Cogeneration is a technology that allows two types of energy to be produced simultaneously in the same installation: mechanical and thermal, from a single fuel (coal, fuel oil, natural gas, wood, biomass, etc.). While cogeneration has already proven its effectiveness in industry, horticulture and in the heating of large buildings, it is gradually being developed for private individuals. This is known as micro-cogeneration. How it works, its uses, its advantages and disadvantages, find out everything there is to know about this 2-in-1 technology.
Achieving more productive and resilient agriculture requires radical changes in the management practices of water, soil, nutrients and other agricultural resources to promote agricultural production and adaptability. Using isotope techniques, carbon, water and nutrients can be quantified and their pathways and dynamics in different agro-ecosystems can be studied to improve smart farming practices.
Farmers need help to develop practices that can adapt to and mitigate the impact of climate change while being able to increase food production. Better management of natural resources, such as land, water, soil and genetic resources, is needed to increase production and the adaptability of agriculture. This should include practices such as conservation agriculture, which can have many benefits, including reduced soil erosion, as well as increased soil water retention and nutrient availability for crops, accumulation of soil organic matter, and crop and livestock productivity.
In collaboration with FAO, IAEA is working to improve and strengthen the capacity of member countries in the use of nuclear and isotope techniques to adopt more climate-smart agricultural practices while supporting further intensification of crop production and enhanced conservation of natural resources.
Climate-smart farming practices can contribute to a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from livestock production. These practices often have benefits for both the agricultural economy and the environment. For example, improving the quality and nutritional balance of livestock feed not only reduces intestinal and greenhouse gas emissions from manure, but also helps to increase productivity and thus income. Improved animal husbandry and health practices help to reduce the number of breeding animals that consume resources but do not yet produce and the associated emissions.
Small mixed farms producing both meat and milk emit less greenhouse gases than specialised farms producing meat and milk separately. Genetic characterisation, marker-assisted selection and feed improvement can help to increase meat production from dairy animals and improve its quality.
Nitrogen 15 and carbon 13 are used to monitor the pathways and dynamics of carbon, water and nutrients in agro-ecosystems to assess the effects of conservation agriculture measures, to verify the stabilization and renewal of soil organic matter, and to determine the fate of nitrogen and carbon in crop residues. They are used to study land degradation and soil erosion so that appropriate soil and water conservation and management practices can be effectively targeted.
The incorporation of nitrogen 14, phosphorus 32, phosphorus 33 or sulphur 35 in rumen microorganisms (the first compartment of the stomach of ruminants, such as cattle) is used to study the intake and utilization of rumen microbial proteins and to determine the best forage crops. This can help to improve feed conversion rates and energy use, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The use of iodine-125 labelled progesterone in radio immunoassay (a method used to measure very small amounts of a hormone in the blood) can help identify pregnant females and optimize animal breeding programs.
Mapping by irradiation hybrids using cobalt-60 helps characterize animal genomes, which facilitates the determination of genetic traits of interest, such as disease resistance or the ability to live under climatic or nutritional stress.
Radionuclides from fallout, such as cesium-137, lead-210 and beryllium-7, are used to determine the redistribution of soil over different time periods, ranging from a few days (7Be) to about 100 years (210Pb) to a decade (137Cs). This technique is useful for detecting trends in soil erosion and sedimentation rate.
Climate-smart agriculture (CIA) can be defined as an approach to transforming and reorienting agricultural development in the context of the new realities of climate change.
The most commonly used definition is that of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), ) according to which CIA is “agriculture that sustainably increases productivity and resilience (adaptation), reduces/eliminates GHGs (mitigation) to the extent possible and enhances the achievement of national food security and development goals”. This definition identifies food security and development as the main objective of the IYC; while productivity, adaptation and mitigation are identified as the three interdependent pillars necessary to achieve this objective.
Productivity: AIC aims to increase agricultural productivity and income from crops, livestock and fish in a sustainable manner without harming the environment. This, in turn, will improve food and nutritional security. A key concept related to increasing productivity is sustainable intensification.
Adaptation: AIC aims to reduce farmers’ exposure to short-term risks, while strengthening their resilience by enhancing their ability to adapt and thrive in the face of long-term shocks and stresses. Particular attention is given to protecting the ecological services that ecosystems provide to farmers and others. These services are essential both for maintaining productivity and for our ability to adapt to climate change.
