The Global Potential of Renewable Energy Sources

Despite the considerable progress made in solar energy research and development over the past 20 years, an integrated approach to the energy economy barely exists. Not counting traditional renewable energy resources like biomass and hydropower, the "new" solar technologies account for only 0.1 percent of current global energy consumption. These 2,000 MW from wind energy, 350 MW from solar thermal power plants, 80 MW from photovoltaic systems and about 200 km² of collectors, as well as the perhaps 30,000 modern straw- and wood-fuelled heating plants and biogas installations, represent only the first light of the dawn of a future solar energy economy.