How does the road ahead look for renewable energy around the world?

Any responsible business operating in 2016, needs to keep an eye on their environmental impact, and the industry as a whole is making steps towards more responsible operating processes and better energy sources.

One area that we are very excited by is renewable energy, and a new report has found that 2015 was a record year for investment. The Renewables 2016 Global Status Report describes 2015 as “an extraordinary [year] for renewable energy, with the largest global capacity additions to date…” In fact, an estimated 147GW of renewable power capacity was added throughout the year – the largest annual increase ever. This is due to countries making renewable energy more of a priority, with better funding, dedicated policy and the lowering cost of renewable technologies.

2015 was also a landmark year for global agreements that will help to secure a continued growth in renewable energy going forward. Both the G7 and G20 agreed to “accelerate access to renewable energy and to advance energy efficiency”, and at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) in Paris, 195 countries agreed to limit global warming.

It is not just the world’s richer economies that have shown improved commitment to renewable energy either. The last year saw huge growth in developing markets as well. The Global Status Report listed the top five countries for investment in renewable power and fuels per unit GDP as Mauritania, Honduras, Uruguay, Morocco and Jamaica.

The fact that these emerging economies have put so much investment into the renewables market despite the continually lowering prices of fossil fuels, shows how much the cost of renewable technologies has dropped in recent years.

Here in the UK, we continued the trend of improvement and growth, weighing in as the country with the fourth largest investment in renewable power and fuels. That is certainly something to be proud of.

Looking to the future, we are confident that this trend will continue to rise upwards and renewable energy will take a higher percentage of energy production and consumption. This is good news for business and the environment, but also for employment too – there are thought to be over 8 million jobs within the sector to date, which will continue to rise. It’s important that the younger generation are inspired and informed on the importance of alternative energy sources, such as solar, wind and hydro.

For our part, Corrotherm is committed to being environmentally conscious in its operations. We recently switched to Exova accreditations in three key areas, one of which was the ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems, proving our commitment to continual improvement. We also have our ownSustrans sustainable transport policy in place. You can always see the latest updates and news from Corrotherm on our Blog.