights
Product Type	Report
Pages	165
ISBN Number	not applicable
Product Code	RBI00122

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Summary

The world today faces two major problems with its energy supply, which is highly dependent on fossil fuels. The first problem relates to security of supply of fossil fuel; the second to the effect of its use on the environment. These two problems have forced the energy industry to face up the prospect of renewable energy as a basis for mainstream power generation.

Future Renewable Power Generation Technologies is a new management report that analyses the key renewable energy technologies available within the energy industry today, as well as potential emerging technologies. It examines the economics and costs behind these technologies and assesses the political and legislative barriers and opportunities in the renewable energy market. This report also features a proprietary executive survey conducted by Business Insights, in August 2006. With over 100 executive respondents from the energy industry, it allows you to benchmark your opinions against those of the industry as a whole.

Use this new report's independent, expert analysis of all available data to directly compare the investment case and future prospects of different power generation technologies.

Some key findings from this report...

Energy collected from around one per cent of the earth's surface could provide for all current electricity demand.
Solar energy generates many of the other sources of energy that can be used to generate electricity including hydro, wind, wave and biomass.
The cost to society of fossil fuel power generation would rise, in comparison to that from most renewable sources, if it was recouped in the form of a tax on power generation.
Hydropower is the most widely exploited and the best understood renewable energy resource available for power generation today.
A doubling of global capacity of wind power within four years, to 120,000MW seems easily achievable.
Biomass has the power to make a significant contribution to renewable energy. However, there is little established infrastructure capable of collecting biomass from whatever source and delivering it to a power plant.

This new report will provide you with...

Business Insights' exclusive renewable energy executive survey 2006, an industry executive survey of over 100 respondents. The respondents were mostly based in Western Europe (72%); 6% were from Eastern Europe, 6% were from North America, 1% were based in Japan and the remaining 15% were from the rest of the world.
Detailed technical analysis of hydropower, wind power, biomass, solar power and marine power technologies.
Analysis of each renewable energy technology detailing the economics, resources, sites as well as project types and viability and feasibility studies.
Environmental considerations and capital and generating costs for each technology.
Political and legislative barriers and opportunities for each technology, including an examination of the green trading schemes, carbon taxes and the EU Emission Trading Schemes.
Future prospects for power generation of each renewable technology and their growth capacity.

Key questions answered in this report

What are the renewable energy technologies in the market today and how are they developing?
Are green tariffs likely to attract a significant market share in the next five years?
What are the costs associated with each technology?
Which of the renewable energy technologies is the most economically attractive in the short term and which in the long term?
How long will it be before renewable energies can compete directly with traditional energy sources?
What are the environmental considerations for each technology?
Which is the most attractive technology for power generation?

