{"id":12526,"date":"2015-03-08T07:23:20","date_gmt":"2015-03-08T11:23:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=12526"},"modified":"2015-03-08T07:24:52","modified_gmt":"2015-03-08T11:24:52","slug":"renewables-outcompete-oil-national-bank-of-abu-dhabi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2015\/03\/renewables-outcompete-oil-national-bank-of-abu-dhabi.html","title":{"rendered":"Renewables outcompete oil &#8211;National Bank of Abu Dhabi"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\nA Middle East bank says:<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"font-size:100%\">\n<p>\n<a title=\"687x707 Ambitious scenario, in Financing the Future of Energy, by National Bank of Abu Dhabi, March 2015\" href=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?attachment_id=12518\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none\" alt=\"300x309 Ambitious scenario, in Financing the Future of Energy, by National Bank of Abu Dhabi, March 2015\" src=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/a01d41ed3581792efa12baae05927b1c1.jpg\"><\/a><br \/>\nRenewables accounted for 57 per cent of global power investment in<br \/>\nnew generation in the period 2000-2013.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\nAnd that&#8217;s even with all the legal and financial roadblocks<br \/>\nthrown up by entrenched fossil fuel companies and electric utilities.<br \/>\nThe report recommends aligning policy and finance:<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"font-size:100%\">\n<p>\nTo deliver a sustainable energy system for the long term, the<br \/>\nfinancial community and policymakers need to work collaboratively:<br \/>\nstimulating and de-risking investment, and developing innovative<br \/>\nstructures which can support the financing of future energy.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\nWith that collaboration, the Middle East and North Africa could<br \/>\nsee this kind of energy deployment scenario:<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"687x707 Ambitious scenario, in Financing the Future of Energy, by National Bank of Abu Dhabi, March 2015\" href=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?attachment_id=12518\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border:none\" alt=\"600x617 Ambitious scenario, in Financing the Future of Energy, by National Bank of Abu Dhabi, March 2015\" src=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/ccde96cde01561d253b8346e126d62971.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\nNote that blue exponential curve for solar power for more than<br \/>\na decade, until about 2028, when presumably the bank report writers<br \/>\nthink the market for electricity there will mostly be saturated.<\/p>\n<p>\nBut why wait?<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"font-size:100%\">\n<p>\nWe do not need to wait for the required technologies to appear. Low<br \/>\ncarbon, sustainable technologies are already on the market, with<br \/>\ncosts that are dropping rapidly as the industry matures and grows.<br \/>\nThey are already market-tested and cost effective, especially for<br \/>\nsolar PV and on-shore wind. This situation is robust against changes<br \/>\nin the price of oil.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\nAnastasia Pantsios, Ecowatch, 5 March 2015,<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.earthisland.org\/journal\/index.php\/elist\/eListRead\/oil_cant_compete_with_renewables_says_national_bank_of_abu_dhabi\/\"><br \/>\nOil Can&#8217;t Compete With Renewables, Says National Bank of Abu Dhabi:<br \/>\nReturns on fossil fuel investments aren&#8217;t keeping up with solar and<br \/>\nwind, and are less likely to do so in the future, says bank report<\/a>,<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"font-size:100%\">\n<p>\nEnergy demand is expected to triple in the next 15 years in the<br \/>\nrapidly growing Persian Gulf region &mdash; already the biggest<br \/>\nenergy consumer per capita in the world &mdash; a demand far<br \/>\noutstripping the current supply. Yet, despite the recent plunge in<br \/>\noil prices, the report says that that demand will be more<br \/>\nefficiently filled by renewables, offering more reliable and<br \/>\nlucrative investment opportunities than oil.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n&ldquo;Some of the report&#8217;s findings may surprise you, as they did<br \/>\nme,&rdquo; writes NBAD CEO Alex Thursby in the report&#8217;s<br \/>\nintroduction. &ldquo;For example, renewable energy technologies are<br \/>\nfar further advanced than many may believe: solar photovoltaic (PV)<br \/>\nand on-shore wind have a track record of successful deployment, and<br \/>\ncosts have fallen dramatically in the past few years. In many parts<br \/>\nof the world, indeed, they are now competitive with hydrocarbon<br \/>\nenergy sources. Already, more than half of the investment in new<br \/>\nelectricity generation worldwide is in renewables. Potentially, the<br \/>\ngains to be made from focusing on energy efficiency are as great as<br \/>\nthe benefits of increasing generation. Together, these help us to<br \/>\nreframe how we think about the prospects for energy in the<br \/>\nregion.