According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) latest market report and forecast, Renewables 2019, which is published today global electricity capacity from renewables is set to grow by 50 per cent over the next five years, an increase equivalent to adding the current total power capacity of the United States.
Solar PV is expected to account for the majority of that growth as costs continue to fall.
IEA says a big part of solar PV’s expansion will come from PV systems installed on homes, commercial buildings and industrial facilities.
These applications of solar PV outside of traditional electricity providers, known collectively as distributed PV, are a main focus of the new report, which looks at how their rapid growth is likely to transform the ways in which electricity is generated and consumed, and examines the implications for policy makers, utilities and consumers.
The share of renewables in global power generation will rise to 30 per cent in 2024, from 26 per cent today.
However, without key actions from governments, global deployment of renewables will remain well short of what is needed to meet the world’s long-term climate, air quality and energy access goals.
IEA said offshore wind currently accounts for just a tiny fraction of global power generation, but its potential growth over the next two decades is huge, according to the upcoming Offshore Wind Outlook 2019 that will be released Friday.
Offshore wind’s rise comes at a time when the world’s need for low-carbon technologies is greater than ever.
To get the best possible picture of offshore wind’s global potential, the IEA initiated a state-of-the-art geospatial analysis of the speed and quality of wind along hundreds of thousands of kilometres of coastline around the world.
The resulting report provides the most comprehensive analysis to date of the global outlook for offshore wind, its contributions to electricity systems and its role in clean energy transitions.
Dr Fatih Birol, the IEA’s Executive Director, will be presenting the findings in Copenhagen, Denmark, the country where offshore wind originated, with the Danish Minister for Climate, Energy and Utilities, Dan Jørgensen.
This special report is an excerpt from the World Energy Outlook 2019, the flagship IEA report that will be launched in Paris on 13 November.
The Outlook provides strategic insight on what today’s policy and investment decisions mean for long-term trends and key issues such as sustainable energy goals and energy security.
Tackling the challenge of climate change and meeting the world’s other sustainable energy goals will require policy makers to make use of a range of low-carbon fuels and technologies, and this includes nuclear power.
Dr Birol also spoke today in Brussels at a high-level trans-Atlantic meeting that aimed to advance a key area of innovation in nuclear energy: small modular reactors.
At the first US-EU High-Level Industrial Forum on Small Modular Reactors, Dr Birol highlighted the technology’s promise due to the enhanced flexibility and scalability of the smaller reactors.
IEA says that’s particularly appealing at a time when some major nuclear plant projects in advanced economies face delays and cost overruns.
Dr Birol also drew attention to the need for additional research and development efforts on small modular reactors to get the technology ready for large-scale commercialisation.
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