According to a new study just released by the International Energy Agency (IEA) the large-scale adoption of renewable energy technologies like solar and wind can come at “little additional cost in the long term.”
In fact the study said solar PV and wind could generate 30 per cent of a given market’s electricity generation without significant economic disruption.
The IEA notes that much depends on the flexibility of the market, and how power markets are governed in an individual country.
However, it does note that renewable energy is already being integrated in a significant way in many countries.
For Denmark, Italy, Germany, Ireland, Spain, and Portugal, wind and solar have captured between 10 per cent and 30 per cent of electricity generation.
The first installations come easy, IEA finds that increasing renewable energy to the point at which they account for 5-10 per cent poses no technical or economic challenges at all and it can be added to the existing electricity system.
However, once a country gets beyond the 10 per cent threshold, IEA finds, reforming the electricity system becomes imperative.
This involves transforming the system to make it more flexible.
Moreover, older power plants have to be shut down to make room for renewable energy, which raises difficult challenges concerning the economic impact on varying parties.
However, the calculation is different for emerging economies like China, India, and Brazil.
IEA said adding renewable energy should be considered at the start, as these countries were still adding capacity to meet growing demand.
For incremental demand, renewable energy would not need to push out incumbent producers, theoretically making the issue easier to grapple with.
The report comes at a time when renewable energy is taking off around the world.
Bloomberg newsagency reports that 2014 will be a record year for solar power, with projections that the solar market will grow by 20 per cent from a year earlier.
China is set to lead the way after it recaptured its lead as the world’s largest solar market in 2013.
