Climate Action 2017-2018

ENERGY
Credit: ABENGOA
A solar parabolic trough plant
in Solana ,Arizona, USA.
It is already possible to avoid lock-in of
traditional baseload generation by using VRE
to provide low-cost, clean energy access
and while avoiding costly investments in
traditional, and less flexible, generation and
grid infrastructure. And this is good news for
the climate as renewable resources have low
greenhouse gas emissions.
Discussion about 100 per cent
renewable energy is also gaining
prominence. It is further fuelled by the
growing evidence that renewable energy
when paired with energy efficiency is in
many cases the most cost effective option
today. In order to reach 100 per cent
renewable energy a systems approach
to energy – where the generation and
use of renewable energy is looked at
from a cross-cutting perspective – needs
to be adopted. This includes looking
at supporting infrastructure such as
transmission and distribution networks,
balancing supply and demand measures,
energy efficiency measures and sector
coupling, as well as a wide range of
enabling technologies. The inclusion
of social participation, in the form of
universal energy access, socio-economic
co-benefits and the empowerment of
marginalised social groups and local
communities is also part of the approach.
Renewable energy coupled with
innovative approaches present myriad
benefits that set them apart from their
86
traditional counterparts. They draw
on local resources, can be installed
quickly in centralised or decentralised
configurations and, unlike traditional
systems, are not hampered by a lack of
existing infrastructure. They do not emit
greenhouse gases or other pollutants
during generation and generally require
little water to operate. Due to their
decentralised nature, they can also
improve system security in the face of
extreme events due to climate change. In
the power sector VRE is now the lowestcost
source of newly constructed power
generation available in many parts of the
The growing
adoption of
variable renewable
energy (VRE) is
changing how
power systems are
planned, designed
and operated.
world, thanks to rapidly declining capital
costs and zero fuel costs.
REN21’s latest Renewables Global
Futures Report documents an
overwhelming consensus that renewable
power will dominate in the future. The
key lesson for integrating large shares
of variable renewable generation is to
ensure maximum flexibility in the power
system. A shift away from the traditional
‘baseload thinking’ in power system
planning and operations will facilitate
optimal integration of growing shares of
VRE while providing on-demand, reliable
and affordable electricity.
There is broad consensus among the
world’s leaders that we need to work
together to mitigate climate change.
Increasingly countries are on a pathway
to decarbonise their energy sectors, and
more and more corporations are joining
them in this endeavour by subscribing
to ambitious renewable energy targets.
As VRE resources and other enabling
technologies – including storage, demand
response and efficiency improvements
– continue to achieve more favourable
cost and performance characteristics, the
incentive to deploy them will continue to
increase. The resulting changes will move
both new and existing power systems
further towards a model of flexible, clean,
renewable generation. This is good news
for our climate.