World's largest photovoltaic power plants

Construction of a 40 MW solar generation power plant is underway in the Saxon region of Germany. The Waldpolenz Solar Park will consist of some 550,000 thin-film solar modules. The direct current produced in the modules will be converted into alternating current and fed completely into the power grid. Once completed in 2009, the project will be one of the largest photovoltaic projects ever constructed. Currently the biggest PV plant in the world has an output capacity of around 12 megawatts.

The CIS Tower, Manchester, England, was clad in PV panels at a cost of £5.5 million. It started feeding electricity to the national grid in November 2005.

A large photovoltaic power project has been completed in Portugal, the Serpa solar power plant is at one of the Europe's sunniest areas. The 11 megawatt plant covers 150 acres and is comprised of 52,000 PV panels. The panels are raised 2 metres off the ground and the area will remain productive grazing land. The project will provide enough energy for 8,000 homes and will save an estimated 30,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year.

A $420 million large-scale Solar power station in Victoria is to be the biggest and most efficient solar photovoltaic power station in the world. Australian company Solar Systems will demonstrate its unique, world leading design incorporating space technology in a 154MW solar power station connected to the national grid. The power station will have the capability to concentrate the sun by 500 times onto the solar cells for ultra high power output. The Victorian power station will generate clean electricity directly from the sun to meet the annual needs of over 45,000 homes with zero greenhouse gas emissions.

However, when it comes to renewable energy systems and PV, it is not just large systems that matter. Building-integrated photovoltaics or "onsite" PV systems have the advantage of being matched to end use energy needs in terms of scale. So the energy is supplied close to where it is needed.

Wind power market grows

Figures from the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) show that 2006 recorded an increase in installed wind power capacity of 15,197 megawatts (MW), taking the total installed capacity to 74,223 MW, up from 59,091 MW in 2005.[5] Despite constraints facing supply chains for wind turbines, the annual market for wind continued to increase at the rate of 32% following the 2005 record year, in which the market grew by 41%.[5] In terms of economic value, the wind energy sector has become one of the important players in the energy markets, with the total value of new generating equipment installed in 2006 reaching €18 billion, or US$23 billion.[5]

The countries with the highest total installed capacity are Germany (20,621 MW), Spain (11,615 MW), the USA (11,603 MW), India (6,270 MW) and Denmark (3,136 MW).[5] In terms of new installed capacity in 2006, the USA lead with 2,454 MW, followed by Germany (2,233 MW), India (1,840 MW), Spain (1,587 MW), China (1,347 MW) and France (810 MW).[5]

In the UK, a licence to build the world's largest offshore windfarm, in the Thames estuary, has been granted. The London Array windfarm, 12 miles off Kent and Essex, should eventually consist of 341 turbines, occupying an area of 90 square miles. This is a £1.5 billion, 1,000 megawatt project, which will power one-third of London homes. The windfarm will produce an amount of energy that, if generated by conventional means, would result in 1.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions every year. It could also make up to 10% of the Government's 2010 renewables target

ACT NOW - Renewable energy

Renewable energy flows involve natural phenomena such as sunlight, wind, tides and geothermal heat. Renewable energy technologies range from solar power, wind power and hydroelectricity through to biomass and biofuels for transportation. About 13 percent of primary energy comes from renewables and the technical potential for their use is very large.

Renewable energy sources worldwide in 2005 (2004 for items marked * or **). Off-grid electric and ground source heat pumps not included. Source: REN21

Renewable energy technologies are sometimes criticised for being unreliable or unsightly, yet the market is growing for many forms of renewable energy. Wind power has a worldwide installed capacity of 74,223 MW and is widely used in several European countries and the USA.] The manufacturing output of the photovoltaics industry has now reached more than 2,000 MW per year, and PV power plants are particularly popular in Germany.resolving production of ethanol fuel from sugar cane, and ethanol now provides 18 percent of the country's automotive fuel. Ethanol fuel is also widely available in the USA.

While there are many large-scale renewable energy projects, renewable technologies are also suited to small off-grid applications, sometimes in rural and remote areas, where energy is often crucial in human development. Kenya has the world's highest household solar ownership rate with roughly 30,000 small (20-100 watt) solar power systems sold per year.

Climate change concerns coupled with high oil prices and increasing government support are driving increasing renewable energy commercialization. Investment capital flowing into renewable energy climbed from $80 billion in 2005 to a record $100 billion in 2006. Some very large corporations such as BP, GE, Sharp, and Shell are investing in the renewable energy sector

A laundromat in California with flat-plate solar water heating collectors on its roof.

G8+5 leader of "game"

Group of Eight+Five

Canada Prime Minister Stephen Harper  France President Nicolas Sarkozy  Germany (holder of presidency) Chancellor Angela Merkel  Italy Prime Minister Romano Prodi  Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe  Russia President Vladimir Putin  United Kingdom Prime Minister Gordon Brown  United States President George W. Bush  Brazil President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva  China President Hu Jintao  India Prime Minister Manmohan Singh  Mexico President Felipe Calderón  South Africa President Thabo Mbeki

 

The G8+5 group of leaders consists of the heads of government from the G8 nations (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States), plus the leaders of the Outreach countries, five leading emerging economies (Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa).

