UN panel foresees big growth in renewable energy

Nature : Earlier this week the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report examining the current status and future prospects for renewable forms of energy, such as specialized energy crops, sunlight, wind, and tides. The panel, which was established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme, expects that renewable energy will inevitably supplant fossil fuels. How quickly the shift takes place will depend not only on technological advances but also on government action, the report says. Progress is already being made. Despite the global financial crisis, renewable energy capacity grew in 2009: wind by more than 30%, hydropower by 3%, grid-connected photovoltaics by more than 50%, geothermal by 4%, and solar thermal by more than 20%. Annual biodiesel production had increased to 0.6 exajoules (17 billion liters) by the end of 2009.