Web Exclusive: Renewable energy could power the world

By INGI SALGADO A world powered in full by renewable energy sources to prevent runaway climate change was technologically possible, delegates to the International Solar Energy Society congress in Johannesburg heard on Tuesday.

�It�s not science fiction. It works,� said Harry Lehmann, head of environmental planning and sustainable studies at the Federal Environment Agency, an independent scientific body that advises the German government.

His call follows last year�s challenge to the US by former deputy president and climate change activist Al Gore to produce 100 percent of its electricity from renewable energy within a decade, enabled by sharp reductions in the price of solar, wind and geothermal power, coupled with dramatic increases in the long run in oil and coal prices.

In July, Pacific island state Tuvalu, at risk from rising sea levels, said it planned to shift to 100 percent renewable energy by 2020, while one fifth of all regions in Germany have committed to full use of renewables.

Lehmann said on Tuesday that a total renewable energy solution would need to comprise those technologies that could compete in the market, and that together matched industrial, residential, commercial and transport needs for heat, electricity, cooling and fuels.

�The idea is to have regions where systems are installed interchanging with each other,� he said.

For example, wind energy was produced in north Africa and the North Sea at different times.

An interlinked system could provide a continuous source of energy.

In addition, Europe could pay countries like Morocco a feed-in tariff for energy that would allow northern African nations to further develop their own energy systems, Lehmann said.

Lehmann said it was very difficult � if not impossible � to scale the costs of a total renewable energy solution. He likened it to attempting to guess several decades ago the costs of a computer today.

Hermann Scheer, chairman of the World Council for Renewable Energy, and regarded as the driving force behind the feed-in tariff regime that kick-started Germany�s renewable energy industry, has previously said that 100 percent renewable energy could be done much faster and cheaper than building coal or nuclear power plants.

This week he told the congress that a technological energy revolution was possible.

�We must overcome the myth of indispensability of conventional energy,� he said, suggesting this could be done by showcasing projects with a total renewable energy solution.

Apart from the question of costs and political will, a key obstacle to implementing a 100 percent renewable energy solution is the absence of unified grids that, for example, link areas of high sunshine to those with strong wind energy potential � both within and between nations.

In South Africa, power utility Eskom has restricted its current options for base load power to coal-fired and nuclear energy, saying that sources like wind power cannot be operated continuously or dispatched according to a schedule.

However, the utility says in its 2009 annual report that, given its aspiration to diversify to lower carbon-emitting technologies, it is developing road maps to fast-track base load options such as concentrating solar power and underground coal gasification.

Delegates and speakers at the congress pointed out that five years ago, people �wouldn�t even have considered� talking about a 100 percent renewable energy solution. However, researchers were now doing so with confidence.

Monica Oliphant, president of the International Solar Energy Society, said that reaching the world�s climate change targets would require a modernisation of the electricity delivery system to incorporate smart grids, which would be costly.

�If you think smart grids are going to reduce electricity prices, you�re probably mistaken because the technology is not cheap,� she said. However, smart grids would have significant long-term benefits.

Smart grids introduce communications that make electricity grids responsive and interactive, allowing those connected to the grid to manage their power use and generation efficiently.