Electricity generated globally from wind power grew by 12% year-on-year in 2019, with solar energy rising by 22%, according to a report by climate think-tank Ember (formerly Sandbag).
“The wind and and solar generation rise of 265TWh was the second biggest on record, but the growth rate slowed — the 14% growth rate was the lowest this century,” said the Global Electricity Review.
Wind energy grew to 1,404 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2019, up from 1,260TWh in 2018, while solar grew from 573TWh in 2018 to 699TWh last year.
China was by far the largest source of both wind and solar electricity last year, followed by the US and Germany (see panels), according to data released alongside the report.
1) China - 405.7
2) US - 300.1
2) Germany - 126.4
3) UK - 65.3
4) India - 63.3
5) Brazil - 56.0
6) Spain - 55.0
7) France - 34.3
8) Canada - 30.2
9) Sweden - 21.6
10) Turkey - 21.3
The study shows how far the world still has to go to meet the Paris Agreement goals, with coal, natural gas and other fossil fuels still supplying 62% of the world’s electricity.
According to Ember's data, coal was the world’s largest source of electricity in 2019, with 35.18% of the total (despite a 3% year-on-year fall), followed by natural gas (23.52%), hydro (16.54%), nuclear (10.52%), wind (5.44%), other fossil fuels (3.47%), solar (2.71%), biomass and waste (2.24%), and “other renewables” (0.4%).
1) China - 223.8
2) US - 107.3
3) Japan - 73.2
4) Germany - 46.7
5) India - 46.3
6) Italy - 24.0
7) Australia - 17.1
8) Spain - 14.9
9) UK - 12.9
10) South Korea - 12.46
The study points out that 87% of the world’s coal-fired generation comes from ten countries, and none of them have made commitments to reduce coal use to levels consistent with the IEA’s Sustainable Development Scenario (ie, to be compatible with the Paris Agreement).
And the 3% fall in coal-fired energy is “not the new normal”, says the report, as coal-fired capacity is still growing — with China, for example, adding 36.8GW of net capacity in 2019.
China now accounts for more than 50% of the world’s coal-fired generation, with 4,560TWh in 2019 — a 1.72% increase from 2018 — as electricity demand in the country rose by 4.7% year-on-year.
To keep the world to a 1.5C temperature rise, global coal generation needs to fall 11% each year, Ember points out.
