The call for urgent action to address climate change and develop more sustainable modes of energy delivery is generally recognized. It is also apparent that batteries, both in the transportation and the power sectors, need to play a predominant role if the global community is to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius. Simply put, nations’ efforts will focus largely on electrifying transportation systems to be supported by power systems that deliver low carbon energy, using a range of renewable technologies. Stationary batteries will play a critical role in not only providing direct energy services, but also in acting as...
Energy transitions are underway in many countries, with a significant global increase in the use of wind and solar power playing a key role. To integrate renewable resources into grids, energy storage will be key. Storage will allow for the increased use of wind and solar power, which can not only increase access to power in developing countries, but also increase the resilience of energy systems. Energy storage solutions can also improve grid reliability, stability, and power quality which are essential to promoting the productive uses of energy. This brief on energy storage partnership focuses on its performance as of...
The recent advances in battery technology and reductions in battery costs have brought battery energy storage systems (BESS) to the point of becoming increasingly cost-effective projects to serve a range of power sector interventions, especially when combined with PV and where diesel is the alternative, or where subsidies or incentives are used. Quantifying the economic impact of BESS requires a high level of temporal granularity in the analysis, because the time-steps required for a reliable assessment of costs and benefits are much shorter than the usual annual time steps of many power sector investment projects. In short, there is as...
Battery technology is evolving at a breathtaking pace. As performance improves and costs fall, batteries are already critical for consumer electronics, such as mobile phones, and are paving the way for the electric vehicle market. The battery revolution doesn’t end there. Battery systems are also transforming intermittent renewable energy - such as solar and wind - by making them much more financially attractive. Investors are taking notice. But while the versatility of batteries makes them attractive, it is difficult to determine their economic value. Understanding where and why batteries are most successful remains challenging, as each situation is different based...
In developing countries, battery storage is becoming a viable way to increase system flexibility and enable more integration of variable renewable energy. Battery energy storage systems (BESS) respond rapidly to control signals, are easy to deploy, and are benefiting from cost reduction trends. New battery technologies have valuable attributes that are well suited to the needs of developing countries. However, they have a rather short track record in terms of deployment and operation, and this can hamper efforts to reassure buyers and investors that these new technologies will perform reliably over their project life. Conditions found in some developing countries...
This paper reviews recent developments in biofuel markets and their economic, social and environmental impacts. Several countries have introduced mandates and targets for biofuel expansion. Production, international trade and investment have increased sharply in the past few years. However, several existing studies have blamed biofuels as one of the key factors behind the 2007-2008 global food crisis, although the magnitudes of impacts in these studies vary widely depending on the underlying assumptions and structure of the models. Existing studies also have huge disparities in the magnitude of long-term impacts of biofuels on food prices and supply; studies that model only...
The project “Regional potential assessment of novel bio energy crops in fifteen ECOWAS countries” was started by the different project partners based on the need to make an overall assessment of a series of novel potential bio energy crops which can or could be grown and processed in the future in the 15 ECOWAS countries. This project fits in a broader strategic analysis of alternative energy needs and production, the key mandate of the main funding partner in the project, ECREEE. The project partners deliberately excluded conventional “bio energy” crops like sugarcane, oil palm, maize or sunflower as target crops,...
Key Words: Gender, Gender Equality, Gender Equity, Employment
The Renewables 2021 Global Status Report is the worldwide reference document for the market, policy, and technology trends in renewable energy for 2020. Crowdsourced from hundreds of contributors from industry, NGOs, governments, and academia across the world, this year’s report raises a fundamental question: what is holding the world back from using the COVID-19 crisis as an opportunity for transformation? REN21’s 2021 report shows that governments need to give a much harder push to renewables in all sectors, and advocates for the establishment of renewable shares as key performance indicators for both private and public decision-making processes, as well as...
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