Agency for renewable energy

The first multinational agency focused solely on popularizing and adoption of clean energy across the globe was launched this week. Called the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the agency will help governments and private industry to expand renewable energy installments throughout the industrialized world, where investments are already on the rise, while also assist the developing world acquire the expertise to establish its own clean energy industries.

Naturally, this will be a big help for developing nations, especially in terms of technological know-how transfer. It will be interesting to see what mechanism IRENA evolves.

More than 120 delegates attended the IRENA founding conference in Bonn on Monday, and 75 nations signed the agency's treaty. Originally the initiative of Germany, Spain, and Denmark, IRENA now includes countries such as France, India, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Kenya. The founding treaty becomes effective once it is ratified by 25 countries.

Although the global credit crunch has slowed many renewable energy investments, wind, solar, and geothermal industries expanded worldwide last year. About 12,000 megawatts of wind power capacity were installed in 2008 alone, bringing the global total to 106,100 megawatts, according to the World Wind Energy Association. In addition, 9,740 megawatts of cumulative solar photovoltaic (PV) systems and at least 6,000 megawatts of geothermal energy projects have been installed, according to the Worldwatch Institute and U.N. Environment Programme, respectively.

Do we need such agencies? Are these mere clean energy jingoisms? Or will they be able to give wings to a renewable sector witnessing slump in the recession? What do you think? We would love to hear.