Research

As the world strives to cut carbon emissions, electric power from renewables has emerged as a vital energy source. Yet transport and industry will still require combustible fuels for many purposes. Such needs could be met with hydrogen, which itself can be produced using renewable power. Hydrogen provides high-grade heat, helping to meet a range […]

In many countries, the production of off-grid electricity from renewables is largely unrecorded but is believed to be expanding rapidly. This trend has been driven by numerous factors, including falling costs, innovation and supportive public policies. Many of the new electricity producers are households and enterprises generating electricity for their own use and measuring this production […]

The corporate sector accounts for about 50 percent of total electricity consumption in India. The sector, therefore, has a critical role to play for India to achieve its ambitious renewable energy targets of 175GW installed capacity by 2022. The electricity sector has transformed rapidly with a substantial fall in renewable energy prices (solar and wind […]

According to a new report, investors in, once the most valuable company in the world, General Electric (GE) lost billions due to the company misjudging the pace of the global energy transition towards renewables. The report by IEEFA, ‘General Electric Misread the Energy Transition: A Cautionary Tale’, highlights GE and its primary shareholders as a case […]

The growing deployment of renewables has set in motion a global energy transformation with significant implications for geopolitics. The Director-General of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Adnan Z. Amin, with the support of the Governments of Germany, Norway and the United Arab Emirates, convened the Global Commission in January 2018 to address this implication. The […]

Renewable energy employs about 32% of women, compared to 22% in the energy sector overall. Still, within renewables, women’s participation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) jobs is far lower than in administrative jobs. This report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) examines the question of gender equity throughout the sector. Building on […]

Renewable energy has advanced rapidly in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries since 2014. The project pipeline reached almost 7 gigawatts (GW) of new power generation capacity by 2018, after record-breaking bids in renewable energy auctions in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia made solar power cost-competitive with conventional energy technologies. This report […]

Biofuels are an essential renewable energy resource, with 40% (90 exajoules) of renewable energy resources projected to come from biofuel sources by 2050. In order to meet these projected energetic demands, biofuel production must be increased from the current annual biofuel yield of 50 exajoules. Sustainable intensification of pastureland, or the increase of livestock yield […]

The integration of solar and wind power poses specific challenges as system operators pursue low-carbon investments and long-term energy sustainability. As these variable renewable energy (VRE) sources reach high shares of power generation, power systems must be increasingly flexible to maintain the balance of supply and demand over each day or year. In response, policymakers […]