The milestone of 2,000 GW of installed renewables worldwide has been reached, with 75 new GW of solar panels and almost 10,000 people employed in the sector, but the road to energy transition is still long. These are the figures contained in the Ren21 report.
The growth of renewables worldwide reached 9 per cent, with 161 gigawatts of new installed capacity, bringing total installed clean energy to 2,017 gigawatts by the end of 2016. This is the picture captured by the latest annual report – Renewables 2017 Global Status Report – on the state of renewable energy from REN21, the United Nations organisation that brings together governments, international organisations, NGOs and industry associations.
Since 2015, renewable energy has supplied around 19.3 per cent of global final energy consumption, and growth in capacity and output continued in 2016. The positive result is due above all to a collapse in costs which, in several countries, has allowed clean energy to cost less than energy produced from fossil fuels or nuclear power. Over the past year, clean sources grew primarily in the electricity sector, while the eco-friendly heating and cooling sector and the electric vehicle sector are adapting relatively slowly, holding back the transition that, according to Ren21, is falling short of the targets set by the Paris Agreement. On the other hand, energy storage increased by 0.8 gigawatts and investment in solar-powered mini-grids reached 223 million dollars (up from 158 million in 2015).
In the growth of renewables in 2016, solar took the lion's share. Last year, at least 75 new gigawatts of photovoltaic capacity were installed worldwide, equivalent to the installation of more than 31,000 panels every hour. This extremely positive result surpasses the cumulative capacity installed in the previous five years. Compared to 2015, solar grew by 47 per cent, outpacing wind power, which recorded a 34 per cent increase, and hydropower (+15.5 per cent). By the end of 2016, global solar capacity had reached at least 303 GW. This outstanding result is due in particular to an unprecedented reduction in costs – especially for solar panels – and a parallel improvement in technologies which, against a backdrop of growing demand, attracted new competitors to the sector, including electricity utilities and oil and gas companies.
The United States, Japan, India and the United Kingdom, led by China, are the countries that account for 85 per cent of solar growth worldwide. By the end of 2016, every continent had installed at least 1 gigawatt of solar power; 24 countries had a capacity of 1 GW or more, and at least 114 could count on more than 10 megawatts. The leaders in photovoltaic capacity per capita are Germany, Japan, Italy, Belgium and Australia.
Photovoltaics plays a substantial role in electricity generation in several countries. In 2016, it accounted for 9.8 per cent of net generation in Honduras and reached 7.3 per cent of electricity demand in Italy, 7.2 per cent in Greece and 6.4 per cent in Germany. At least 17 countries (including Australia, Chile, Honduras, Israel, Japan and other European countries) had, by the end of 2016, sufficient photovoltaic capacity to meet 2 per cent or more of their electricity demand. Worldwide, last year, solar produced almost 375 terawatt-hours of electricity, enough to meet Italy's energy demand (316.9 TWh in 2015).
In 2016, the renewable energy sector employed 9.8 million people, an increase of 1.1 per cent compared to 2015. In some markets, there were setbacks due to changes in public energy policy or to a decline in investment and an increase in automation. Despite these slowdowns, global employment figures continue to rise thanks to the record deployment of renewables. The photovoltaic sector provided the highest number of jobs, followed by the biofuels sector. Employment has shifted further towards Asia which, led by China, now accounts for 62 per cent of all jobs in renewables (excluding large-scale hydropower).
One piece of good news in the Ren21 report concerns global CO2 emissions which, for the third consecutive year, remained stable, despite 3 per cent economic growth and an increase in energy demand. This result is largely due to the decline in coal consumption worldwide, but also to greater use of renewable energy and improvements in energy efficiency in the construction, industrial and transport sectors that have been introduced in many countries around the world.
Despite the good news, the energy transition appears to be struggling. Ren21 highlights how, at the current pace, it is not easy to envisage meeting the targets agreed in Paris during Cop21. In particular, investment in renewable energy has not been adequate, with a 23 per cent reduction compared to 2015. The fundamental role remains that of policy, at all levels – from local to regional, from national to international bodies – to ensure the development of renewables. This is the only path that will make it possible to achieve the goal of keeping our planet's temperatures below 2°C.