Three Key Insights from Recent IRENA Data
Francesco La Camera
Director General of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)
1- We are heading towards a renewable energy future—there is no doubt.
Today, renewables outcompete fossil fuels on costs in most parts of the world, offering the most affordable and climate-safe energy solution available.
With 86% of all newly installed power generation capacity coming from renewable sources in 2023, their position as the market leader is undeniable.
2- While the direction of travel is clear, the speed and scale are not yet at the levels needed to achieve the #3xRenewables target by 2030.
Renewable energy growth, historically at 10%, saw significant acceleration last year, reaching a record high of 14%.
However, even at this record rate, we would only reach approximately 9.7 TW by 2030—falling short by 1.5 TW of what is necessary to cap temperature rise at 1.5°C.
3- Consolidated global figures conceal ongoing patterns of concentration in geography.
Despite a universally compelling business case for renewables, progress on the energy transition remains uneven across regions.
Clearly, existing international support mechanisms for the energy transition in developing countries are not meeting their goals.
To explore more highlights from IRENA's recently published Renewable Energy Statistics 2024 report, click here.
To access the full report, click here.
The Future of Clean, Reliable Energy Generation ????
7 个月Hello and thank you for this
Chairman IIER; Energy & Eco-system Expert; STEM Ambassador; Thoughtleader; Keynote Speaker & Author
7 个月Two provisos on proportions are important here: 1 - Renewables are almost completely limited to ELECTRICITY or power generation, which is merely 20% of our total ENERGY consumption. 2 - the actual power OUTPUT is between 5-10% of (newly) installed renewable CAPACITY. Costs are driven by installed CAPACITY which determines the quantity of metals needed for the capture, conversion, storage and distribution of solar & wind. Whilst scale & efficiency improvements will still give some marginally decreasing cost advantages, contrary to common belief, longer term this will be offset by non-lineair increasing cost of metal extraction. See here the cost & availability implications of ever declining mineral ore density: https://youtu.be/MKR925xz_R4 Not to mention the geographic distribution of e.g. Neodymium - needed for the magnets both in wind turbines and electric motors - leading to geo-political dependencies.
R&D| Energy Transition | Carbon Capture I CCUS| Alternate Fuels | Hydrogen | Power-to-X l Green Energy & Chemical I Carbon Trading and Markets I Energy Storages l Circular Economy l Sustainability
7 个月Without Energy Storage which takes care of peaking power,grid variations wrt frequency, voltage,black start ....it will tuff for stable and continuous power supply
Very informative
Founder & CEO Building Energy Intelligence for Industrial Decarbonisation @ Zerowatt Ex. NTPC Ltd
7 个月The rapid increase in renewable energy is vital, but without developing economical energy storage technologies in parallel, it will be challenging to reduce our reliance on non-renewable sources, even with expanded renewable capacity.