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Recent Greenpeace renewable energy
initiatives - see reports on this page:
See below for more detailed descriptions: EU Liberalisation: The Liberalisation of Europe's Electricity Markets - Is the environment paying the price for cheap power? (Greenpeace report, May 2000) The key finding of this report is that the process of liberalizing the EU electricity market is introducing certain trends that are detrimental to the environmental objectives of the European Union. In particular, the expansion of renewable energy and the reduction of CO2 emissions are being hampered by the liberalisation process as it is currently being allowed to develop. In terms of volume of transactions, Europe has become a focus for the process of electricity liberalisation globally. Therefore Europe must also become the proving ground for integrating environmental considerations into this new model of electricity markets. The emergence of consumer choice that allows for Green Power schemes is so far appears to have been small compensation for some of the more worrying trends for human health, the environment and the wider economy that the process of liberalisation has set in motion. The problems arise from the inadequacy of current regulations in safeguarding clean production methods, efficient energy use and energy security. Strengthened regulation is needed to balance the adverse effects of the purely commercial, competition-based rules that are currently in place. These key trends of concern identified in the report are: 1. End user price reductions - which will tend to drive increased consumption 2. Price volatility - which weakens position of clean energy industry 3. Market domination by major retailers regardless of environmental integrity of supply 4. Legally challenged renewable energy promotion mechanisms 5. Energy insecurity - projected increases in fossil fuel concentration and import levels 6. Persistent inherent subsidising of non-sustainable energy generation Suntec: The concept solar company from Greenpeace - on the web and on CD. Have you ever seen a billboard telling you to switch on to solar? Have you ever seen TV ads telling you that your own roof could be earning you money! Why not? KPMG, the global business analysts say that solar can be competitive now if it is mass produced (see the report below), but BP and Shell say they won't mass produce solar panels because they won't be able to sell them. Catch 22. So Greenpeace commissioned a marketing consultancy and asked them how to create a market for low cost, roof-top solar power. Suntec is what they came up with! Wind Force 10: A blueprint to achieve 10% of the world's electricity from wind power by 2020 (Report by Greenpeace, European Wind Energy Association and Forum for
Energy & Development, October 1999) We have produced this report in order to update our understanding of the contribution that wind power can make to the world. It is deliberately conservative. The report is a practical blueprint to show that wind power is capable of supplying 10% of the world's electricity within two decades, even if we double our overall electricity use in that time. The collaboration of our organisations highlights the triple benefits that wind energy offers the world: for the environment, for industry and for development. KPMG : Solar Energy, From Perennial Promise to Competetive Alternative (KPMG report, commissioned by Greenpeace, September 1999) The question Greenpeace put to KPMG was: "Can the large scale producton of solar panels lower the price of solar energy to such an extent that solar energy can compete economically with conventional forms of energy? And if it can, what action is necessary on the part of government, customers and industry to break through the current impasse?" The conclusion from KPMG is clear: "Scaling up the production of solar panels is technologically feasible using current technology. To achieve a reduction in the price to the level of conventional energy, production needs to be scaled up to 500 MWp per year. There are costs involved in creating the required market size, and either industry, government, or energy users will have to pick up the cost of transition." The Big Switch: Greenpeace Analysis of Future Independent Renewable Power Production in the South East Asian Electricity Sector (Greenpeace Report, July 1999) Greenpeace analyzed the social, financial and economic experience of projects for renewable energies in South-East Asia in 1998. The study paid special attention to small, decentralized projects carried out in areas without connections to the public main grid. This paper looks at the possibility of installing a 'renewable power plant' of equal output in place of a planned coal-fired power plant. Plans for both options are compared with regard to the costs involved, and to the effect on jobs, the environment and the final attainable electricity price which the independent power producer can offer the grid operator. The economic and environmental advantages of plants based on renewable energy and energy efficiency are highlighted with proposals for 2 companies that will work closely together. Greenpeace solar/wind projects around the world: (For briefings on Greenpeace and energy issues in your own language, check the climate pages on local Greenpeace websites)
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