Last year, newly installed renewable energy increased by 45% to 280 gigawatts – the largest annual increase since 1999, according to the International Energy Agency.
Similar growth levels are expected for this year and next. The latest ILO forecasts predict that new 270GW installed capacity will be connected to the grid in 2021 and around 280GW in 2022. The figures are revised upwards by about 25% compared to forecasts made in November.
The increase in installed capacity is supported by growth in China, Europe and the US, where governments are bidding on large contracts for renewable energy and companies are signing huge clean energy deals.
In total, a total of 75GW of total power was auctioned last year by offshore and onshore wind farms, solar photovoltaic and bioenergy stations – 20% higher than in 2019. This allowed installed installed wind power to double and solar power to double by 50%.
China accounted for half of the newly installed renewable energy network connected to the grid in 2020 and will account for 45% this year and 58% in 2022. But as green energy increases, China has also added 38.4GW of new installed capacity with coal burning in 2020.
President Xi Jinping has pledged that China will become carbon neutral by 2060. However, the ILO also expects China’s installed renewable energy capacity to be reduced by a quarter in 2021 from the previous year as the government gradually abolishes subsidies for wind and solar photovoltaic projects by the end of 2020.
Nevertheless, the ILO is confident that Europe-US-led clean energy demand will keep its global annual growth close to last year’s level. The latest ILO forecasts do not take into account the commitment of US President Joe Biden to halve the country’s emissions in the next 10 years. This move is expected to lead to even faster development of renewable energy sources.
