Renewable energies are sources of clean, inexhaustible and increasingly competitive energy. They differ from fossil fuels principally in their diversity, abundance and potential for use anywhere on the planet, but above all in that they produce neither greenhouse gases – which cause climate change – nor polluting emissions. Their costs are also falling and at a sustainable rate, whereas the general cost trend for fossil fuels is in the opposite direction in spite of their present volatility.

Growth in clean energies is unstoppable, as reflected in statistics produced annually by the International Energy Agency (IEA): according to IEA forecasts, the share of renewables in global electricity supply will increase from 28.7% in 2021 to 43% in 2030, and they will provide 2/3 of the increase in electricity demand recorded in that period, mainly through wind and photovoltaic technologies.

According to the IEA, world electricity demand will have increased by 70% by 2040 - its share of final energy use rising from 18 to 24% during the same period – driven mainly by the emerging economies of India, China, Africa, the Middle East and South-East Asia.

Clean energy development is vital for combating climate change and limiting its most devastating effects.2023 was the sixth warmest year since records have been kept and the nineth consecutive year in which global temperatures have increased by at least 1 degree Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels.

Meanwhile, some 1.1 billion inhabitants (17% of the world population) do not have access to electricity. Equally, 2.7 billion people (38% of the population) use conventional biomass for cooking, heating and lighting in their homes - at serious risk to their health. 

Renewable energies received important backing from the international community through the Paris Accord signed at the World Climate Summit held in the French capital in December 2015.

The agreement, which entered into force in 2016, establishes, for the first time in history, a binding global objective. Nearly 200 signatory countries pledged to reduce their emissions so that the average temperature of the planet at the end of the current century remains “well below” 2 °C, the limit above which climate change will have more catastrophic effects. The aim is to try to keep it to 1.5 °C.

Renewable energies include:

• Wind energy: the energy obtained from the wind.
• Solar energy: the energy obtained from the sun. The main technologies here are solar photovoltaic (using the light from the sun) and solar thermal (using the sun’s heat).
• Hydraulic or hydroelectric energy: energy obtained from rivers and other freshwater currents.
• Biomass and biogas: energy extracted from organic material.
• Geothermal energy: heat energy from inside the Earth.
• Tidal energy: energy obtained from the tides.
• Wave energy: energy obtained from ocean waves.
• Bioethanol: organic fuel suitable for vehicles and obtained from fermentation of vegetation.
• Biodiesel: organic fuel for vehicles, among other applications, obtained from vegetable oils.