February 2007 Declaration

 

On February 16, 2007, at meeting of the G8+5 Climate Change Dialogue in Washington, D.C., a non-binding agreement was reached to cooperate on tackling global warming. The group accepted that the existence of man-made climate change was "beyond doubt", and that there should be a global system of emission caps and carbon emissions trading applying to both industrialized nations and developing countries. The group hopes that this will be in place by 2009, to supersede the Kyoto Protocol, the first phase of which expires in 2012.

 

Foundation

The G8+5 group was formed in 2005 when Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, in his role as host of the 31st G8 summit at Gleneagles, Scotland, invited the leading emerging countries to join the talks. The hope was that this would form a stronger and more representative group that would inject fresh impetus into the trade talks at Doha, and the need to achieve a deeper cooperation on climate change.

Following the meeting, the countries issued a joint statement looking to build a "new paradigm for international cooperation" in the future.

The G8+5 Climate Change Dialogue was launched on February 24, 2006, by the Global Legislators Organisation for a Balanced Environment (GLOBE)[3] in partnership with the Com+ alliance of communicators for sustainable development.

 

Institutionalization

Following the 33rd G8 summit Heiligendamm 2007, the chancellor Angela Merkel announced the establishment of the "Heiligendamm Process" through which the full institutionalization of the permanent dialogue between the G8 countries and the 5 greatest emerging economies will be implemented. This will include the establishment of a common G8+5 secretariat at the OECD.

This process puts an end to the enlargement debate of the G8 into a hypothetical G9, G13, etc. since Merkel declared "The objective is the cohesion of all these countries into a single group which will be called G8+5".

 

33rd G8 summit

On June 7, 2007, leaders at the 33rd G8 summit issued a non-binding communiqué announcing that the G8 nations would 'aim to at least halve global CO2 emissions by 2050'. The details enabling this to be achieved would be negotiated by environment ministers within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in a process that would also include the major emerging economies. Groups of countries would also be able to reach additional agreements on achieving the goal outside and in parallel with the United Nations process.[4] The G8 also announced their desire to use the proceeds from the auction of emission rights and other financial tools to support climate protection projects in developing countries.[4]

The agreement was welcomed by British Prime Minister Tony Blair as 'a major, major step forward'.[5] French president Nicolas Sarkozy would have preferred a binding figure for emissions reduction to have been set.[6] This was apparently blocked by U.S. President George W. Bush until the other major greenhouse gas emitting countries, like India and China, make similar commitments.

2007 UN General Assembly plenary debate

As part of the schedule leading up to the September UN High-Level-Event, on July 31 the United Nations General Assembly opened its first-ever plenary session devoted exclusively to climate change, which also included prominent scientists and business leaders.[9] The debate, at which nearly 100 nations spoke, was scheduled to last two days but was extended for a further day to allow a greater number of 'worried nations' to describe their climate-related problems.[10]

In his opening speech, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Member States to work together, stating that the time had come for 'decisive action on a global scale', and called for a 'comprehensive agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change process that tackles climate change on all fronts, including adaptation, mitigation, clean technologies, deforestation and resource mobilization'.[11] In closing the conference General Assembly President Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa called for an 'equitable, fair and ambitious global deal to match the scale of the challenges ahead'.[10] She had earlier stressed the urgency of the situation, stating that 'the longer we wait, the more expensive this will be'.[11]

The day after the session ended, the UN launched its new climate change web site detailing its activities relating to global warming

September 2007 Washington conference

It emerged on August 3, 2007, that representatives of the the United Nations, major industrialized and developing countries are being invited by George Bush to a conference in Washington on September 27 and 28.[16][17] Countries invited are believed to include the members of the G8+5 (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, United Kingdom, United States, Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa), together with South Korea, Mexico, Australia, Indonesia and South Africa. The meeting is to be hosed by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and is envisaged as the first of several extending into 2008. Initial reaction to the news of the conference invitation was mixed

Post-Kyoto negotiations on greenhouse gas emissions

The Kyoto Protocol, the world's first treaty to attempt to address global warming by limiting greenhouse gas emissions, is due to expire at the end of 2012. Although the treaty only came into force on February 16, 2005, post-Kyoto negotiations on greenhouse gas emissions began in earnest at the meeting of the G8+5 Climate Change Dialogue in February 2007. Working in parallel, various bodies under the umbrella of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change are also meeting to prepare the ground for a new agreement

February 2007 Washington Declaration

In the non-binding 'Washington Declaration' agreed on February 16, 2007, Presidents or Prime Ministers from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, United Kingdom, the United States, Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa agreed in principle to a global cap-and-trade system that would apply to both industrialized nations and developing countries, which they hoped would be in place by 2009.