Seven countries now fully powered by renewables

Apr 22, 2024 News

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…but Jagdeo claims same cannot be done in Guyana

Kaieteur News – The Government of Guyana (GoG) is adamant that renewable energy cannot be used to supply stable electricity for the country; however seven states are now using these sources to supply nearly all of their electricity needs.

A recent report by the ‘Independent’ highlighted that the countries, Albania, Bhutan, Nepal, Paraguay, Iceland, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo produced more than 99.7 per cent of the electricity they consumed using geothermal, hydro, solar or wind power.

As the global transition to net zero picks up pace to slow the negative impacts of climate change, more countries are incorporating the use of renewable energy to reduce harmful emissions.

Data from the International Energy Agency (IEA) and International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) revealed that a further 40 countries generated at least 50 per cent of the electricity they consumed from renewable energy technologies in 2021 and 2022 – including 11 European countries.
Professor Mark Jacobson of Stanford University was quoted by the Independent saying, “We don’t need miracle technologies…we need to stop emissions by electrifying everything and providing the electricity with Wind, Water and Solar (WWS), which includes onshore wind, solar photovoltaics, concentrated solar power, geothermal electricity, small hydroelectricity, and large hydroelectricity.”

Figures released by the IEA in January show that the UK generated 41.5 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources in 2022 – up 10.5 per cent from the year before.

In Scotland, renewable energy technologies generated the equivalent of 113 percent of the country’s overall electricity consumption in 2022.
“These record-breaking figures are a major milestone on Scotland’s journey to net-zero, clearly demonstrating the enormous potential of our world-class renewable energy resources,” Claire Mack, chief executive of Scottish Renewables, said at the time.

While Scotland’s electricity generation was dominated by wind power, researchers predict that solar will come to dominate global electricity supplies over the coming decades.

There has been significant progress in recent years with improving efficiency rates for solar cells, primarily boosted by the so-called ‘miracle material’ perovskite.

Commercial costs have also fallen, which led scientists at the University of Exeter and University College London to claim last year that solar energy has reached an “irreversible tipping point” that will see it become the world’s main source of energy by 2050.

Their 2023 paper, published in the journal Nature Communications, found that technological and economic advances meant the transition to clean energy is not just reachable, but inevitable.

While countries around the world transition to renewable energy, Guyana has taken a different approach and said it would provide the electricity needed through the use of natural gas- a cleaner fuel in comparison to the Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) presently used to generate the country’s electrical needs.

The Gas-to-Energy (GTE) project is likely to cost the country over US$2B, with the three major components, the pipeline, Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) facility and power plant current pegged at US$1.7B. There are also plans to upgrade the transmission and distribution network and build a new control center.

Stakeholders previously shared concerns about the cost of the project and its potential to deliver more affordable and stable power for the country. In fact the government had faced criticisms for failing to conduct a thorough feasibility study on the project, evaluating or comparing the use of gas to other renewable options such as solar.

Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has however dismissed the possibility of solar as a base load supply for the country, arguing that it would not be stable without the use of batteries which would then prove uneconomical. There was no independent study done to confirm the Vice President’s assertion, even as reports indicate that solar power is now cheaper than other sources of energy, especially gas.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in a 2022 Report titled: “Uncertain Times, Unsettled Lives: Shaping our Future in a Transforming World”, revealed that power generation through solar has become far cheaper than which is being reported.

In the document which was released on September 8, the organisation explained, “Contrary to the projected average annual cost reduction of 2.6 percent between 2010 and 2020, solar photovoltaics costs declined by 15 percent a year over the same period.”

This means that the price of electricity from solar declined by 89 percent in these 10 years. Read more here: https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2022/09/11/solar-power-supply-costs-declined-by-15-yearly-between-2010-and-2020-undp-2022-report/

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• Electricity, Jagdeo, power, renewable, Solar

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