“We live in interesting times: the transition from a reliance on high-carbon energy sources to low-and-zero-emission technologies. The trend, we believe, is incontrovertible.” – clean edge

©Aleksander RodicClean Edge, an American clean-tech research and consulting firm, has launched their latest ‘Clean Energy Trends 2008’ report in which they identify five key trends affecting clean-energy markets and a forecast of markets for four clean-energy technologies.

This is a positive report that shows that 2007 was a “banner year for clean energy, with no signs of a slowdown in 2008”.

Despite a challenging economic outlook – plummeting housing prices, record-high oil prices, sinking consumer confidence, looming recession (sound familiar?) – solar, wind, biofuels, geothermal, energy intelligence, hybrid – and all-electric vehicles, advanced batteries, green buildings and other clean-energy related technologies and markets are at an all time high.

The five trends the report covers are:

Start-ups power the electric car – while the global car companies go through years-long retooling to create alt-fuel vehicles, smaller firms are beating the big guys to market

Sustainable cities sprout from the ground up – a vision of future cities is beginning to emergy, creating intriguing new opportunities; the emergence of new, fossil-fuel, carbon-neutral cities – in the middle East of all places – see our article - fix the cities, fix the problem http://www.urbansprout.co.za/fix_the_cities_fix_the_problem where the Masdar Initiative in Abu Dhabi is highlighted in the comments.

Overseas players power US wind market boom – spurred by renewable portfolio standard mandates, growing investor and public awareness, and the weakness of the dollar, the US is among the fastest-growing markets for wind power

Geothermal resurfaces as a growth sector – it is experiencing a global renaissance, particularly as large, utility-scale projects

Oceangoing shipping takes a cleaner tack – the trillion-dollar shipping industry accounts for 4.5 percent of global CO2 emissions, double the latest estimates for aviation

According to their research:

Biofuels (global production and wholesale pricing of ethanol and biodiesel) reached $25.4 billion in 2007 and are projected to grow to $81.1 billion by 2017. In 2007 the global biofuels market consisted of more than 13 billion gallons of ethanol and 2 billion gallons of biodiesel production worldwide.

Wind power (new installation capital costs) is projected to expand from $30.1 billion in 2007 to $83.4 billion in 2017. Last year's global wind power installations reached a record 20,000 MW, equivalent to 20 large-size 1 GW conventional power plants.

Solar photovoltaics (including modules, system components, and installation) will grow from a $20.3 billion industry in 2007 to $74 billion by 2017. Annual installations were just shy of 3 GW worldwide, up nearly 500 percent from just four years earlier.

The fuel cell and distributed hydrogen market will grow from a $1.5 billion industry (primarily for research contracts and demonstration and test units) to $16 billion over the next decade.

The report also questions whether coal and nuclear are on the decline, based on Europe’s experience over the last decade, which indicates that coal and nuclear are beginning to contract rather than expand.

It looks at potential pitfalls and potholes that include the rising impact of biofuel production on food supplies, uncertain US policies around production tax credits for renewables and carbon regulations and a global economic recession, which could curtain spending across a range of industries.

Download the full report here

Via [joelmakower]