Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, waves, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy sources are sustainable, some are not. For example, some biomass sources are considered unsustainable at current rates of exploitation. Renewable energy often provides energy for electricity generation to a grid, air and water heating/cooling, and stand-alone power systems. About 20% of humans' global energy consumption is renewables, including almost 30% of electricity. About 7% of energy consumption is traditional biomass, but this is declining. Over 4% of energy consumption is heat energy from modern renewables, such as solar water heating, and over 6% electricity.
A hydrogen vehicle is a vehicle that uses hydrogen fuel for motive power. Hydrogen vehicles include hydrogen-fueled space rockets, as well as ships and aircraft. Power is generated by converting the chemical energy of hydrogen to mechanical energy, either by reacting hydrogen with oxygen in a fuel cell to power electric motors or, less commonly, by burning hydrogen in an internal combustion engine.
The hydrogen economy is using hydrogen to decarbonize economic sectors which are hard to electrify, essentially, the "hard-to-abate" sectors such as cement, steel, long-haul transport etc. In order to phase out fossil fuels and limit climate change, hydrogen can be created from water using renewable sources such as wind and solar, and its combustion only releases water vapor to the atmosphere.
Hydrogen fuel is a zero-carbon fuel burned with oxygen; provided that it is created in a process that does not involve carbon. It can be used in fuel cells or internal combustion engines. Regarding hydrogen vehicles, hydrogen has begun to be used in commercial fuel cell vehicles such as passenger cars, and has been used in fuel cell buses for many years. It is also used as a fuel for spacecraft propulsion.
Energy is sustainable if it "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". Most definitions of sustainable energy include considerations of environmental aspects such as greenhouse gas emissions and social and economic aspects such as energy poverty. Renewable energy sources such as wind, hydroelectric power, solar, and geothermal energy are generally far more sustainable than fossil fuel sources. However, some renewable energy projects, such as the clearing of forests to produce biofuels, can cause severe environmental damage. The role of non-renewable energy sources in sustainable energy has been controversial. Nuclear power is a low-carbon source whose historic mortality rates are comparable to wind and solar, but its sustainability has been debated because of concerns about radioactive waste, nuclear proliferation, and accidents. Switching from coal to natural gas has environmental benefits, including a lower climate impact, but may lead to a delay in switching to more sustainable options. Carbon capture and storage can be built into power plants to remove their carbon dioxide emissions, but is expensive and has seldom been implemented.
A fuel cell vehicle (FCV) or fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) is an electric vehicle that uses a fuel cell, sometimes in combination with a small battery or supercapacitor, to power its onboard electric motor. Fuel cells in vehicles generate electricity generally using oxygen from the air and compressed hydrogen. Most fuel cell vehicles are classified as zero-emissions vehicles that emit only water and heat. As compared with internal combustion vehicles, hydrogen vehicles centralize pollutants at the site of the hydrogen production, where hydrogen is typically derived from reformed natural gas. Transporting and storing hydrogen may also create pollutants.
Hanwha Solutions Corporation is a multinational energy services, petrochemical, and real estate development company headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. The company is part of the Hanwha Group, a large South Korean business conglomerate. Founded in 1965 as Hanwha Chemical, the company was rebranded as Hanwha Solutions in January 2020 when Hanwha Chemical merged with Hanwha Q Cells & Advanced Materials, which itself was formed out of a 2018 merger. The company added the Hanwha Galleria and Hanwha City Development real estate companies to its portfolio in April 2021.
Hydrogen production is the family of industrial methods for generating hydrogen gas. As of 2020, the majority of hydrogen (∼95%) is produced from fossil fuels by steam reforming of natural gas and other light hydrocarbons, partial oxidation of heavier hydrocarbons, and coal gasification. Other methods of hydrogen production include biomass gasification, zero-CO2-emission methane pyrolysis, and electrolysis of water. The latter processes, methane pyrolysis as well as water electrolysis can be done directly with any source of electricity, such as solar power.
