The global energy system faces urgent challenges. Concerns about energy security are growing, as highlighted by the recent political turmoil in Northern Africa and the nuclear incident in Fukushima. At the same time, the need to respond to climate change is more critical than ever, says the IEA.
Against this background, many governments have increased efforts to promote deployment of renewable energy, and this has stimulated unprecedented rise in deployment, and renewables are now the fastest growing sector of the energy mix. However, the IEA warns that the “coming of age” of renewable energy is not without challenges, choosing to release a new report, Deploying Renewables 2011: Best and Future Policy Practice, which provides guidance for policy makers and other stakeholders to “avoid past mistakes, overcome new challenges and reap the benefits of deploying renewables – today and tomorrow”.
A dial-in press conference is being held on 23 November by some of the Agency’s big guns: Maria van der Hoeven (IEA Executive Director), Didier Houssin (IEA Director of Energy Markets and Security), and Paolo Frankl (IEA Head of Renewable Energy Division), to discuss the new publication, which draws on recent policy and deployment experience worldwide to:
It is hoped that this new guidance will help ensure the same mistakes – growth focused on a few of the available technologies, and rapid deployment is confined to a relatively small number of countries – are avoided moving forward. Equally, the IEA provides advice on managing support costs and system integration of large shares of renewable energy in more advanced markets during a time of economic weakness and budget austerity.
[Photo: US Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson announces the largest ever commitment to purchase electricity generated by wind in the US back in 2000.]
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