Mitigation: to the extent possible, IYC should contribute to reducing and/or eliminating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This implies that we reduce emissions for every calorie or kilogram of food, fibre and fuel we produce; avoid deforestation due to agriculture; and manage soils and trees to optimize their potential to act as carbon sinks and absorb CO2 from the atmosphere.
AIC tackles climate change: in contrast to the conventional approach to agricultural development, AIC systematically integrates climate change into the planning and development of sustainable agricultural systems.
AIC integrates multiple objectives and manages trade-offs: in principle, AIC has a threefold benefit, namely increasing productivity, improving resilience and reducing emissions. However, it is often impossible to achieve all three outcomes. Often, when implementing AIC, trade-offs are necessary. This requires us to identify synergies and assess the costs and benefits of different options in the light of the stakeholder objectives identified through participatory approaches.
IYC maintains ecosystem services: Ecosystems provide essential services to farmers, including air, water, food and materials. It is imperative to ensure that related interventions do not contribute to their degradation. For example, the IYC adopts a landscape approach based on the principles of sustainable agriculture, but goes beyond narrow sectoral approaches that lead to unbridled and competing uses of land, to ensure integrated planning and management.
AIC has multiple entry points at different levels: AIC should not be seen as a set of practices and techniques. It has several entry points, ranging from the development of techniques and practices to the development of climate change models and scenarios, information technology, insurance schemes, value chains and the strengthening of the enabling institutional and policy framework. As such, it goes beyond single techniques at the farm level to consider the integration of multiple interventions at the food system, landscape, value chain or policy level.
IYC is context-specific: what is climate-smart in one place may not be climate-smart in another, and no intervention is climate-smart everywhere or all the time. Interventions must take into account how different elements interact at the landscape level, within and between ecosystems, and within different institutional mechanisms and political realities. The fact that IYC often strives to achieve several objectives at the system level makes it particularly difficult to transfer experiences from one context to another.
AIC mobilises women and marginalised groups: to achieve food security objectives and improve resilience, AIC approaches must involve the poorest and most vulnerable groups. These groups often live on marginal lands which are most vulnerable to climatic phenomena such as drought and floods. They are, therefore, more likely to be affected by climate change. Gender is another key aspect of AIC. In general, women have less access and right to the land they cultivate, or to other productive and economic resources which could contribute to strengthening their adaptive capacity to cope with phenomena such as droughts and floods.
AIC strives to involve all local, regional and national actors in decision-making. Only in this way can the most appropriate interventions be identified and the necessary partnerships and alliances be forged to make sustainable development possible.
Overcoming energy scarcity is an essential condition for socio-economic and human development. Beyond significant regional disparities (between countries, between urban and rural areas), 70% of the inhabitants of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are deprived of access to electricity and their numbers are constantly increasing, as electrification efforts continue to lag behind the population growth rate (IEA, 2014). Moreover, responsible for a minimal share of global greenhouse gas emissions (1.8% between 1990-2012 excluding South Africa) (Ibid.), SSA is already one of the regions of the world most affected by the growing risks of climate change (droughts, floods) with serious consequences on poverty (UNISDR, 2015). In 2015, the international agenda directly addressed these fundamental challenges for Africa.
Indeed, in September 2015, the United Nations General Assembly in New York adopted the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) which follow on from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs aimed to better coordinate official development assistance (ODA) and to set priorities to combat different dimensions of poverty with measurable targets. The MDGs merge the development and sustainable development agendas. They are universal, i.e. they concern all countries and address private as well as public actors and civil society.
Among the SDOs, Goal Seven, “Ensuring access to reliable, sustainable and modern energy services for all at an affordable cost” is a major challenge for Africa.
This is true both in terms of food production and economic activity, employment, income and thus the fight against poverty. This objective is closely linked to objective 13, which aims to control global warming.
The 21st Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP21), which was held in Paris at the end of 2015, was a new stage in tackling this challenge. COP21 turned its back on the Kyoto Protocol based on binding international commitments and the separation between developed and developing countries, the latter being exempt from obligations to reduce their greenhouse gases. Following the logic of the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities”, the new climate agreement is based solely on national policies based on the establishment of voluntary contributions (and not commitments) determined at the national level (Intended Nationally Determined Contributions, INDC), including for developing countries (Chin-Yee, 2016; Damian et al., 2015). For the SSA countries, which have all established their INDCs, with the objectives and actions envisaged for the post-2020 period, this new agreement constitutes an important orientation for closely coupling development policy and climate policy on energy transition. Climate financing concerns them both from the point of view of “adaptation” (they are already experiencing the effects of global warming) and “mitigation”.
