The energy crisis has created “unprecedented momentum” for the deployment of renewable energies, whose global capacities should almost double over the next five years, underlines the International Energy Agency (IEA), Tuesday, December 6. According to its 2022 report on renewable energies, the world should develop in the next five years as much renewable capacity as it has done in the last twenty years.
Solar and wind power in particular will thus become the first source of electricity in the world by 2025, by dethroning coal. Countries are seeking to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels, especially since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Global renewable capacity is expected to gain 2 400 gigawatts (GW) over the period 2022-2027, as much as China’s current power capacity. This is a third more than what experts expected a year ago, IEA analysts calculated. The agency takes “the speed with which governments have been able to push renewables a little further”.
“A historic turning point”
This is especially true for European countries, which seek to replace Russian gas. Renewable capacities installed in 2022-2027 should double compared to the past five years. Elsewhere, China, the United States and India are leading the movement, with plans and market reforms that were not necessarily expected so quickly.
“The example [des renouvelables] shows that the energy crisis could be a historic turning point towards a cleaner and more secure global energy system”, according to the director of the IEA, Fatih Birol. He recalls that such “continuous acceleration is critical if we want to keep a possibility of limiting warming to 1.5°C” compared to the industrial revolution.
In terms of technologies, solar and onshore wind are today the least expensive means of electricity production in the majority of countries. The report provides for a tripling of the photovoltaic park over 2022-2027, in particular on the roofs of shops and residences. Wind power should double in capacity over the period. Finally, the demand for biofuels should grow by 22%, according to the IEA.
