Marie Glueck – Germany, Luca Palma – Italy, Patricia Perez – Brazil

Germany

In 2010 Germany obtains 17 % of its gross electricity consumption out of renewable energy resources.

Even though the total demand for energy raised in 2010 after the economic crisis, it was possible to expand the supply of renewable energy and its growing share remained unbroken. The growth of the provision of wind energy in 2010 was lower than the year before and even the output decreased due to weak weather conditions. Biomass continued with the upward trend and generated 26.9 TWh of electricity. In photovoltaic Germany was once again the country with the highest installation of new capacity and its share of the gross electricity consumption was 2 %. Germany has a law, that states that private households will receive a certain amount of money, if they produce energy with renewable sources and feed it into the power grid. This created a boom when buying solar panels between the private households. There are plans to increase the share of renewable energy at least up to 35 % of the total electricity consumption in 2020. Within the following decades Germany wants to increase the share of renewable energy respectively by 15 %.

Italy

Is the 3rd country in EU for Wind power capacity production (2010), the 3rd in EU for Photovoltaic (2005), the 4th for Solar (2009) and the 8th for Biofuels consumption. In 2010 Italy saw a growth of 124% investment in clean energy, recording one of the highest increase among the G-20 countries, about 62% of investments in renewable energy was allocated to photovoltaic. Many European and American multinationals are investing in Italy in the production of medium to large plants for the exploitation of solar energy, reflecting the strong attractiveness of this sector, thanks to the conformation of the Italian territory, it looks booming. By December 2011, the solar should increase to nearly 9 TWh (from 0.7 in 2009), exceeding by far the wind which now produces 8.4 TWh, which is not expected to grow much, saw cutting incentives in place and announced the change of regime of public support expected in September 2011. A major turning point, given the historical weight of renewable wind energy on the Italian. Solar power in Italy has overtaken on wind power, not only for installed capacity of plants but also for gross energy. Budget Law 2007 introduced a quota of 250,000 tons of biodiesel with a reduced tax excise, in the measure of 20% of the corresponding excise for diesel fuel. The quota is split among accredited producers; the program is valid until the end of 2014 with quota and excise reduction redefined each year, to avoid overcompensation.

Quota Obligation and Tax Relief: in the same year an obligation to mix biofuel with traditional fuel for consumption was introduced, in the attempt to stimulate the production and use of biofuels. RES-E production is still below 20% of total production and after a decrease before 2007, it has increased from 16% in 2007 to 23.9% in 2009, due to the good year in terms of water resources (2009 data are well above the statistical average). Total generation amounts to about 68.2 TWh in 2009, up from 59 TWh in 2008 (49.4 TWh in 2007) with large hydropower stations covering about 50% of the production. When large hydro is excluded, the largest share of generation is given by biomass/waste and small hydro, each one with nearly 30% of the total. Geothermal is more or less stable at 23% while wind on-shore has reached in 2007 a share of 17% of the RES-E production, showing the highest average annual growth of all technologies. Installed PV in 2011 reached the capacity of 4000 MW and the present growth is expected to lead to some 6000 MW installed by end 2011. It is significant, that while the growth trend for geothermal and biomass is slowly decreasing, wind and especially solar are rising sharply after a period of low growth. Considering the installed power and the number of plants in the period, it appears that the growth rate is negligible for hydropower and geothermal. PV shows a different trend: the introduction of the feed-in tariff in 2005 led to the sharp increase in the number of plants and installed power, a trend that could continue if stable conditions are created in 2011.

Solar power is currently the renewable energy resource with the lowest investment in the country, the total installed photovoltaic power capacity in Brazil is estimated to be between 12 and 15 MWp.

Italy
http://www.terna.it/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=zuvz3fV0FiQ%3d&tabid=649, last accessed 01.11.2011
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_Italy, last accessed 01.11.2011
http://www.reshaping-res-policy.eu/downloads/RE-SHAPING%20Renewable%20Energy%20Policy%20Country%20profiles%202009.pdf, last accessed 03.11.2011

Brazil
Brazil Ministry of Energy, http://www.mme.gov.br/mme/menu/todas_publicacoes.html, last accessed 01.11.2011
Brazil National Energy Plan, www.mme.gov.br/mme/menu/todas_publicacoes.html last accessed 01.11.2011
Production of Wind Power in Brazil, http://g1.globo.com/Noticias/Ciencia/0,,MUL1415078-5603,00-BRASIL+CONCLUI+PRIMEIRO+LEILAO+DE+ENERGIA+EOLICA.html, last accessed 01.11.2011