It’s normal to look forward to a world of renewable energy. While the entire world faces issues with corporations and market household names lobbying against mass-produced renewable energy sources, many have chosen to go for renewable energy to power their homes, businesses, and other properties.
According to renewable energy analytics company Ember, the combined power production of solar and wind energy technologies made up about 38% of the world’s total energy production. Ember used data from 75 countries that consume the most fossil and renewable energy resources worldwide. These countries include the United States, Britain, Germany, and other major countries.
The study also mentions a 20% yearly growth in renewable energy adoption for both wind and solar energy. Read more from this excerpt from Fast Company’s report about Ember’s findings below:
“Across the last decade, we’ve seen an average growth of 20% a year in total wind and solar generation, which is pretty impressive,” says Dave Jones, global electricity analyst for Ember, a U.K.-based think tank focused on finding ways to speed up the transition from coal to clean energy. “But to get ourselves on that pathway for 1.5 degrees [Celsius], we need to see that same 20% through this decade as well.” While we’re at a point where “wind and solar have arrived,” Jones says. The question now is, “‘How do you keep those high rates of growth that mean [wind and solar] keep rising up to become 40% of the electricity mix by 2030?’ Which is what we need to be on that 1.5 degree [Celsius] pathway. There’s so much more work to do.”
There are now 50 countries that have crossed that 10% wind and solar generation mark, and seven countries hit that milestone in 2021: China, Japan, Mongolia, Vietnam, Argentina, Hungary, and El Salvador, according to the report. Three countries in particular have shown a particularly fast transition, with Vietnam, Australia, and the Netherlands having moved 8% of their total electricity demand over to wind and solar from fossil fuels in only the last two years. These countries set a precedent, Jones says, to show other policy makers “there are ways to do this and not worry about keeping the lights on.”
Fossil fuels still account for the majority of energy consumption, generating 62% of the world’s electricity in 2021—up from 61% in 2020. At the end of 2021, emissions experts noted that, with the global economy firing up again after the 2020 lockdowns, global electricity demand jumped, and emissions increased—canceling out any pandemic-related emissions reductions. Coal, in particular, rose, after years of declining, to a new all-time high. The energy crisis spurred by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has put another spotlight on coal and gas, with both fossil fuels seeing rising prices. That crisis could incentivize countries to expand their wind and solar, Jones says, so that they don’t have to import those fuels and can “have their own home-grown electricity.” (Continue reading here to learn more)
This data and study confirms that many countries are willing to advance renewable energy technologies and choose the most practical and sustainable approach towards energy generation. Thus, it only goes to show that the world is moving towards the full adoption of solar energy technologies.
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