In 2021, fifty countries will generate more than a tenth of their electricity from wind and solar.
In 2021, clean energy will account for 38% of global electricity.
CO2 emissions from the power sector have increased by 7%.
Wind and solar power met 21% of demand growth in 2021.
China’s share of global coal power rose from 50 percent to 54 percent in 2021.
New Delhi: According to the new report, wind and solar energy will generate more than 10% of global electricity for the first time i2021. According to Ember Climate and Energy research, solar generation increased by 23% last year, while wind generation increased by 14%.Together, they account for more than 10% of global electricity generation.
Fifty countries are now generating 10% of their electricity from these two sources of energy, with seven new countries joining in 2021.
China, Japan, Mongolia, Vietnam, Nam, Argentina, Hungary, and El Salvador. In the last two years, three countries—the Netherlands, Australia, and Vietnam—have shifted more than 8% of their total electricity demand from fossil fuels to wind and solar.
“All clean electricity sources generated 38 percent of the world’s electricity in 2021, more than coal (36 percent),” the report said.
According to the report, in order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, wind and solar must achieve 20 percent compound annual growth rates through 2030.
“Wind and solar have arrived. The process that will reshape the existing energy system has begun. This decade they need to be deployed at lightning speed to reverse global emission increases and tackle climate change, “said Dave Jones, global lead, Ember.
As the world economy rebounded after the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for electricity has also soared.
The report shows that electricity demand rebounded, rising by the most ever in absolute terms: 1,414 TWh from 2020 to 2021, approximately the equivalent of adding a new India to the world’s electricity demand. But the real growth was in Asia, in large part as economic growth boomed; China saw the biggest rise, with 13% higher demand in 2021 than in 2019.
Despite a record rise in wind and solar generation, only 29% of the global rise in electricity demand in 2021 was met with wind and solar.
Other clean electricity sources provided no growth, with nuclear and hydro levels unchanged for two years.
The remaining demand increase was therefore met by fossil fuels. Coal generation alone will meet 59 percent of the increase in electricity demand in 2021.
In 2021, coal power increased by 9.0 percent to 10,042 TWh, a new all-time high and a 2% increase over the previous record set in 2018.
It was the largest percentage increase since at least 1985, bringing coal generation to 36% of global electricity generation.
Much of the rise in coal use was in Asian countries, including China and India, but the increase in coal was not matched by gas use, which increased globally by only 1 percent, indicating that rising prices for gas have made coal a more viable source of electricity.
China’s share of global coal power rose from 50 percent in 2019 to 54 percent in 2021, with India at 11 percent and Pakistan at 8 percent.
In 2021, coal power in the US, EU, and Japan strongly rebounded compared to 2020, but remained below 2019 levels.
According to the researchers, despite the coal resurgence in 2021, major economies such as the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Canada are aiming to transition their grids to 100 percent carbon-free electricity within the next 15 years.
This switch is being driven by concerns over keeping the rise in the world’s temperature under 1.5C this century.
According to the report, CO2 emissions from the power sector reached an all-time high, surpassing the previous record set in 2018 by 3%.
“They rose by 7 percent in 2021 (778 million tonnes)—the biggest percentage rise since 2010, and the biggest absolute rise ever. The 7 percent rise follows a fall of just 3 percent in 2020, putting emissions higher than before the pandemic struck, “it said.