Indeed, SSA’s minimal contribution to CO2 emissions is linked to its low level of industrialisation, but its energy needs are growing very rapidly. In its case, it is less a question of financing the “energy transition” as understood for developed or emerging countries, i.e. changing the energy mix, than of avoiding going through a phase of energy-intensive and polluting growth, as was the case for industrialized countries. Financing for “mitigation” should support the development of the energy sector while taking into account the challenges of global warming. The challenge rests largely on the “sustainable” exploitation of the resources (both fossil and renewable) available to Africa.
Reconciling the objectives of improving universal access to energy, while stressing the pioneering role that it would be desirable to see SSA play in environmental matters through a strategy of technological leapfrogging, can be a source of tension in view of the financial, economic, social, political, institutional and cultural obstacles that need to be overcome (Murphy, 2001).
In this context, after reviewing the various available estimates of the financing needs related to this dual objective in the first part, we will address some of the issues of the new financing modalities needed to change the scale of needs in the second part. Renewable energies should logically play an increasingly important role in the energy mix. The challenge of diversifying energy sources consists, in particular, in finding ways of coordinating centralised and decentralised access to energy. The question of the critical role of financing mechanisms and the importance of institutional and political innovations and new economic models to accompany and support the energy transition is raised, as we will see in section 3. After this overview, Part 4 presents the contributions of this thematic dossier.
The Paris Accord, adopted by COP21, set even more ambitious targets than the 2-degree Celsius cap on global average temperature increases set in Copenhagen in 2009. Indeed, its 196 signatories agreed to maintain this ceiling by 2100 and to continue their efforts to try to limit this rise to less than 1.5 degrees Celsius. Given that the temperature rise already recorded since 1750 amounts to 0.89 degrees Celsius, this leaves the international community with only a very limited carbon emission credit and requires it to engage in a major energy transition if it is to meet its commitments. Is it feasible, technically, financially, economically, socially and at what cost?
The IPCC has been asked to answer this series of questions by 2018, mainly to quantify the emissions trajectory that must be respected if the objective of limiting temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius is to be achieved.
In the meantime, we already have a series of studies and books that allow a broad non-specialist public to familiarise themselves with these questions, which concern them in various ways. As a citizen – how can we reduce our carbon footprint and consume energy more efficiently? -As a taxpayer – which carbon tax, direct or indirect, should be set? -As a homeowner – what insulation, what source of heat, what direction to choose? -, these questions open up broad fields of investigation for a branch of energy geo-economics.
In Fossil Zero. Désinvestir du charbon, du gaz et du pétrole pour sauver le climat, Nicolas Haeringer argues outright for a massive disinvestment of coal, gas and oil (here listed in alphabetical order and not by priority) to save the climate (Éditions Les Petits Matins, 2015, 108 pages). Based on information provided by the Carbon Tracker Initiative, he puts forward key figures that the mainstream press has taken up several times. On the one hand, fossil fuel reserves, which, it should be remembered, represent 80% of the world’s energy balance in 2014: 1,816 gigatons of coal, 614 gigatons of oil and 363 gigatons of gas, for a rounded total of 2,795 gigatons of fossil fuels with as many potential greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, knowing that since 1750, the world has already emitted 2,000 gigatons of CO2 equivalent, it has only one emission credit left: 565 gigatons to limit warming to 2 degrees Celsius and only 400 gigatons to limit it to 1.5 degrees Celsius. We can see that these are very tight numbers, because at an annual rate of almost 40 gigatonnes of global GHG emissions, there would only be 14 years or 10 years of emissions left. This means that the targets set in Paris would be impossible to achieve. Other estimates put our emissions credit at 1,000-1,200 gigatonnes, which would leave an adaptation margin of around 30 years. Hence the dilemma facing the international community. If all fossil fuel reserves were extracted, used and burned, the result would be an average temperature increase of 9 degrees Celsius by 2100. Hence the author’s conclusion: more than 80% of coal reserves, 50% of gas reserves and 30% of oil reserves must remain in the ground!
It is curious that Nicolas Haeringer, in charge of the campaign for 350 organizations in France, did not address the thesis of CCS (Carbon capture and sequestration), which would make it possible to capture CO2 from thermal power plants and cement factories and reinject it into disused gas reservoirs. Admittedly, there are currently only 14 experimental units in the world dedicated to this process, which reduces the efficiency of power plants by 30%. Aside from as yet unresolved technical problems such as the efficiency of capture, the stability of CO2, which is expected to be stored for thousands of years, is mainly a question of the cost of the operation ($80 to $100 per tonne). But this amount is fairly close to the carbon tax that many economists would like to introduce, including Jean Tirole, who has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2014.
