BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec.1
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
Globally, renewable capacity is expected to expand by over 1 800 GW, or over 60 percent to 2026, accounting for almost 95 percent of the increase in total power capacity worldwide, Trend reports with reference to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Overall, People’s Republic of China (hereafter ‘China’) remains the leader, accounting for 43 percent of global growth, followed by Europe, the United States and India, reads the IEA.
“These four markets alone provide almost 80 percent of renewable capacity expansion worldwide. We have revised the forecast up from last year, with China alone accounting for about 60 percent of the revision. For China, last year’s forecast reflected the phase-out of subsidies at the end of 2020 and the resulting policy uncertainty for onshore wind and solar PV. However, China’s subsequent commitment to net zero by 2060 has led to new targets, such as 40 percent of all electricity consumed to be from non-fossil generation by 2030 and a capacity target of 1 200 GW wind and solar PV by the same year, all reflected in our updated forecast,” said the company.
IEA notes that in Europe, the upward revision stems from larger auction volumes in most EU member countries to accelerate deployment towards 2030 renewable energy targets, a growing market for corporate power purchase agreements (PPAs) and the increasing attractiveness of self-consumption for distributed PV.
“The economic recovery plan for Europe, which will provide over EUR 800 billion (USD 940 billion) in the form of loans and grants, should partly contribute to facilitating the financing of renewables. Our main case renewable capacity growth trajectory shows that the European Union is set to overachieve the country plans for 2030 stated in current National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs), supporting higher targets under the “Fit for 55” program (55 percent emissions reduction by 2030), which is expected to be finalized in 2023 or 2024,” the report says.
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