\r\n\r\n \r\nAnd that’s even with all the legal and financial roadblocks\r\nthrown up by entrenched fossil fuel companies and electric utilities.\r\nThe report recommends aligning policy and finance:\r\n \r\nTo deliver a sustainable energy system for the long term, the\r\nfinancial community and policymakers need to work collaboratively:\r\nstimulating and de-risking investment, and developing innovative\r\nstructures which can support the financing of future energy.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n \r\nWith that collaboration, the Middle East and North Africa could\r\nsee this kind of energy deployment scenario:\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \r\nNote that blue exponential curve for solar power for more than\r\na decade, until about 2028, when presumably the bank report writers\r\nthink the market for electricity there will mostly be saturated.\r\n \r\nBut why wait?\r\n \r\nWe do not need to wait for the required technologies to appear. Low\r\ncarbon, sustainable technologies are already on the market, with\r\ncosts that are dropping rapidly as the industry matures and grows.\r\nThey are already market-tested and cost effective, especially for\r\nsolar PV and on-shore wind. This situation is robust against changes\r\nin the price of oil.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n \r\nAnastasia Pantsios, Ecowatch, 5 March 2015,\r\n\r\nOil Can’t Compete With Renewables, Says National Bank of Abu Dhabi:\r\nReturns on fossil fuel investments aren’t keeping up with solar and\r\nwind, and are less likely to do so in the future, says bank report<\/a>,\r\n \r\nEnergy demand is expected to triple in the next 15 years in the\r\nrapidly growing Persian Gulf region — already the biggest\r\nenergy consumer per capita in the world — a demand far\r\noutstripping the current supply. Yet, despite the recent plunge in\r\noil prices, the report says that that demand will be more\r\nefficiently filled by renewables, offering more reliable and\r\nlucrative investment opportunities than oil.\r\n<\/p>\r\n \r\n“Some of the report’s findings may surprise you, as they did\r\nme,” writes NBAD CEO Alex Thursby in the report’s\r\nintroduction. “For example, renewable energy technologies are\r\nfar further advanced than many may believe: solar photovoltaic (PV)\r\nand on-shore wind have a track record of successful deployment, and\r\ncosts have fallen dramatically in the past few years. In many parts\r\nof the world, indeed, they are now competitive with hydrocarbon\r\nenergy sources. Already, more than half of the investment in new\r\nelectricity generation worldwide is in renewables. Potentially, the\r\ngains to be made from focusing on energy efficiency are as great as\r\nthe benefits of increasing generation. Together, these help us to\r\nreframe how we think about the prospects for energy in the\r\nregion.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n \r\nAmong the report’s surprising findings are that fossil fuels are\r\nalready uncompetitive with solar in terms of price, and that would\r\nbe true even if oil fell as low as $10 a barrel. And with the supply\r\nof fossil fuels finite and increasingly difficult to extract, the\r\nbank believes that almost all future investments will be in\r\nrenewables.\r\n<\/p>\r\n \r\n“Prices have fallen dramatically in the past few years: solar\r\nPV falling by 80 percent in six years, and on-shore wind by 40\r\npercent,” it says. “The speed of this shift towards grid\r\nparity with fossil fuels means that, in many instances, perceptions\r\nof the role of renewables in the energy mix have not caught up with\r\nreality.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n![\"300x309](\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/a01d41ed3581792efa12baae05927b1c1.jpg\")
<\/a>\r\nRenewables accounted for 57 per cent of global power investment in\r\nnew generation in the period 2000-2013.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n
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