Renewable power is growing robustly around the world this year, contrasting with the sharp declines triggered by the Covid-19 crisis in many other parts of the energy sector such as oil, gas and coal.
Driven by China and the United States, new additions of renewable power capacity worldwide will increase to a record level of almost 200 gigawatts this year. This rise representing almost 90 percent of the total expansion in overall power capacity globally .
According to International Energy Agency (IEA) in its latest report the improvement in the renewables is led by wind, hydropower and solar PV. Wind and solar additions are set to jump by 30 percent in both the United States and China as developers rush to take advantage of expiring incentives.
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“Renewable power is defying the difficulties caused by the pandemic, showing robust growth while others fuels struggle,” said Fatih Birol, the IEA Executive Director. “The resilience and positive prospects of the sector are clearly reflected by continued strong appetite from investors – and the future looks even brighter with new capacity additions on course to set fresh records this year and next.”
The electricity generated by renewable technologies will increase by 7 percent globally in 2020, underpinned by the record new capacity additions. Looking further ahead, India is expected to be the largest contributor to the renewables upswing in 2021, with the country’s annual additions almost doubling from 2020.
A large number of auctioned wind and solar PV projects are expected to become operational following delays due not only to Covid-19 but also to contract negotiations and land acquisition challenges. In the European Union, capacity additions are forecast to jump in 2021. This is mainly the result of previously auctioned utility-scale solar PV and wind projects in France and Germany coming online.
“In 2025, renewables are set to become the largest source of electricity generation worldwide, ending coal’s five decades as the top power provider,” said Dr Birol.
He said by that time, renewables are expected to supply one-third of the world’s electricity – and their total capacity will be twice the size of the entire power capacity of China today.”
However, renewables outside the electricity sector are suffering from the impacts of the Covid crisis. Biofuels used in transport are set to experience their first annual decline in two decades, driven by the wider plunge in transport fuel demand this year as well as lower fossil fuel prices reducing the economic attractiveness of biofuels.
Demand for bioenergy in industry is also falling as a result of the wider drop in economic activity. The net result of these declines and the growth of renewable power is an expected overall increase of 1 percent in global renewable energy demand in 2020.
