Rising CO2 emissions and declining fossil fuel reserves have led to increasing legislation aimed at growing the amount of renewable energy as a proportion of global total energy consumption. Renewable sources of energy – wind power, solar power (thermal, photovoltaic and concentrated), hydro-electric power, tidal power, geothermal energy and biomass – are essential alternatives to fossil fuels.
To reach the 2020 goal, the European Renewable Energy Council projects that wind will grow by 8.5% a year from 2010 to 2020 to a total installed capacity of 180GW. Solar PV will be close behind at 150GW and annual growth of 23.6%. Hydro will fall from first place to third, followed by biomass and solar thermal, which would display the fastest annual growth, 31%.[1]
Research by Kevine Lidoro
