renewables
Renewable Futures The emerging offshore wind market and what it means for diving contractors BY JOEL SHAPIRO, RENEWABLE ENERGY BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER, NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS
ENERGY HAS FAST BECOME ONE of the most important issues facing our society. Rapid growth in global energy consumption, peak oil and gas supplies, and strong concerns about energy independence and climate change - have all fueled a rapid increase in both the technology innovation and industry adoption of renewable energy. Renewable energy uses energy sources that are continually replenished by nature, such as the sun, wind, water, the Earth’s heat and plants. Renewable energy technologies turn these natural fuels into usable forms of energy, most often as electricity, but also as heat and mechanical power. While renewable energy won’t be the only answer to many of the issues previously mentioned, it will certainly play an integral role in addressing a significant portion of them, and it is widely accepted that clean energy will be one of the largest and most important industries of the 21st century. In terms of size, it’s well on its way already. In 2008 global investment in renewable energy reached $120 billion, a 4X increase from 2004. In 2008 alone, wind energy grew by 29%, grid-tied solar grew by 70%, and largescale utility PV power plants tripled. Perhaps one of the most significant milestones of 2008 was that both the United States and European Union added more power capacity from renewable energy than from gas, coal, oil and nuclear combined.[1] This rapid growth is here to stay. At the beginning of 2009, 64 countries across the world had implemented renewable energy policies, which mandate a percentage of total energy to come from renewable sources by varying dates. With close to 1 billion people in China and India alone that are positioned to join the middle class (and all of the energy usage that goes along with that), it’s clear that renewable energy will fast become the backbone of the global economy, providing a massive amount of job opportunities along the way.
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UnderWater
JULY/AUGUST 2010
