Renewable energies gain market shares. With the anticipated recovery of economic activity, the demand for energy is expected to continue to rise worldwide. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) expects the demand for oil to grow by 1.1 million barrels/day to 85.2 million barrels/day in 2010. It also presumes that the average monthly price for oil (WTI) will rise by nine per cent to 82 (December 2009: 76) US$/barrel by December 2010. Bottlenecks in refinery capacities, reductions in oil production volumes by the OPEC and the scarcity of oil supplies might again trigger strong price volatility.

According to experts, the demand for electricity will grow further in 2010. The EIA expects worldwide electricity consumption to grow by 2.4 per cent to 20.6 billion TWh. According to the EIA, the growth of the electricity market will outperform all other energy sectors in future. Renewable energies will increasingly be used in power production in the next few years (growth rates p.a.: 2.9 per cent), growing more strongly than other energy sources (gas: 2.7 per cent, coal: 2.5 per cent; nuclear power: 1.5 per cent). Renewable energies will thus gain additional market shares in the international energy mix.