Renewable Energy Growing Faster than Conventional Energy
    I am happy to report some very hopeful news on the energy front.Â
     In 2008, for the first time, renewable energy capacity grew faster than conventional power capacity. And this was true for both the United States and the European Union. The shift, according to a global energy policy network based in Paris, called REN21, represents a ‘fundamental transition’ of the world’s energy markets toward renewables.
    Globally, power capacity from renewables increased 16% in 2008 over 2007, the Paris group reports. And at least 73 countries now have renewable energy policy targets, up from 66 countries at the end of 2007. At least 64 countries have adopted policies to promote renewable energy generation.
    Globally, increased capacity was documented for many different forms of renewable energy. Grid-connected solar photovoltaic power grew the fastest, with capacity increasing 70% in 2008. Solar heating capacity worldwide grew by 15% in 2008, and biodiesel production increased by 34%. Wind capacity expanded 29% in 2008, to almost double the capacity in place at the end of 2005.
    These global increases in renewable capacity reflect growth in developing countries as well as in the more developed nations.  For example,  China doubled its wind generating capacity in 2008, for the fifth year in a row. India emerged in 2008 as one of the world’s leading producers of solar photovoltaics, with new policies leading to $18 billion in new manufacturing investment plans or proposals.
    The REN21 report also showed that hundreds of cities around the world are planning or implementing renewable energy policies, as well as policies to limit carbon dioxide emissions.Â
    Renewable energy seemed to resist the credit crunch that affected many other industries much more negatively last year, with new investment reaching $120 billion, up 16% over 2007.
    The recent growth in renewable energy capacity has surpassed all predictions, even those by the industry itself, according to Mohamed El-Ashry, of the Global Environment Facility, which provides grants to developing countries for environmental projects.Â
    “By maintaining and expanding these policies,”  says El-Ashry, “governments, industry, and society will reap substantial economic and environmental rewards when the economic rebound requires energy markets to meet rapidly increasing demand.”–April Moore
May 26th, 2009 at 11:16 am
This is good news that I am very happy to know about. Thanks, April!
Joan
May 26th, 2009 at 11:25 am
April,
I had a sacred experience with a bird on Sunday. Alan, my husband and I were driving up a road near my house when I noticed a movement in the middle of the road. We drove back and I ran out in the road to find a beautiful injured male Gila Woodpecker lying in the road. I picked him up in my hands and we brought him home in a car as cool as the AC would go. Initially his beak was wide open with his tongue sticking way out—he was struggling with heat stroke and birdfashion, trying to cool off. Birds don’t perspire like us except through their beaks. We got a medicine dropper and got him to drink hummingbird water dribbled on his beak. Then he calmed down and closed his beak. One eye appeared to have a pebble in it. We took him to a wild animal rehab unit in Tucson where a volunteer first rinsed his eye out with saline solution which dislodged the pebble. I was amazed by his beauty and trust. He never once tried to peck me or escape from my hands. I think the Reiki energy flowing in my hands helped to soothe him as well as my telling him that he was safe and should rest which he did in my hands all the way to the rehab center. To hold a bird in one’s hands like that is truly a sacred experience! This bird will recuperate and then be released back to the desert where he can live out his life.
May 27th, 2009 at 9:30 am
April,
Thanks so much for printing my wild bird experience. It’s truly something all of us can do!
Last weekend was such a nature weekend for me! On Monday, Alan and I heard some terrified birds screaming and turned the corner in a garden to witness a Gopher snake wending its way up a Palo Verde tree into a White Winged Dove nest to eat 2 baby doves. The mother dove just watched this from further out on the branch. Birds are naturally terrified of snakes. It was heart wrenching to see. Afterwards, the mother dove flew back to the nest and just stood there, folding and unfolding her wings as she looked in the empty nest for her babies. I know she was grieving. She hung around the nest for quite a while and was still there when Alan and I moved on. This will probably be her only chicks for the year as White Winged Doves usually only hatch 2 chicks per year. I know that the snake had to eat, too, and this is part of nature’s balancing act. Still, it’s hard to observe.
Your readers would probably have a hard time with this—but I wanted to share this with you. I understand that this is quite common this time of year.