News about Solar, Wind and alternative green power technologies

Conventional energy sources like gas and oil will stay indispensable in order to meet the global demand in the anticipated future. However, taking into consideration the limited nature of these resources and their undesirable effect on the environment, there is presently a pressing and mounting need to reflect on the possibilities of how man can boost the efficiency of the energy so as to make much more use of alternative, more specifically, renewable sources of energy.

Germany has been one of the very first countries to have invested in this sector. It is now a world leader in this field, particularly in wind energy. Germany is able to generate around 28 percent of the global wind power; as such it is at present well ahead of the United States, Spain as well as India. Moreover Germany remains at the top in other areas as well, like hydroelectric and geothermal power, energy, automated wood pellet heating systems in addition to producing bioethanol for motor vehicles.

This is not all, Germany is considered as being the world leader when it concerns the development of energy-saving products like gas condensing boilers, fuel-saving engines, new materials for insulating homes and buildings. In order to boost the efficiency of energy modern information technologies, also known as green IT, can be made use of. As based on the Kyoto Protocol, the majority of the industrialized countries need to keep on increasing the share of renewable energies in their primary energy consumption mix. They are committed to increase it up to 5 percent over the subsequent five years. As a result there is a great demand of German technologies and products in this area around the world.

Germany is continuing to heavily invest in the research of renewable energy so as to ensure as well as build on its lead in this field. Furthermore, the Federal Research Ministry has even considerably increased its funding. It supports innovative projects under a novel programme that is known as the Basic Research Energy 2020+”. The fields that are given priority under this programme are:

• Boosting the efficiency in the production, conversion, storage, use and transport of energy
• technologies that will be required for the next generation of renewable energies
• the underground storage of the gas carbon dioxide, a vital greenhouse gas
• fusion technologies
• nuclear safety

The various universities in Germany are also placing much emphasis on alternative energies in addition to how to make efficient use of energy. This can be seen in the programmes of Kassel University’s, “Regenerative Energies and Energy Efficiency”, as well as in that of the Oldenburg University’s “Renewable Energy”. Both of these master’s programmes provide, young people in particular, a presently unique chance to obtain expertise that is much in demand on an international basis.

Source: Germany & Africa