Friday, August 08, 2014

Basking in the sun: emissions-free heat production


Much fossil fuel is burnt to produce heat, but renewable options abound, from wood pellets to geothermal. Solar hot water is already a winner.

More than 40% of the world’s primary energy supply of natural gas, and 20% of both coal and oil supplies, go to producing heat. Using renewable energy sources would cut CO2 emissions and increase energy security, especially for countries heavily reliant on fossil-fuel imports.

Renewable sources already play a large role, at almost one-quarter of global energy use for heat. But most of this is in the form of traditional, inefficient use of biomass in developing countries to heat and cook, leading to deforestation and indoor smoke pollution. Modern biomass, such as wood pellets, plus solar thermal and geothermal heat, accounted for only 3% of the total global energy use for heat in 2011, though use grew dynamically in the last decade.

See full Press Release: http://www.iea.org/ieaenergy/issue6/basking-in-the-sun-emissions-free-heat-production.html