Sustainable energy management is a key issue for companies today. As long-term strategic thinkers, energy entrepreneurs need to be closely involved in these practices. They play an important role in guiding their organizations towards more sustainable energy choices. Energy entrepreneurs support efforts to reduce energy consumption with their in-depth knowledge of energy costs. They also guide managers towards making the right decisions for the use of renewable energy.
Sustainability is about finding the right balance between a company’s financial considerations and its impact on people and the planet. Energy entrepreneurs can have a significant impact on increasing profitability while decreasing the environmental impact of businesses. All too often companies shoot on sight in their sustainable energy management efforts, instead of taking a well-structured approach. This can lead to poorly performing investments and less carbon saved per euro or dollar invested.
Sustainability considerations are often only addressed at a late stage, when contracts are about to be signed. This is unfortunate, as upstream involvement can lead to better choices, with more optimal results in financial and environmental terms.
Energy buyers are often the implementers of the company’s sustainability strategy when they receive instructions from the sustainability department on how to buy greener energy. That’s unfortunate, because energy buyers are closer to market realities and better positioned to achieve your sustainable energy management goals. Strengthen your role as an energy entrepreneur within your company and become a key player in your company’s sustainability efforts. Here are the different stages of sustainable energy management.
An energy entrepreneur will always develop an effective sustainability strategy to underpin his or her actions. Sustainability efforts will produce better results if they are based on a solid and comprehensive strategy. These strategies set clear objectives and provide a coherent framework for using appropriate resources to achieve those objectives.
A wide range of actors and stakeholders have an interest in the sustainable use of energy. These include your industry, customers, government authorities, investors, financial results, current and future employees, NGOs, the local community, suppliers, etc. Analysing what motivates their interest can lead to smart choices in sustainable energy management. For example:
Some companies are embarking on their sustainable development initiatives by defining a sustainable energy management strategy. Others have already designed their sustainability strategy and simply need to refine the broader strategy for energy management. In all cases, an assessment of the strategy is a good starting point for a greener energy supply.
Solar panels, wind turbines, biomass projects, cogeneration and other renewable energies. Through a “scan” of sustainable energy technologies, you can find out which one makes the most sense for :
achieve your sustainability goals;
achieve good levels of performance on your sustainable development projects;
improve your security of supply, for example in a decentralised region.
Are you sure you’re investing in green power generation in the right place? An analysis of sustainable energy technologies will help you optimize your green power investment choices. It will uncover the potential of your different websites in terms of :
Savings: investment costs, potential savings on total energy costs, subsidies;
technical aspects: availability of resources such as wind, solar or biomass, availability of project partners;
regulatory aspects: obligations and possibilities/restrictions for obtaining permits.
Sustainable energy technology analyses ensure a return on investment by identifying the most effective measures to be taken.
The negotiation of self-production contracts is often neglected. Contracts are signed without much negotiation or market research. The first project developer who walks through the door often gets the contract. This is unfortunate, as we have seen time and again that tendering and negotiating often results in significant improvements in contract terms. And that’s a big saving, because these types of contracts are usually long-term.
It is worth going further with this professional procurement approach. Before talking about a self-generation project, start by analyzing the inputs and outputs of cogeneration, for example. This will give you a solid basis for your tender. By putting yourself in a strong position, you decide what you want the market to offer you instead of passively accepting the first proposal sent in.
This more commercial approach to self-production projects also leads to a different way of calculating the return on investment. A good knowledge of costs and revenues will result in better forecasts, as the increase or decrease in returns depending on the market is taken into account. Too many projects fail to achieve the expected rate of return because the initial calculation was based on overly optimistic forecasts of future energy costs or a lack of understanding of cost elements. E&C will help you to formulate a business case for self-generation that is more in line with market realities: “How do markets need to behave in order for you to achieve the desired rate of return? »
More and more companies are engaging in green commodity trading. If you participate in an emissions trading scheme, you have a portfolio of carbon emission rights that you can trade. And if you produce green energy, you are eligible for tradable certificates. Setting up and executing a good green commodity trading strategy can significantly improve your return on investment. Integrating your green commodities strategy into your broader energy procurement strategy will result in a more business-focused approach to sustainability.
