The Current Development of Renewable Energy Sources
Since the Industrial Revolution, the energy consumption has skyrocketed all over the world. Coal, oil, natural gas and other fossil energy resources have been consumed rapidly. The ecological environment has been deteriorating, and the sustainable development of human society has been seriously threatened. Therefore, the idea of sustainable development has gradually become the consensus of the international community. Many countries regard the utilization of renewable energy as an important part of their energy strategies and have formulated laws and policies to encourage the development of renewable energy. According to EU’s official definition, renewable energy sources include hydro, wind, solar, geothermal and air heat pumps. In addition, electricity generated by burning biomass, bio-gas, liquid bio-fuels and municipal waste are also very important.
Official statistics show that EU exceeded its target for renewable energy in 2020, with 22 percent of the energy consumed by the 27 European Union member states was from renewable sources, which was two percent higher than the EU’s target set in 2009. Iceland and Norway, which are members of the European Economic Area (EEA), generate 83.7 percent and 77.4 percent of electricity from renewable sources, respectively. Among all EU members, Sweden consumed the highest percentage of renewable energy, at 60%. In fact, the percentage in Sweden and Croatia (31%) were both higher than the EU’s target by 11 percent, while the figure for Bulgaria (23.3%) was 7 percent above the target.
However, the share of renewable s in the energy structure was only 10.7 percent in Malta and 11.7 percent in Luxembourg, at least both countries still met their targets, whereas France did not achieve the goal. Previously France has pledged to get 19.1 percent of its energy from renewable sources, yet the country would still rely on low-carbon fuels (nuclear) for more than 70 percent of its energy needs by 2020.
As for other countries, 42 percent of Britain’s energy was renewable in 2020; In the United States, renewable energy accounted for 19.8 percent of the electricity generated within one year. According to the International Energy Agency, 14 percent of China’s electricity comes from renewable sources. In 2020, 27% of the world’s electricity was generated from renewable sources. By 2025, the proportion is forecast ed to rise to 33 percent, implying that renewable energy will overtake coal as the world’s largest source of electricity for the first time. Renewable energy is growing strongly, defying the COVID-19 pandemic, the International Energy Agency claimed. But if the authorities want to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, an increasing number of measures need to be done to promote further development of renewable energy.
The Renewable Energy Dilemma of Small Countries
Taking Singapore as an example, the country’s transition to renewable energy is constrained by geography. It has neither space for large solar installations nor rivers to generate electricity, and the breezes in the tropics cannot push wind turbines to generate electricity. All these has forced the financial and transport hub in Southeast to rely on imports during the process of transformation. Although importing energy is a common strategy for small countries, but this model depends on the willingness of nearby countries to export carbon-free electricity.
Singapore’s plan to bring in enough clean energy from abroad to meet 30 percent of demand by 2035 has already run into difficulties as Malaysia prioritized its own carbon emissions targets and banned the export of renewable power.
In terms of other smaller countries, Monaco intended to acquire renewable solar and wind projects in France, but experts said that there were no guarantee supplies would not be disrupted. In the Middle East, Bahrain was considering floating solar power, while it also hoped to import clean energy from neighboring countries. South Korea developed the largest offshore wind project off its southwest coast, while Japan has to consider using more nuclear power because of the limited space.
Despite the technical and waste disposal challenges, small-scale nuclear power remains one of Singapore’s few low-carbon energy options. Singapore, which imports 95 percent of its electricity from natural gas, would increase the investment in solar power equipment. However, it is forecast ed that only 4 percent of the energy structure will be generated from solar power by 2030. Because of the geographical location, where the extraction and trading of fossil fuels still play an important role, thus Singapore does not set a net zero carbon emission target currently.
Cooperation Among Multinational Enterprises in The Field of Renewable Energy Transformation
Octopus Hydrogen Co. and Bay WA R.E., a German renewable energy developer, has signed agreements to collaborate on green hydrogen production facilities at renewable project located in the United Kingdom. Specifically, in the UK, initial projects identified in the Bay WA R.E. project pipeline would be able to produce up to 6.5 tons of green hydrogen per day; Octopus Hydrogen Co. will produce, store and distribute green hydrogen to customers’ sites, providing end-to-end hydrogen supply solutions and supporting decarbonization efforts in local sectors such as commercial transportation.
Green hydrogen is crucial for the local government to achieve the net zero goal by 2050, with the government cooperating with industry to achieve 5 GW of low hydrocarbon gas production capacity by 2030, since green hydrogen is most suitable for industries where carbon reduction is most difficult to achieve, such as decarbonized fuels for heavy transport, shipping and aviation. Octopus Hydrogen Co. has already worked on a number of pioneering projects, including supplying other companies’ research and development centers at specific airports with the first deliveries of green hydrogen in the South West. In addition, the new software designed by this company will optimize the use of electrolysis to help balance the grid and improve efficiency. This optimization of renewable power generation is a catalyst for new renewable energy capacity, reducing the UK’s dependence on imported fossil gas, which is intensifying the current energy crisis.
It is worth mentioning that hydrogen production facilities will be directly connected to on-site renewable energy generation. Since electricity is a major factor in the cost of green hydrogen production, this concept is advantageous because it ensures low electricity cost for the electrolysis. About 30-40% of renewable energy generation will be consumed directly on site by electrolysis, with the rest fed into the grid. On-site hydrogen production also avoids potential cutbacks in renewable energy production due to gridlock.
Bay WA R.E. has been involved in various initiatives to promote the important role of renewable hydrogen in achieving decarbonization goals, such as its SinneWetterstof Hydrogen Pilot Project in the Netherlands. The company will share its valuable experience and expertise in order to accelerate hydrogen project development as well as wind and solar power plant management. The project is part of board of directors’ strategy to strengthen its hydrogen activities in Europe, where it is actively developing more than 2GW of onshore wind and solar projects in the UK and Ireland.
In summary, Bay WA R.E. and Octopus Hydrogen Co. are working together to achieve net zero emissions. This type of transnational collaboration is based on the innovative projects that have already taken place across Europe to produce green hydrogen from renewable energy sources and can help the regions where the project is located to achieve energy transition goals.
By Xin Wang