&rdquo;\n<\/p>\n<p>\nAmong the report&#8217;s surprising findings are that fossil fuels are<br \/>\nalready uncompetitive with solar in terms of price, and that would<br \/>\nbe true even if oil fell as low as $10 a barrel. And with the supply<br \/>\nof fossil fuels finite and increasingly difficult to extract, the<br \/>\nbank believes that almost all future investments will be in<br \/>\nrenewables.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n&ldquo;Prices have fallen dramatically in the past few years: solar<br \/>\nPV falling by 80 percent in six years, and on-shore wind by 40<br \/>\npercent,&rdquo; it says. &ldquo;The speed of this shift towards grid<br \/>\nparity with fossil fuels means that, in many instances, perceptions<br \/>\nof the role of renewables in the energy mix have not caught up with<br \/>\nreality.&rdquo;\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\nThe actual report,<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nbad.com\/content\/dam\/NBAD\/documents\/Business\/FOE_Full_Report.pdf\"><br \/>\n&ldquo;Financing the Future of Energy: The opportunity for<br \/>\nthe Gulf&#8217;s financial services sector&rdquo;<\/a>,<br \/>\nalso harps on this:<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"font-size:100%\">\n<p>\nCost of energy efficiency is less than half the cost of increasing<br \/>\nenergy production\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\nAnd again:<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"font-size:100%\">\n<p>\nIndustrial applications of energy efficiency can deliver 100 per<br \/>\ncent payback in five years.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\nHere&#8217;s an illustration that the single most cost-effective<br \/>\nenergy investment is switching to LED lighting,<br \/>\nfollowed by efficiency of appliances, motors, and vehicles,<br \/>\nincluding hybrid vehicles.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;font-size:80%\">\n<a title=\"1053x1052 Return on investment, in Financing the Future of Energy, by National Bank of Abu Dhabi, March 2015\" href=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?attachment_id=12522\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border:none\" alt=\"600x599 Return on investment, in Financing the Future of Energy, by National Bank of Abu Dhabi, March 2015\" src=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/149fdf3994b41a1195576e68cbb3d33e1.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\nNote the numerous cost-effective agricultural items,<br \/>\nincluding organic soils restoration and reforestation,<br \/>\nall more cost-effective than any new energy production.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe figure obviously isn&#8217;t perfect, because it includes<br \/>\nbiofuels, which are a great way to degrade land,<br \/>\nand nuclear, without the numerous costs such as spent fuel storage.<br \/>\nBut it nonetheless gives an interesting spectrum.<\/p>\n<p>\nFinally, writing about the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia:<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"font-size:100%\">\n<p>\nFor the economies along this corridor, there is a huge opportunity<br \/>\nto leapfrog traditional approaches to developing energy systems,<br \/>\nmoving immediately to cutting edge technologies, more cost-efficient<br \/>\nand decentralised systems, and applying more innovative approaches<br \/>\nto finance these developments.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\nHere in the sunny U.S. southeast, at the same latitude as North Africa<br \/>\nand with similar issues of poor rural populations, there&#8217;s no reason<br \/>\nwe can&#8217;t leapfrog as well, and profit by doing so.<\/p>\n<p>\n -jsq<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Middle East bank says: Renewables accounted for 57 per cent of global power investment in new generation in the period 2000-2013. And that&#8217;s even with all the legal and financial roadblocks thrown up by entrenched fossil fuel companies and electric utilities. The report recommends aligning policy and finance: To deliver a sustainable energy system [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[202,14,264,265,559,24,449,55,36],"tags":[8750,8704,8754,8755,8701,8702,12,7,8329,8782,8328,8714,8767,6,8727,8716],"class_list":["post-12526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agriculture","category-economy","category-energy-conservation","category-energy-efficiency","category-oil","category-solar","category-transportation","category-water","category-wind","tag-agriculture","tag-economy","tag-energy-conservation","tag-energy-efficiency","tag-georgia","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-national-bank-of-abu-dhabi","tag-oil","tag-renewables","tag-solar","tag-transportation","tag-valdosta","tag-water","tag-wind"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12526"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12529,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12526\/revisions\/12529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}