Mandatory Renewable Energy Target - Overview

Overview

Renewable energy technologies are essential contributors to the energy supply portfolio, as they contribute to world energy security, reduce dependency on fossil fuels, and provide opportunities for mitigating greenhouse gases. The International Energy Agency has defined three generations of renewable energy technologies, reaching back over 100 years:

• First-generation technologies emerged from the industrial revolution at the end of the 19th century and include hydropower, biomass combustion, geothermal power and heat. These technologies are quite widely used.

• Second-generation technologies include solar heating and cooling, wind power, modern forms of bioenergy, and solar photovoltaics. These are now entering markets as a result of research, development and demonstration (RD&D) investments since the 1980s. Initial investment was prompted by energy security concerns linked to the oil crises (1973 and 1979) of the 1970s but the enduring appeal of these technologies is due, at least in part, to environmental benefits.

• Third-generation technologies are still under development and include advanced biomass gasification, biorefinery technologies, concentrating solar thermal power, hot-dry-rock geothermal power, and ocean energy.

First-generation technologies are well established. However, second-generation technologies and third-generation technologies depend on further promotion by the public sector. The introduction of mandatory renewable energy targets is one important way in which governments can encourage the wider use of renewables.

Renewable energy targets exist in at least 66 countries around the world, including the 27 European Union countries, 29 U.S. states, and 9 Canadian provinces. Most targets are for shares of electricity production, primary energy, and/or final energy for a future year. Most targets aim for the 2010–2012 timeframe, although an increasing number of targets aim for 2020, and there is now an EU-wide target of 20% of final energy by 2020, and a Chinese target of 15% of primary energy by 2020.