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Renewable Energy

Insight into Renewable Energy Futures

 

Dr Kandeh K. Yumkella - Chairman of UN-Energy and former Director-General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).

“There is no doubt that, if properly exploited, renewable energy resources in Africa can make a significant contribution to the continent’s energy supply. In particular, the potential of biofuels on the continent is huge."
 

Wangari Maathari - was a Kenyan environmental and political activist and the winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize.

“We owe it to ourselves and to the next generation to conserve the environment so that we can bequeath our children a sustainable world that benefits all."
 

Ban Ki-moon - The eighth and current Secretary-General of the United Nations

“Providing sustainable energy for all could be the biggest opportunity of the 21st century. Sustainable energy is the golden thread that connects economic growth, social equity, and a climate and environment that enables the world to thrive."
 

Prof M. M. Elmissiry - Head of Energy Programme New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD)

“Nothing is more effective in the development of a renewable energy policy than learning from those countries that went through the same exercise, and to access their lessons learned and experiences gained."

"Renewable energy is freeing national economies from the burden of petroleum purchases, creating new economic opportunities at all scales, and preserving the environment. In Africa, we are presented with the opportunity to not simply imitate the global North but to tread a higher path, one that leapfrogs the dirty development followed by so many. Renewable technology allows us to instead build a resilient, sustainable future that meets the needs of this generation and the next."
 

Brian Dames - Previous Chief Executive of Eskom Holdings

“It is a lot less carbon intensive than fossil fuels, and some of the cleanest fossil fuel. Gas infrastructure is also cost-effective and quick to construct, and so we see gas, both natural and unconventional gas, as a potential game-changer for South Africa and for the region, in terms of providing a cleaner energy mix going forward."

"If looking at a more sustainable future, the investment in energy efficiency is much cheaper and more immediate than investment in new power generation."
 

Cornelis van der Waal - Business Unit Leader for Energy & Power Africa at Frost & Sullivan

“The African energy story, or electricity story, is very much a South Africa and North Africa story. The bits in between, unfortunately, are falling behind in terms of investment, both overall and in renewable energy in particular."

"Renewables are not necessarily the answer for Africa in the next 20 years. The reality is that something like 58 percent of Africa’s population still do not have access to electricity. I think that although renewables, in terms of sustainability and long-term thinking, are definitely the way that we need to go, the first priority is to get those people in rural communities some access."
 

Ansgar Kiene - Director, World Future Council Africa Office, heading the WFC Climate and Energy Africa Programme

“In finding a sustainable, affordable and reliable energy solution to meet its needs, Africa has the opportunity to leapfrog the dirty development pathways of industrialised countries."
 

David Suzuki - CC OBC is a Canadian academic, science broadcaster and environmental activist.

"Some solutions are relatively simple and would provide economic benefits: implementing measures to conserve energy, putting a price on carbon through taxes and cap-and-trade and shifting from fossil fuels to clean and renewable energy sources."

"Just as fossil fuels from conventional sources are finite and are becoming depleted, those from difficult sources will also run out. If we put all our energy and resources into continued fossil fuel extraction, we will have lost an opportunity to have invested in renewable energy."
 

Eric Martinot - Senior research director with the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies in Tokyo, Japan, specialising in renewable energy commercialization.

"Renewable energy can be used on its own or as a supplementary power source in developing countries... It can provide clean energy that protects the local environment and reduces greenhouse gas emissions [while reducing] dependence on foreign sources of energy."
 

Marc Fèvre - Partner, Baker & McKenzie LLP, London

“South Africa and Morocco are the only two major renewable energy IPP procurement programmes in Africa. But that is not the end of African renewable energy by any means. In East Africa, Kenya and Uganda both have feed-in tariff regimes. There is a lot of interest in geothermal power in the Rift Valley region, while Kenya's Lake Turkana and Kinangop wind farms are both significant projects. In West Africa, Senegal, for example, has implemented legislation and a programme to develop renewable energy. Further South, we are working on the first wind farm in Namibia, but it won’t be the last. There is of course continuing development of hydropower resources across Africa and significant private sector interest in off-grid projects. There is an increasing amount of activity. Developments take time and do face setbacks, but this is just the start. Africa needs power and renewables makes sense across most of the continent. "
 

Scott Brodsky - Energy and projects lawyer and Partner at Baker & McKenzie Johannesburg

“It is an exciting time for renewables in Africa. Renewable energy programmes such as South Africa's will bring much needed power to keep the lights on and drive growth in an energy intensive economy that needs power for key industries such as mining, smelting and pulp and paper."
 

Michael Liebreich - Chairman of the Advisory Board at Bloomberg New Energy Finance

“The perception that fossil fuels are cheap and renewables are expensive is now out of date. The fact that wind power is now cheaper than coal and gas in a country with some of the world’s best fossil fuel resources shows that clean energy is a game changer which promises to turn the economics of power systems on its head."

Jay Inslee - 23rd Governor of Washington, United States

“Renewable energy also creates more jobs than other sources of energy - most of these will be created in the struggling manufacturing sector, which will pioneer the new energy future by investment that allows manufacturers to retool and adopt new technologies and methods."
 

Jeff Goodell - American author and contributing editor to Rolling Stone magazine.

“In reality, studies show that investments to spur renewable energy and boost energy efficiency generate far more jobs than oil and coal."
 

Daniel Yergin - IHS Vice Chairman, is a Pulitzer-Prize winning author and leading authority on energy.

“A “transition” is not an abrupt change from one “reality” to another but rather a shift that unfolds generationally over considerable time, and one that may lead to greater diversity in the energy marketplace."
 

Sheik Ahmed Yamani - Saudi Arabian politician who was Minister of Oil (Petroleum) and Mineral Resources from 1962 to 1986, and a minister in OPEC for 25 years.

“The Stone Age did not end because of lack of stones, and the Oil Age will end soon and not because of lack of oil."
 

Paul Torcellini - Senior engineer at the DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado.

“People sometimes get caught up in cost-effectiveness. But it can be a question of values and what we spend our money on."
 

Bill Clinton - Founder, Clinton Foundation and 42nd President of the United States

“If I were you, I would stop trying to make Saudi Arabia the oil capital of the world and make Saudi Arabia the energy capital of the world. You should take your cash right now and go out and buy half the solar capacity in the whole world and you should start at the equator. All the way around the equator and go north and south until you put solar power everywhere the weather will tolerate it. You will save the planet and get richer."
 

Samuel Bodman - was a United States Secretary of Energy and was previously Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Treasury Department.

“If we look two or three or four decades into the future, we know that hydrocarbons alone will not meet the needs of a growing world economy. Even with all the technical expertise the world could offer and all the political will it could muster, eventually, we will run out of oil. And, even before then, the price of a dwindling supply will be prohibitive. At present, our world is overly focused on, and overly dependent upon, one source of energy. . . and that path is unsustainable."
 

 

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