Green energy sources are "poised for a global takeoff," according to a private report from Washington just ahead of the International Conference for Renewable Energies in Bonn.
The Worldwatch Institute, an environmentalist lobby group, noted that global capacity to produce energy from wind has grown from a few thousand megawatts in 1990 to more than 40,000 megawatts last year, enough to power 19 million developed-country households.
Sales of wind power are worth more than US$9 billion a year, and the wind power generation industry employs over 100,000 people around the world.
Solar energy production has climbed from a few hundred megawatts worldwide in 1990 to more than 3,000 megawatts last year, according to Worldwatch in its report titled Mainstreaming Renewable Energy in the 21st Century.
"Global markets for renewables are only just beginning a dramatic expansion, starting from relatively low levels," it said.
The Worldwatch report labelled Germany and Japan as "success stories" in the application of so-called green energy sources.
"Since the early 1990s, Germany and Japan have achieved dramatic successes with renewable energy and today lead the world in use of wind and solar power, respectively," the text said.
"Germany, Japan and other countries are proving that change is indeed possible and that it can happen rapidly," the report said.
Both countries share "long-term commitments to advancing renewable energy, effective and consistent policies, the use of gradually declining subsidies and an emphasis not only on government [research and development] but also on market penetration."
Germany, Denmark and Spain together have 59 per cent of the world's wind energy capacity. Pricing laws to guarantee renewable energy producers a market with minimum prices have been key in those countries.
Most of the last decade's combined growth in wind and solar energy has been concentrated in just six countries, Worldwatch said.
"Unlike the markets for oil or coal, the dominant roles of Denmark, Germany, India, Japan, Spain and the United States in renewables do not reflect a fortunate accident of geography and resource availability," the study found.
Those countries have pushed policies to encourage both production and demand.
"Public research and development investments are also important, but it is only by creating markets that the technological development, learning and economies of scale in production can develop to further advance renewables and reduce their costs," Worldwatch said.
In some countries, inconsistent policies have undermined development of renewable energy. The problem has arisen in countries as diverse as India, Denmark and the US.
Despite enthusiasm for renewables in many US localities, a patchwork of regulations and incentives exists across the 50 states.
Tax credits and similar measures have become moving targets with the shifting sands of politics and budgets. Worldwatch called it an "on-and-off approach to renewables" that has limited the growth of US wind and solar industries.
"Every country has a different situation, so there's no `one size fits-all,'" said Janet Sawin, author of the Worldwatch report.
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