Technical Requirements

This sub-module provides brief technical summaries, cost estimates, resource requirements, siting and environmental issues, technical standards, equipment specifications and other requirements for small hydropower, wind farms, biomass power plants, geothermal power plants, and gird-connected solar.  

The World Bank conducted an economic comparison of 22 power generating technologies. The objective was to characterize the technical and economic viability of electricity generation technologies (both renewable and conventional) to serve rural, peri-urban and urban populations in developing countries. This work provides a capital cost comparisons and an electricity cost comparison for renewable energy and conventional energy technologies.

Hydropower
Wind
Biomass
Geothermal
Solar

 

Hydropower

Hydropower is currently the most used modern form of renewable energy and is derived from natural waterfalls, dams, tidal basins, ocean waves, rivers & streams.  Hydropower from large dams and tidal basins can have significant environmental and social impacts because it often floods large tracts of arable land, displace many people and wildlife, and drastically changes the local ecosystem.  Small hydropower projects, especially the run-of-river type) avoid these problems and can serve rural energy needs.  more

Wind

Winds are thermally induced air currents, and good wind resources exist on land and off-shore.   Wind power is generated in large modern wind turbines, and it is currently the fastest growing renewable energy technology worldwide.  Annual installations of wind turbines have grown from 200 MW in 1990 to about 8,000 MW in 2003 for an annual average growth of about 25%.   The global annual market is greater than $9 billion with a cumulative installed capacity of over 40,000 MW worldwide. more

Biomass

Biomass is the most common form or renewable energy, but most of it is used in traditional ways, which are polluting and often not sustainable.   Many under-used biomass resources are waste products, such as agricultural residues, human & animal manure, garbage, and food processing and other industrial waste.  Modern biomass technologies convert biomass into modern energy carriers, such as electricity, liquid fuels for transportation and gaseous fuels for cooking.   more

Geothermal

Geothermal energy is thermal energy from within the Earth that takes the form of hot water and steam.   When brought to the surface, these can be used to produce electricity or applied directly for space heating and industrial processes. more

Solar

Sunlight can be converted by a variety of technologies into heat and electricity.  Grid-connected solar technologies consist of solar thermal concentrating systems and photovoltaic (PV) systems.  Over 350 MW of solar trough power plants were built in the 1980s and are still operating in California.  Over 1100 MW of photovoltaic (PV) modules have been installed worldwide, and annual shipments approached 600 MW in the year 2003. more