Content

Executive Summary
- Introduction
- Hydropower
- Wind power
- Biomass
- Solar power
- Marine power generation technologies
- Political and legislative issues
- The prospects for renewable technologies
Chapter 1 An introduction to key renewable technologies
- Energy crises - a brief history
- The economics of renewables
- Subsidies and legislation
- Renewable technologies
- The report structure
Chapter 2 Hydropower
- Introduction
- Hydropower resources
- Hydropower sites and project types
- Project viability and feasibility studies
- Civil engineering
- Electrical engineering
- Small hydropower considerations
- Environmental Considerations
- The cost of hydropower
- The prospects for hydropower
Chapter 3 Wind power
- Installed capacity and the wind resource
- Wind energy sites
- Wind turbine technology
- Turbine size
- Turbine developments
- Offshore considerations
- Wind farms
- Grid considerations
- Energy storage
- The environmental effects of wind power
- The cost of wind power
- The prospects for wind power
Chapter 4 Biomass
- The biomass resource
- Energy crops
- Biomass fuels
- Biomass combustion technology
- Co-firing
- Biomass gasification
- Anaerobic digestion
- Environmental considerations
- Fuel issues
- The cost of biomass power generation
- The prospects for biomass power generation
Chapter 5 Solar power
- The solar resource
- Solar power technology
- Solar photovoltaic power generation
- Solar cell technology
- Solar cell materials
- Solar cell production
- Solar panels
- Solar concentrators
- Solar cell environmental issues
- Solar thermal power generation
- Solar Towers
- Solar Parabolic Collectors
- Solar dish collectors
- Environmental effects of solar thermal power plants
- The cost of solar power generation
- The prospects for solar power generation
Chapter 6 Marine power generation technologies
- Tidal energy
- Tidal technology
- Turbines
- The environmental effects of tidal power
- The economics of tidal power generation
- Prospects for tidal generation
- Ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC)
- OTEC technology
- Browsing OTEC
- Environmental effects of OTEC
- The cost of OTEC
- OTEC prospects
- Ocean (tidal) stream power generation
- Ocean stream technology
- Environmental effects of ocean stream technology
- The cost of ocean stream generation
- The prospects for ocean stream technology
- Wave energy
- Wave energy capture technology
- Shore-based wave devices
- Offshore wave devices
- Environmental effects of wave energy converters
- The cost of wave energy
- The potential for wave energy conversion
Chapter 7 Political and legislative issues
- Renewable energy targets
- Subsidies
- Externalities
- Green trading schemes and carbon taxes
- The EU Emission Trading Scheme
- Renewable obligations
- The future
Chapter 8 The prospects for renewable technologies
- Capital costs
- Generating costs
- Capacity growth
- Conclusions
Chapter 9 Renewable energy executive survey 2006
- Introduction
- Glossary
List of Figures
- Figure 2.1: Regional hydropower capacity (MW) and output (GWh)
- Figure 2.2: Typical capital costs of hydropower ($/kW)
- Figure 3.3: Global wind capacity (MW), 1997-2005
- Figure 3.4: Installed wind energy capacity by country (MW), 2005
- Figure 3.5: Growth in offshore wind generating capacity (MW), 1990-2006
- Figure 3.6: Wind power costs (/kWh)
- Figure 4.7: Crop and biomass residues (EJ)
- Figure 4.8: The cost of electricity from biomass (/kWh)
- Figure 5.9: Annual solar cell production and cumulative capacity (MW), 1999-2010
- Figure 5.10: Solar cell production, by region (MW), 2003 and 2005
- Figure 7.11: Kyoto treaty emissions limits (% of base year emissions), 2008 - 2012
- Figure 8.12: Capital cost of renewable technologies ($/kW)
- Figure 8.13: The cost of electricity from renewable technologies ($/kWh)
- Figure 8.14: Installed capacities (MW)
- Figure 9.15: Where survey respondents are based
- Figure 9.16: How is investment in renewable power generation changing?
- Figure 9.17: Which of renewable energy sources are the most economically attractive in the next five years
- Figure 9.18: Will there be mandatory and enforceable international controls on the emission of carbon dioxide within the next ten years?
- Figure 9.19: How important are the specific factors to the uptake of renewable energy?
- Figure 9.20: Are green tariffs likely to attract a significant market share in the next five years?
- Figure 9.21: Relative to existing energy sources how much more expensive could renewable energy be and still take a significant market share?
- Figure 9.22: How long will it be before renewable energy can compete directly with traditional sources?
- Figure 9.23: How important are specific drivers of investment in renewable energy technologies?
List of Tables
- Table 2.1: Regional hydropower capacity (MW) and output (GWh)
- Table 2.2: Technically exploitable hydropower capacity, by region
- Table 2.3: Global Small Hydro Capacity (MW), 1998-2010
- Table 2.4: Typical capital costs of hydropower ($/kW)
- Table 3.5: Global wind capacity (MW), 1997-2005
- Table 3.6: Installed wind energy capacity by country (MW), 2005
- Table 3.7: Growth in offshore wind generating capacity (MW), 1990-2006
- Table 3.8: Wind energy potential, by region (MW)
- Table 3.9: Wind power costs (/kWh)
- Table 4.10: Global biomass residues (EJ)
- Table 4.11: Main global crop residues (EJ)
- Table 4.12: Biomass technology costs ($, and /kW)
- Table 4.13: Biomass fuel costs ($/GJ)
- Table 4.14: The cost of electricity from biomass (/kWh)
- Table 5.15: Radiation content of sunlight (%)
- Table 5.16: Annual solar cell production and cumulative capacity (MW), 1999-2010
- Table 5.17: Solar cell production, by region (MW), 2003 and 2005
- Table 5.18: Land requirements for solar thermal power plants (ha/MW)
- Table 5.19: The cost of solar power generation technology ($/kW)
- Table 6.20: Prospective tidal power sites
- Table 7.21: Kyoto treaty emissions limits (% of base year emissions), 2008 - 2012
- Table 7.22: National renewable energy targets for electricity
- Table 8.23: Renewable technology potentials (TWh)
- Table 8.24: Capital cost of renewable technologies ($/kW)
- Table 8.25: The cost of electricity from renewable technologies ($/kWh)
- Table 8.26: Installed capacities (MW)