Self-generation can also make you a seller of electricity or steam within your grid or to your neighbours. Strategies comparable to those used for energy supply should then be deployed to maximize the impact of your pricing/releasing decisions. A cogeneration unit may warrant spark-spread trading, where some of the gas you purchase is used to produce electricity which is then injected into the grid. All of this requires a well thought-out trading strategy.
Greening your energy supply is a decision that is often taken lightly. A market for green electricity exists in many countries around the world, for example through the acquisition of certificates of origin. However, the real contribution of the purchase of such certificates to the reduction of carbon emissions can be questioned. You may therefore expose your company to accusations of “greenwashing”. To avoid this, take a look at the different types of green energy supply products currently available on the market. Note, however, that these will be more expensive.
On the basis of the stakeholder analysis of the sustainability strategy, E&C will help you to make the right choices to green your energy supply. We will then integrate our approach into all your energy contract negotiations.
Your sustainability efforts should result in visible reductions in your carbon emissions. To account for these reductions, many companies are now implementing carbon monitoring. E&C can assist you in monitoring Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions. Scope 1 concerns emissions resulting from on-site energy transformation processes or the use of fuels on site, while Scope 2 concerns the acquisition of energy produced off-site, as is the case for electricity consumed from the grid.
We will integrate carbon monitoring with your financial control activities to ensure the optimal use of available data. Your ePoint portal will therefore serve as a single source of information on all aspects of your energy spending, including sustainable development.
Whether economic, social or environmental, the issues raised by sustainable development are many and varied. The first step before embarking on a sustainable development process is to understand all the challenges. Acquiring a 360° vision of the challenges is essential to identify the best courses of action.
Natural resources are not infinite. The fauna, flora, water, air and soil, which are essential to our survival, are being degraded. This observation of scarcity and finitude of natural resources translates into the need to protect these great ecological balances in order to preserve our societies and life on Earth. Among the main environmental issues, the following themes have been identified:
Saving and preserving natural resources:
Protect biodiversity, i.e. maintain the variety of animal and plant species to preserve ecosystems :
Avoid CO2 emissions to fight against climate change:
Manage and recycle waste:
It is our society’s ability to ensure the well-being of all its citizens. This well-being means the possibility for everyone, whatever their standard of living, to have access to basic needs: food, housing, health, equal access to work, security, education, human rights, culture and heritage, and so on. Among the main social issues, the following themes have been identified:
Combating exclusion and discrimination, i.e. respecting and protecting the weakest people (disabled, elderly, minorities, etc.), giving access to social rights for all:
Establish an advanced social policy: guarantee good working conditions, promote training, interest employees…
To set up a reintegration assistance policy (professional and/or personal),
Develop targeted projects to limit disparities: equality between men and women, levelling of salaries, accessibility for all…
Fostering solidarity :
Contributing to well-being :
Enhancing the value of territories :
It is a question of reconciling the viability of a project, an organization (economic performance) with ethical principles, such as the protection of the environment and the preservation of social ties. According to this system, the price of goods and services must reflect the environmental and social cost of their entire life cycle, i.e. from resource extraction to recovery, taking into account manufacturing, distribution and use.
The challenges of a responsible economy are numerous, often linked to one or both of the other two pillars of sustainable development, environmental and social. Here are some of the avenues identified:
Use alternative methods:
Beware of preconceived ideas: sustainable development cannot be reduced to environmental protection!
Indeed, sustainable development is based on three pillars, three interdependent components:
The 1987 Brundtland report defined sustainable development as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
Sustainable development must be economically efficient, socially equitable and environmentally tolerable. The social must be an objective, the economy a means and the environment a condition.
Development is “sustainable” if it is designed in such a way as to ensure that its benefits will continue to be enjoyed by future generations.
To preserve, improve and develop the environment and natural resources over the long term, maintaining the major ecological balances, reducing risks and preventing environmental impacts.
Satisfy human needs and meet the objective of social equity, promoting the participation of all social groups in matters of health, housing, consumption, education, employment, culture, etc.
Developing growth and economic efficiency through sustainable production and consumption patterns.
It is a new approach to the general interest aimed at ensuring the sustainability of our societies, our ecosystem, our economy…
It is also a unique opportunity to rethink our models. It’s a lever for innovation!
What are its aims?
Each goal is cross-cutting to social, environmental and economic issues, the pillars of sustainable development.
Sustainable development is the concept that defines the need for transition and change that our planet and its inhabitants need in order to live in a more equitable, healthy and environmentally friendly world.
