The Emerging Electrical Markets for Copper


Energy Infrastructure Market Summary



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Energy Infrastructure




    1. Market Summary

In Section 1 we identified the fact that re-forming our energy infrastructure is a central trend in society’s development. This affects both the way we generate energy and the amount and form in which we use it. By this means we hope to both greatly reduce greenhouse emissions and conserve finite energy resources.


In this Section, we look primarily at the new markets for copper created by changes in the way we generate energy. The focus is first of all on the use of renewable sources of electricity generation, primarily wind and solar PV, but also at others such as solar concentration and marine. While both wind and solar PV may be considered to have reached the status of established markets, some of the submarkets within these sectors are currently small and set to become much larger, so fall under our definition of emerging markets.
While looking mainly at electricity generation, we also consider the implications of the increased capture of heat from renewable sources, primarily the sun. Additionally, we look at desalination, a major user of electricity and a market driven by another of society’s mega-trends – the need to provide water for a growing and increasingly urbanised population. In particular, we look at renewable energy sourcing in desalination.
The new electricity sources are different in nature from the past, in that they are often relatively small scale, intermittent in their supply of electricity, and often at a distance from the main areas of use. This has implications for both the electricity network and energy storage. Both of these markets are additionally affected by developments in the pattern of electricity consumption, in particular the Smart Grid. We assess the impact on copper of these trends in this Section.
While renewable sources will provide most of the growth in electricity generation, fossil fuel-based power plants will still dominate electricity supply. There is a strong incentive to make these plants cleaner, carbon capture and storage (CCS) being the means to do this. We therefore look at CCS, both in power plants and as used by large industry, in this section of the Report.

    1. Renewable Energy in Context

Renewable energy sources are set to show a very large proportion of the growth in electricity generating capacity over the next decade, to the point where they provide quite a large portion of our total electricity needs. Also, renewable sources of heat will provide an important additional source of energy. Although these facts are well understood, it is worth underlining the scale of this development, by looking at the figures.


Firstly, total electricity generating capacity is growing quite slowly, at an average rate of 2.4% p.a. between 2010 and 2020. The rate of growth is slowing, the annual addition of capacity falling from over 150 GW today to less than 100 GW. Most of the growth is in China and other emerging markets.
Looking at the share of renewable in total electricity generating capacity, in 2010 it is quite small, at 7.6% (excluding large hydroelectric schemes). While this share is set to expand rapidly, to 20.2% in 2020, other generation, based mainly on fossil fuels, will still dominate electricity capacity. The share of renewable in electricity production will be smaller, as intermittent output from most renewable sources means that output is lower in relation to capacity than for traditional generating stations.

Figure 44: Growth in Total Electricity Generating Capacity (GW ‘000)



Figure 45: Renewable Energy Electricity Generating Capacity (GW ‘000)



Figure 46: Growth in the Share of Renewables in Electricity Generating Capacity (GW ‘000)



Rapid growth in the installation of new capacity lies behind the rise in share of renewable in total electricity generating capacity. Indeed, most installation of new capacity is of renewable, with very little new installation of fossil fuel-based plants. Over the next decade, we expect to see the role of non renewable technologies in total capacity installation fall much further, to the point where the rate of new installation is exceeded by that in plant retirement.


The renewable market itself is divided into a number of different energy sources. The ones with the highest copper content and most rapid growth are wind energy and solar photovoltaic. These account for a total of 45% and 8% respectively of installed renewable generating capacity in 2010. These are set to increase to 55% for wind energy, and 12% for solar photovoltaic energy by 2020.
Other major contributors to renewable sourced energy include hydroelectricity and biomass sources. Large hydro power schemes are a well established technology and large in scale. We are not considering then here as one of the new renewable sources. There are also quite a large number of small hydro schemes at the individual premise, factory or community scale. These accounted for 27% of renewable energy in 2010. Biomass, based mainly on plant and animal-based material is also quite large, with a 16% share. Both small hydro and biomass are set to grow more slowly than wind power and solar photovoltaic electricity.
Other than the main types, there geothermal, solar concentrating and marine generation form part of the picture. In time, marine generation could prove to be a major source of electricity, but is likely to remain quite small for the rest of this decade.
To complete the energy from renewables picture, water heating is also important. Solar water heating from renewable sources alone is equivalent to about one half of the renewable electricity capacity. Around two thirds of the solar water heating capacity is in China. Other heat generation from renewable is found in from geothermal and other sources. It is a well established technology to combine heat generation with electricity in fossil fuel based Combined Heat and Power (CHP) schemes. CHP also features in the renewable market.
In terms of geographical distribution, Europe has a pivotal role in the renewables electricity generation business. In 2010, it has 37% of global capacity, and is particularly important in wind power and solar photovoltaics. Although Europe’s rate of growth in installed capacity will fall behind that in other world regions, it will remain a major contributor to the global renewable energy electricity business.



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