Renewable will generate half of world’s electricity by 2050
Global electric power generation from renewable sources will increase more than 20 percent by 2050, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) International Energy Outlook 2019.
In the report, EIA projects that renewables will generate almost half of the world’s electricity in 2050. Meanwhile, global coal-fired generation will decrease 13 percent, representing just 22 percent of the generation mix in 2050.
Worldwide electricity generation will grow by 1.8 percent per year through 2050, EIA says. World electricity generation will reach nearly 45 trillion kilowatt hours (kWh) by 2050, almost 20 trillion kWh more than it was in 2018. Most of the growth is expected to come from non-OECD regions.
India has the highest demand growth, increasing 4.6 percent per year. In India, wind and solar generation will increase from less than 10 percent in 2018 to more than 50 percent in 2050.
In Europe, the share of wind and solar generation will increase from 20 percent now to almost 50 percent by 2050. At the same time, fossil-fired generation will decrease from about 37 percent to 18 percent in Europe by 2050.
In the Eurasia region, wind and solar generation will account for less than 10 percent of the generation mix in 2050, leaving hydroelectric power as the main source of renewables generation in this region.
