Renewables around the world

Almost every single country in the Middle East has announced some kind of plan that involves investment in civil projects and are seeking experts such as Commercial Managers, Quantity Surveyors, Project Managers and Cost Engineers to help run these ground breaking projects. The prediction for the future is an extraordinary potential growth of the civil industry and with many of these ambitious projects underway, the region will start to see a dramatic transformation in its economic performance and quality of life.

Europe has invested heavily in solar power in the past decade. Data below show that over the period 1996-2007, the amount of energy generated using the sun's rays has quadrupled within the European Union.

The U.S. (481MW) ranked fourth in new solar electric capacity in 2009, behind Germany (3,800MW), Italy (700MW), and Japan (484MW). The U.S. (2,108MW) also ranked in fourth place in cumulative solar electric capacity behind Germany (8,877MW), Spain (3,595MW), and Japan (2,628MW). The U.S. ranked in tenth place in new solar electric capacity per capita (1.6 W per capita) and ninth place in cumulative solar electric capacity per capita (6.9 W per capita).

Subsidies for fossil fuels are small. Taxes on environmental externalities are difficult to quantify and economically painful. The best way to level the playing field and reduce the need for renewable incentives would be getting rid of monopolies, including deregulation reform and the use of feed-in tariffs instead of rigged bidding.