Renewables set for spectacular growth in the next 5 years
Global electricity capacity from renewables is set to grow by 50% over the next five years, an increase equivalent to adding the current total power capacity of the United States, according to our latest market report and forecast, Renewables 2019, which is published today.
Solar PV is expected to account for the majority of that growth as costs continue to fall. 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% in 2024, from 26% 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.
Offshore wind’s immense potential
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. More details on the event are available here.
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.
Small may be beautiful for nuclear power
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 will be speaking today in Brussels at a high-level trans-Atlantic meeting that aims 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 will highlight the technology's promise due to the enhanced flexibility and scalability of the smaller reactors. That's particularly appealing at a time when some major nuclear plant projects in advanced economies face delays and cost overruns.
Dr Birol will also draw attention to the need for additional research and development efforts on small modular reactors to get the technology ready for large-scale commercialisation. For more about the important role nuclear power can play in clean energy transitions, you can explore our recent in-depth report on the subject.
Growing engagement in Sub-Saharan Africa
Last week, the IEA held the first training week on energy efficiency in Sub-Saharan Africa in Pretoria, South Africa. The event brought together 150 policy makers from 33 Sub-Saharan countries with the aim of equipping them with knowledge and skills to deliver effective energy efficiency initiatives in their respective countries.
'The IEA is helping us to connect the dots on energy efficiency in Sub-Saharan Africa,' said Ms Mokgadi Modise, Deputy Director General at the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy of South Africa, during her opening remarks. 'We need to take international experience and contextualise it, to make it so simple that the people can understand it.'
This training is the latest example of the IEA’s expanding work on Africa including work on energy access, the Sustainable Development Goals, and this year’s ministerial meeting on development of Africa’s energy sector, held jointly with the African Union.
The IEA is also releasing Africa Energy Outlook 2019 on 8 November, which will examine new opportunities to provide universal access to clean, affordable energy, and how the energy sector can open up perspectives for economic growth across Africa.
Have your say on energy efficiency
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By completing a brief online survey, interested parties have the opportunity to provide valuable input to inform the discussions of the Global Commission as it works to develop its recommendations. Click here to have your say, and feel free to share the survey with anyone you think would be interested in giving their views.
ENERGY SNAPSHOT
Consumers’ preference for bigger and heavier cars has led to a doubling of the share of Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) in the last decade. There are now over 200 million SUVs around the world, up from about 35 million in 2010, accounting for 60% of the increase in the global car fleet since 2010.
As a result of this growth, SUVs were the second-largest contributor to the increase in global CO2 emissions since 2010 – behind the power sector but ahead of heavy industry (including iron & steel, cement, aluminium), as well as trucks and aviation.
Read more about these surprising developments in a recent commentary by Laura Cozzi, IEA Chief Energy Modeler, and Apostolos Petropoulos, Energy Modeler: Growing preference for SUVs challenges emissions reductions in passenger car market.
ACRONYM EXPLAINER: BEV
Encouraged by rising government support, global spending on electric vehicle purchases grew more than 70% in 2018 to $82 billion. $52 billion of this went on battery electric light-duty vehicles (BEVs), and the remainder on plug-in hybrid electric light-duty vehicles (PHEVs).
While this represented little more than 2.5% of the total light duty vehicle market last year, it does mean that $36 billion was added to the global electric vehicle market in just one year. This carries electric vehicles past freight ships in terms of market size for new orders, and represents more than double the investment in new biofuels production capacity worldwide.
Read more about evolving government support for electric vehicles in a recent commentary by Leonardo Paoli and Simon Bennett.
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