Over the next five years, India's renewable energy sector is likely to provide business opportunities worth 160 billion, according to the Survey.
"It offers very good opportunity for businesses to set and scale up industry, leapfrog technologies and create volumes.
"Some of India's major immediate plans on renewable energy include scaling up cumulative installed capacity to 170 gigawatts (GW) and establishing a National University for Renewable Energy," the Survey stated.
As on December 31, 2014 India's total renewable power capacity has reached 33.8 GW of which wind energy continues to dominate the sector with 66 per cent of installed capacity, followed by bio mass, small hydro power and solar power.
India scaled up the National Solar Mission target by five fold to 100 GW by 2022.
"The aim of this initiative is primarily to provide energy access to nearly 300 million households. The collateral benefit would be lower annual emissions of CO2 by about 165 million tonnes," the Survey stated.
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Credit: bioenergysystems.blogspot.com
Obama trying to keep cool during his climate speech at Georgetown University.
By Anders Lorenzen
In a stringent attack on Republicans, Obama laid out his climate plan to an enthusiastic audience at Georgetown University on Tuesday afternoon and said now was the time to act on climate change: "In the developing world they don't have time for the debate about whether climate change is real, they are too busy dealing with the impacts of climate change' Obama stated that Americans were not safe from the impacts of climate change, even though Hurricane Sandy could not alone be attributed to climate change; it is a contributor to the increase in extreme weather the US is experiencing.
Obama stressed that this should not be a Democratic versus Republican issue, both parties should work together, he went on to highlight that it was actually Republican states that were amongst the leaders in wind power such as Texas, Iowa and Kansas. Texas is also one of the most vulnerable to the impact of climate change as last year's drought proved.
So far there are no legal requirements in the US to cap carbon emissions, but in Obama's new plan which he crucially would bypass the Congress, with he will direct The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to work with states to set regulations for new and existing coal power plants. This would happen in the period 2013-2016.
During 2014 The President will in the budget commit to increase funding for clean energy projects by 30% across all agencies, he was proud to highlight his clean energy achievements during his time in office saying: "We doubled the electricity we generated from the wind and the sun, and doubled the miles our cars go by the gallon' It needs to be noted though that this include technologies like nuclear, biofuels and clean coal - which everyone might not associate with clean energy. By 2020 Obama hopes to have doubled today's renewable energy capacity and it should power more than six million homes.
Before the speech The Washington Post reported that coal shares had plunged in anticipation of Obama would move to regulate coal power plants. This has prompted industry and Republicans to claim that Obama is leading a war on the coal industry and is trying to kill it.
But several people have applauded Obama's bold step forward on climate action with green groups in the front seat. The leading environmental organisation in the US, The Sierra Club, said in a statement: "Today, President Obama has shown he is keeping his word to future generations. His inspiring call to action is a testament to the vibrancy of the grassroots climate movement and the work of millions of activists to make tackling climate disruption a key part of the President's legacy.'
The President of the European Union (EU) Jose Manuel Barroso said in a statement: 'I very much welcome President Obama's renewed push to tackle global climate change. The plans set out today are positive steps that will create further momentum for international climate action."And EU's Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard: 'I am of course glad to see that the United States is finally moving on climate. After a number of important speeches from President Obama and Secretary Kerry, Europe has been eagerly waiting for the US to set out concrete steps. So this plan is a most welcomed step forward and, if implemented, it can put the US on a path towards a low carbon future.'
Former Vice President Al Gore released following statement: "This was a terrific and historic speech, by far the best address on climate by any president ever. I applaud the new measures announced by President Barack Obama this afternoon to help solve the climate crisis - particularly the decision to limit global warming pollution from existing as well as new power plants.'
In his closing remarks Obama encouraged the young audience to talk about the climate issue saying: "Speak up for the facts, drive out the misinformation'... "Push your own community to adopt smarter practices. Invest, divest and remind folks that there is no contradiction between a sound environment and strong economic growth.' These remarks could be translated as another dig towards those Republicans who deny man-made climate change and insist that we can't have growth and protect the environment at the same time.
"Sub edited by Charlotte Paton"
Reference: opengreendoors.blogspot.com
AN INCREASING SHIFT TOWARDS RENEWABLES
Nowadays more and more countries are turning to renewable sources of energy. It is nice to see that all over the word there are many initiatives going on and that many countries are achieving excellent results. Let's take a tour around the world to see what is going on and get some green inspiration and hope.
SOLAR AND WIND ENERGY IN INDIA
The Indian government needs to take action to ensure that electricity will be provided to everyone. There is the possibility to use coal as a resource but solar energy seems to be more efficient with solar panel prices decreasing. The current energy production from solar energy is of about 3 gigawatts and installation sites will double by next year.
India has a high solar energy potential, but wind energy is also another important resource that has even greater potential. The amount of energy produced is increasing exponentially over time and it is expected to jump from 25 gigawatts next year to 50 gigawatts in 2020.
SOLAR ENERGY IN FRANCE
France hasn't focused so much on green energy in the past years but it is now committing to long term plans. Although it only produces 5 gigawatts of energy from the sun accounting for only 1% of the total output, companies are willing to increase this share since renewable energy makes much more financial sense than new nuclear centers.
ELECTRICITY FROM RENEWABLES IN GERMANY
In 2014 Germany got most of the electricity from renewables and it aims at reducing even more its carbon emissions. In some cases the gains from energy were higher than the costs of producing and this is the final goal in order for this approach to be sustainable. If Furthermore, Germany is spending much less than any advanced country using other energy sources.
RENEWABLE PLANS IN SOUTH AFRICA
South Africa already operates a solar plant and is planning to create a thermal plant that will be the biggest project ever realized in Africa. The country currently relies on coal, but future stages include a shift to hydroelectric power imported from Congo and the use of renewables at a larger scale.
SOLAR PLANTS IN THE USA
Technical advancement that will make energy production from solar energy even cheaper have been developed in San Diego. The new system could make solar plants designed as the ones in South Africa even more efficient and speed up the shift from fossil fuels to renewables.
These news bring good hopes and spur the development of renewables. It is predicted that the shift to renewables will be natural as there will be a realization of a win-win situation where benefits accrue to individuals, communities and the planet and since people will understand that the financial gains of switching to green energy are significant.