The energy policy of India is to increase energy in India and reduce energy poverty, with more focus on developing alternative sources of energy, particularly nuclear, solar and wind energy. India attained 63% overall energy self-sufficiency in 2017. The primary energy consumption in India grew by 2.3% in 2019 and is the third biggest after China and USA with 5.8% global share. The total primary energy consumption from coal (452.2 Mtoe; 45.88%), crude oil (239.1 Mtoe; 29.55%), natural gas (49.9 Mtoe; 6.17%), nuclear energy (8.8 Mtoe; 1.09%), hydro electricity (31.6 Mtoe; 3.91%) and renewable power (27.5 Mtoe; 3.40%) is 809.2 Mtoe (excluding traditional biomass use) in the calendar year 2018. In 2018, India's net imports are nearly 205.3 million tons of crude oil and its products, 26.3 Mtoe of LNG and 141.7 Mtoe coal totaling to 373.3 Mtoe of primary energy which is equal to 46.13% of total primary energy consumption. India is largely dependent on fossil fuel imports to meet its energy demands – by 2030, India's dependence on energy imports is expected to exceed 53% of the country's total energy consumption. About 80% of India's electricity generation is from fossil fuels. India is surplus in electricity generation and also marginal exporter of electricity in 2017. Since the end of calendar year 2015, huge power generation capacity has been idling for want of electricity demand. India ranks second after China in renewables production with 208.7 Mtoe in 2016. The carbon intensity in India was 0.29 kg of CO2 per kWhe in 2016 which is more than that of USA, China and EU.
The production of renewable energy in Scotland is a topic that came to the fore in technical, economic, and political terms during the opening years of the 21st century. The natural resource base for renewable energy is high by European, and even global standards, with the most important potential sources being wind, wave, and tide. Renewables generate almost all of Scotland's electricity, mostly from the country's wind power.
Fossil fuel phase-out is the gradual reduction of the use and production of fossil fuels to zero. It is part of the ongoing renewable energy transition. Current efforts in fossil fuel phase-out involve replacing fossil fuels with sustainable energy sources in sectors such as transport, and heating. Alternatives to fossil fuels include electrification, green hydrogen and biofuel. Phase-out policies include both demand-side and supply-side constraints, whereas demand-side approaches seek to reduce fossil-fuel consumption, supply-side initiatives seek to constraint production to accelerate the pace of energy transition and reduction in emissions.
Energy in Germany is sourced predominantly by fossil fuels, followed by wind, nuclear power, solar, biomass and hydro.
Enel Green Power S.p.A. is an Italian multinational renewable energy corporation, headquartered in Rome. The company was formed as a subsidiary of the power generation firm Enel in December 2008. It is present with assets in operation or under construction in 21 countries and carries out development activities in a further 5 countries on five continents generating energy from hydropower, wind, solar and geothermal sources. As of 2021, it manages a capacity of 54,2 GW and has over 1200 plants worldwide. From 4 November 2010 to 31 March 2016, the company was listed on the FTSE MIB index of the Milan Stock Exchange, as well as on the Madrid Stock Exchange and the Barcelona, Bilbao, and Valencia regional Stock Exchanges.
ITM Power plc is an energy storage and clean fuel company founded in the UK in 2001. It designs, manufactures, and integrates electrolysers based on proton exchange membrane (PEM) technology to produce green hydrogen using renewable electricity and tap water. Hydrogen produced via electrolysis is used for mobility, Power-to-X, and industry.
The energy transition is the ongoing process of replacing fossil fuels with low carbon energy sources. More generally, an energy transition is a significant structural change in an energy system regarding supply and consumption.
Although sun and wind could supply plenty of energy in Turkey, hydropower is the only renewable energy which is fully exploited, averaging about a fifth of national electricity supply. However in drought years much less electricity is generated by hydro. Over half of capacity is renewables, and it is estimated that over half of generation could be from renewables by 2026 but Turkey has invested less in solar and wind power than similar Mediterranean countries. Turkey lacks a renewable energy plan beyond 2023 which includes transport, industry, heating and cooling as well as electricity generation. More renewable energy could be used to reduce the nation's greenhouse gas emissions and thus avoid paying other countries' carbon tariffs. The country is a net exporter of wind power equipment, but a net importer of solar power equipment. Total non-hydro renewables overtook hydro in 2021.
Marco Alverà is an Italian businessman and CEO of TES-H2 since June 2022.
In Ukraine, the share of renewables within the total energy mix is less than 5%. In 2020 10% of electricity was generated from renewables; made up of 5% hydro, 4% wind, and 1% solar. Biomass provides renewable heat.
Octopus Energy Group is a British renewable energy group specialising in sustainable energy. It was founded in 2015 with the backing of British fund management company Octopus Group, a British asset management company. Headquartered in London, the company has operations in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the United States. As of September 2021 the company has over three million domestic and business customers, making it the fourth largest energy supplier in the UK.
Green hydrogen is hydrogen generated by renewable energy or from low-carbon power. Green hydrogen has significantly lower carbon emissions than grey hydrogen, which is produced by steam reforming of natural gas, which makes up the bulk of the hydrogen market. Green hydrogen produced by the electrolysis of water is less than 0.1% of total hydrogen production. It may be used to decarbonize sectors which are hard to electrify, such as steel and cement production, and thus help to limit climate change.
