Japan, holding the G20 presidency in 2019, asked the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) for a report on the implications of the global energy transformation for climate and sustainability in a broad sense.
This study examines the policy, regulatory, financial and capacity-related challenges that the country has to address to meet targets for renewables to make up 42% of the country’s electricity mix by 2035.
Advanced liquid biofuels are important for low-carbon transport development. A survey of industry executives highlights regulatory uncertainty as a key market barrier.
While the shift to cleaner energy systems is evident across the Group of 20 (G20), it has specific features in each country. In every case, renewable energy plays a significant role.
The report suggests was to improve biogas data collection, including reducing survey costs, improving response rates, simplifying the data collected and using local knowledge about previous projects and programmes.
This report aims to provide a basis for understanding these challenges and the solutions available. It highlights the range of policy options available, complemented by country examples.
This publication aims to increase awareness, share experiences and lessons, and provide recommendations for expanding geothermal heat use in the agri-food sector. The analysis in this document suggests the following six broad critical factors.
IRENA's 10th Assembly booklet charts global advances over the past decade and calls for a new Decade of Action on renewables. Comparative graphs and data illuminate the road ahead.
The size of wind turbines has continuously increased over several decades to boost power generation from this key renewable energy source. As this technology brief from IRENA and IEA-ETSAP notes, large-scale wind farms and larger turbines drive the ongoing reduction of electricity costs.
This study aims to estimate the potential for sustainable bioenergy production in Africa through such systems, based on the evaluation of yields for 15 short-rotation woody crops.
Active forest management has helped to boost bioenergy resources. Swedish experience offers valuable lessons for emerging markets.
This working paper is part of a set of five reports on hydropower, wind, biomass, concentrating solar power and solar pholtovoltaics that address the current costs of these key renewable power technology options.
Sustainable bioenergy could even out solar and wind variability and replace fossil fuels for industry, transport and buildings.
This working paper is part of a set of five reports on hydropower, wind, biomass, concentrating solar power and solar pholtovoltaics that address the current costs of these key renewable power technology options.
The shipping industry plays a critical role in the global economy, carrying approximately 90% of the total tonnage of world’s traded goods. Shipping propulsion has changed radically since the mid-19th century, from the renewable energy of sail power, to the coal power of steamships, to the predominance of heavy fuel oil and marine diesel oil. But renewable energy technologies could transform the global shipping fleet again, at all levels and scales.
This report provides a comprehensive pathway for the development of a sustainable and cleaner regional energy system.
This report is the first-ever projection of PV panel waste volumes to 2050. It highlights that recycling or repurposing solar PV panels at the end of their roughly 30-year lifetime can unlock an estimated stock of 78 million tonnes of raw materials and other valuable components globally by 2050.
Power systems need to be increasingly flexible to accommodate rising solar and wind shares. This brief examines the uses of demand-side flexibility, outlines solutions to achieve these, and highlights examples in actual power systems.
Cities have emerged as a key focus of global climate mitigation and adaptation strategies. This report highlights resource potential, targets, technology options and planning priorities.
The potential of oceans as an energy source is staggering – more than sufficient to meet global electricity demand well into the future. Ocean resources vary from tidal currents and waves, to temperature and salinity gradients.
This guide is part of a series prepared by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) in the field of quality infrastructure (QI) for small-scale renew¬able energy technologies. Quality Infrastructure for Renewable Energy Technologies: Solar Water Heaters analyses the challenges and offers recommendations for developing QI for solar water heaters (SWHs), as well as highlighting the experiences of several countries in developing and implementing QI for SWHs. The SWH guide concludes by applying guidelines for incrementally developing QI to the particular case of SWH markets.
A practical guide for decision-makers and project developers on the available energy storage solutions and their successful applications in the context of islands communities. The report also includes various best practice cases and different scenarios and strategies. It is developed as part of the IRENA Renewables in Islands Initiative (IRII).
As the world strives to cut carbon emissions, electric power from renewables has emerged as a vital energy source. Fuel needs for transport and industry, meanwhile, could be met with renewable-based hydrogen.
This brief examines tidal energy technologies, one of the key methods for tapping renewable energy from the world’s oceans.
Biomass has an auspicious future in the world’s supply of renewable energy. REmap 2030, the global roadmap developed by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), foresees a major role for modern, sustainable biomass technologies in efforts to double the share of renewables in the energy mix.