Global renewable energy to increase by 50 percent in next 5 years, IEA says

The world’s total renewable energy capacity is expected to increase by 50 percent between 2019 and 2024, according to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Renewables 2019 market forecast report.

“Renewables are already the world’s second-largest source of electricity, but their deployment still needs to accelerate if we are to achieve long-term climate, air quality and energy access goals,” said Fatih Birol, the IEA’s Executive Director.

The report highlights the three main challenges that governments need to address to speed up the deployment of renewables: policy and regulatory uncertainty, high investment risks, and system integration of wind and solar in some countries.

About 60 percent of the increase is expected to be in solar power, according to the forecast. The total capacity increase of 1,200 gigawatts would bring the renewable share to 30 percent of the global generation market.

This year, global renewable capacity is expected to grow by 12 percent, the report said. With a 25 percent share, renewables are currently the second-largest source of energy generation in the world with 16 percent coming from hydropower and 9 percent from wind, solar, and other renewables. Coal is the largest generation source in the world at 38 percent.

China accounts for almost half of the growth in solar over the next five years. China is expected to overtake the European Union as the world leader in installed capacity in 2021.

While Japan remains a strong market, India and Korea are projected to emerge as new markets in Asia. Also, the growth of solar in North America is expected to be twice as fast between 2019 and 2024 as it was between 2013 and 2018.

Regarding wind power, onshore wind represents one-quarter of the expected growth while offshore wind contributes 4 percent to the increase. Offshore wind capacity is expected to triple by 2024. Hydropower capacity growth is expected to slow –accounting for one-tenth of the total increase in global renewable capacity over the next five years.

However, despite the growth projections, the capacity increases are not sufficient to meet climate goals, the report said.