Photo by: Scatec Solar
After stalling last year, global renewable energy capacity additions are set to bounce back with double-digit growth in 2019, driven by solar photovoltaic’s (PV’s) strong performance, according to the Internal Energy Agency (IEA).
The IEA expects renewable energy capacity additions to grow by almost 12% this year, the fastest pace since 2015, and to reach nearly 200 GW, mainly as a result of solar PV and wind.
Global solar PV additions are expected to increase by more than 17% this year.
Last year was the first time since 2001 that growth in renewable power capacity failed to accelerate year-on-year, the IEA says, explaining that this was largely owing to a Chinese government policy change.
“This highlights the critical role of governments for the deployment of renewables and the need to avoid sudden policy changes that can result in strong market volatility,” the agency points out.
Renewables have a significant part to play in curbing global emissions and providing universal access to affordable, secure, sustainable and modern energy. The IEA notes that renewable capacity additions need to grow by more than 300 GW a year, on average, between 2018 and 2030 to reach the goals of the Paris Agreement.
“These latest numbers give us many reasons to celebrate. Renewable electricity additions are now growing at their fastest pace in four years after a disappointing 2018,” IEA executive director Dr Fatih Birol says.
He adds that, “we are witnessing a drastic decline in the cost of solar power, together with strong growth in onshore wind. And offshore wind is showing encouraging signs.”
Additionally, Birol notes that these technologies are the mainstays of the world’s efforts to tackle climate change, reduce air pollution and provide energy access to all, and that “the stark difference” between this year’s trend and last year’s demonstrates the critical ability of government policies to change the trajectory the world is on.
Meanwhile, the cost of solar PV has plunged by more than 80% since 2010, making the technology increasingly competitive in many countries.
The IEA estimates that global solar PV capacity additions will increase to almost 115 GW this year, despite a slight decline in China. This is set to be the first year that solar PV additions have surpassed 100 GW and the third year in a row that they account for more than half of global renewable additions.
The softness in the Chinese solar PV market is being offset by faster expansion in the European Union, led by Spain; a new installations boom in Vietnam as developers rush to complete projects before incentive cuts; and faster growth in India and the US.
Japanese solar PV developers are also expediting the commissioning of projects to meet deadlines for higher incentives.
However, the pace of acceleration in the Chinese solar PV market remains the biggest uncertainty for the IEA’s 2019 estimates.
China’s policy transition from feed-in tariffs to competitive auctions resulted in relatively slow solar PV deployment in the first half of this year, but installations in the second half of the year are expected to accelerate with the completion of the first projects linked to large-scale auctions and the emergence of projects that rely far less on incentives to compete with other power sources.
The rebound in renewables is also supported by higher onshore wind growth, which is expected to rise by 15% to 53 GW, the largest increase since record deployment in 2015.
In the US, project developers have accelerated deployment before the phase-out of federal production tax credits. In China, lower curtailment levels have unlocked additional growth in several provinces this year, enabling faster expansion.
Offshore wind growth is expected to be stable at around 5 GW this year, led by the European Union and China.