Financial Associated Press (Shanghai, editor Xia Junxiong), on Wednesday (March 30), local time, Ember, an independent climate research institute in the UK, released a report saying that in the past decade, the average compound growth rate of global solar and wind energy has been 20%. If this growth rate is maintained until 2030, then the climate goals of the Paris Agreement will be met.
Under the goals set by the Paris Agreement, countries will strive to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Global solar power generation will increase by 23% in 2021, while wind power generation will increase by 14% in the same period. The two renewables generated 1% more electricity than in 2020, and together accounted for 10.3% of global electricity generation last year, according to Ember.
The report notes that the Netherlands, Australia and Vietnam have seen the fastest growth in renewables, shifting about 10 percent of their electricity demand from fossil fuels to wind and solar over the past two years.
Ember said that if these trends can be replicated and continued globally, the power industry will be on course to move towards the 1.5°C target.
Dave Jones, Ember’s global director, said that the main problem with slowing growth right now is restrictions such as licenses, and if governments want to achieve accelerated growth in renewables, they need to address those issues that are slowing growth due to deployment.
However, the report also noted that despite the growth in solar and wind, coal-fired power generation also recorded its fastest growth rate since at least 1985 over the same period, rising 9% to 10,042 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2021, accounting for 59% of total demand growth.
This is a year of rapid demand recovery, Ember said, with global electricity demand growing at its fastest annual rate on record in 2021, rising 5.4% to 1,414 terawatt-hours, equivalent to an increase of the entire demand in India.