Sustainable development comes from the combination of two words, which together define a model for the organization of society.
By development we mean the improvement of the performance (economic, social, etc…) of a society.
The term sustainable characterizes something that is durable, stable and resistant.
The combination of the two words gives the definition of sustainable development: the improvement of a society’s performance to make it stable over time.
Sustainable development is a way of organizing society to meet the needs of the present as efficiently as possible without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Today, this transition towards a more sustainable model is necessary to live in a more equitable world and preserve our planet and its natural resources.
The model of a sustainable society is based on fundamental pillars and principles.
Sustainable development implies an organization mode based on 3 essential pillars:
These 3 pillars make up the challenges of sustainable development. In order to create a more sustainable society, these pillars are accompanied by fundamental principles.
Solidarity between countries, between peoples, between generations, and between members of a society.
For example: saving raw materials so that the greatest number can benefit from them.
Precaution in decisions so as not to cause disasters when we know that there are risks to health or the environment.
For example: limiting CO2 emissions to curb climate change.
Participation of everyone, regardless of profession or social status, to ensure the success of sustainable projects.
For example: setting up children and youth councils.
Responsibility of everyone, citizen, industrialist or farmer. So that he who damages, degrades and pollutes repairs.
For example: make industries that pollute a lot pay a tax.
These principles are sometimes incompatible with the consumer society in which we live.
This is why many people (elected officials, associations, companies, individuals, young people…) are calling for our economic system to be rethought to move towards a more sustainable society in order to preserve the planet and its resources.
Sustainable development is not only an urgent need, which is not a constraint but a real opportunity to redesign our society.
In 1800, there were 900 million human beings on earth. In 2020, our planet is home to 7.8 billion people. This strong population growth is accompanied by an increase in demand for goods and services and production methods that lead to environmental and social disorders.
In the 1970s, many experts and scientists sounded the alarm about the impact of human activity on the planet. Since the industrial revolution, our society has undergone unprecedented development, but without really measuring the consequences of the evolution of its way of life. In addition to this:
Today 80% of natural resources are consumed by 20% of the world’s population. This creates areas of great wealth and poverty. In some areas of the world, the inhabitants do not have access to drinking water, healthcare, education and dignified paid employment.
But how can we ensure access to food and drinking water, health and education for all tomorrow? How can we ensure the protection of biodiversity and fight against climate change?
This is why it is urgent to find a new model: sustainable development.
Human societies will have to enter into a transition and rethink all their activities. Many actors are already engaged in this transition towards a way of operating that is more respectful of the environment and of human beings.
Everyone is concerned by this transition to a new, more sustainable model of society. The different actors who are already acting, at their own level, by carrying out sustainable development actions are :
We are all concerned by sustainable development and are moving forward together towards a new model of society that is more respectful of the environment.
All renewable energies are being developed, but they are not all at the same stage of maturity.
The worldwide boom in photovoltaics, made possible by the sharp drop in the cost of producing a kWh, is the most spectacular event of the last ten years. Germany has long led the way, but the largest installed capacities are now led by China and the United States.
The future of wind energy is also assured, even if the cost of the electricity produced is still high, especially for offshore installations. New geothermal techniques have also emerged.
Others are still at the experimental or research stage, such as third-generation biofuels made from micro-algae or applications of hydrogen as an energy carrier. A possible “hydrogen revolution” is becoming the subject of debate, but will only be possible if it is possible to produce hydrogen in large quantities other than from hydrocarbons.
On a symbolic level, the challenge of the Solar Impulse 2 solar airplane continues year after year.
With the exception of hydropower, which has been produced for a very long time and which generates large quantities of electricity, renewable energies today represent a very small share of the global electricity mix: less than 5%, with hydropower accounting for more than 16% and fossil fuels for more than two-thirds.
Their growth is strong, but it will still take a long time for them to rival traditional energies, especially fossil fuels, in terms of quantity. (See the graph of the evolution of the energy mix over time).
By enabling more decentralised production, at the level of territories and even individual households, combined with digital progress, renewable energies are likely to gradually bring about profound changes in society. Because energy is everywhere in everyday life and simple gestures can save it.
The stakes of the automotive transition with hybrid and electric vehicles, including those using hydrogen, but also the new uses of the car, are considerable.
The advent of digital technology in home automation and networks is making it possible to manage more efficiently the delocalized production and distribution of electricity, taking better account of consumer needs.