296 | Business World Magazine |
February 2013
sector ingenuity and investment, along with
government policy, has driven significant
cost reduction, technology improvement
and scale-up of the renewable energy indus-
try. Over the last five years, 35% of all new
power production has come from renewable
energy generation.
At the same time, developments in
natural gas extraction present game-chang-
ing opportunities. Stringent environmental
standards are raising performance require-
ments. The central generation fleet is aging
and the transmission/distribution systems
require expansion and upgrade. The broad-
ening fuel portfolio and need for extraordi-
nary capital investments are occurring even
as technological innovations, regional dif-
ferences in resource availability, shifting cus-