In a groundbreaking revelation, a report from the Worldwide Vitality Company (IEA) has highlighted a exceptional surge in international photo voltaic photovoltaic (PV) capability additions, hovering by over 80 p.c between 2022 and 2023. The report underscores a seismic shift in direction of renewable vitality sources, with solar energy main the cost.
China emerges because the dominant participant on this paradigm shift, accounting for over 80 p.c of the worldwide enhance in photo voltaic PV capability additions. Regardless of the discontinuation of central authorities subsidies for utility, business, and industrial-scale functions, China witnessed a staggering 2.5-fold development in photo voltaic PV deployment. Remarkably, the nation contributed a groundbreaking 62 p.c of worldwide additions, buoyed by fast manufacturing growth leading to a 50 p.c discount in PV module prices since December 2022. This discount has considerably enhanced the competitiveness of photo voltaic PV towards provincial benchmark electrical energy costs, predominantly reliant on coal energy technology.
In the meantime, within the European Union (EU), annual photo voltaic PV additions surged by 1 / 4, reaching a historic 52 GW previously yr. The EU member states intensified efforts to speed up renewables deployment within the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, aiming to mitigate reliance on pure fuel. Consequently, annual photo voltaic PV additions almost doubled since 2021, with shoppers swiftly embracing rooftop photo voltaic PV installations to counter hovering retail electrical energy costs amidst the vitality disaster.
America witnessed a 50 p.c enhance in photo voltaic PV capability additions year-on-year, following the decision of provide chain points that hampered development in 2022. Federal tax incentives and state-level assist continued to propel each utility-scale and rooftop photo voltaic PV functions.
In distinction, India skilled a dip in photo voltaic PV additions, recording 12 GW in 2023, one-third decrease than the earlier yr. This decline might be attributed to lowered aggressive public sale volumes for utility-scale photo voltaic initiatives and lingering provide chain disruptions. Alternatively, Brazil’s photo voltaic PV additions surged by over 20 p.c year-on-year, pushed by a strong web metering scheme incentivizing rooftop photo voltaic PV installations, surpassing India’s capability additions in 2023.
The worldwide deployment of photo voltaic PV between 2019 and 2023 has led to a big discount in annual CO2 emissions, estimated at round 1.1 billion tonnes (Gt), equal to Japan’s complete annual emissions. Notably, China stands out as the first contributor to emissions discount, with photo voltaic PV capability additions averting over 600 Mt of CO2 emissions. In Australia and New Zealand, photo voltaic PV deployment throughout the identical interval mitigated emissions equal to 10 p.c of the area’s complete annual vitality emissions in 2023, underscoring the pivotal position of photo voltaic vitality in combating local weather change.
The yr 2023 marked a big milestone within the international push for clear vitality, with photo voltaic photovoltaic (PV) and wind energy installations experiencing exceptional development charges of 85 p.c and 60 p.c respectively.
Mixed, these two applied sciences accounted for almost 540 gigawatts (GW) of added capability, with China rising because the dominant participant in each sectors. Nevertheless, regardless of this progress, clear vitality deployment remained closely concentrated in superior economies and China, leaving a lot of the world trailing behind.
In 2023, China and superior economies collectively contributed 90 p.c of the capability additions for wind and photo voltaic PV, together with over 95 p.c of worldwide electrical automobile gross sales. The electrical car market witnessed a 35 p.c surge in gross sales, reaching a complete of 14 million automobiles, representing one in each 5 vehicles bought worldwide. Notably, China led this development with one in each three vehicles bought being electrical, adopted by the European Union the place the ratio stood at one in each 4 vehicles.
In distinction, international gross sales of warmth pumps skilled a slight decline from the report ranges seen in 2022. This dip was attributed to cautious shopper spending amidst financial pressures, coupled with some alleviation of considerations concerning excessive fuel costs. The slowdown underscored the significance of supportive insurance policies to help financially strained shoppers and bridge the hole between electrical energy and fuel costs.
Nuclear capability additions noticed a lower to five.5 GW in 2023, though year-on-year fluctuations are much less important as a result of prolonged improvement timelines related to nuclear initiatives. Nonetheless, development commenced on 5 new nuclear reactors in the course of the yr, contributing to a complete of 58 reactors underneath development globally at first of 2024, with a mixed capability exceeding 60 GW.
In the meantime, hydrogen electrolyser capability witnessed a staggering 360 p.c development in 2023, albeit from a comparatively low base. China led this growth, surpassing the European Union in deployment velocity. Though the USA additionally elevated its deployment tempo, annual additions remained modest in comparison with different areas.
Regardless of these developments, vitality effectivity continues to lag. Current assessments point out a mere 1 p.c enchancment in vitality depth in 2023, falling far wanting the COP28 pledge to double the long-term fee of vitality depth enchancment by 2030.
The momentum in direction of clear vitality has been bolstered by Covid-19 stimulus packages since 2019, leading to a big acceleration of deployment. Over this era, clear vitality development outpaced that of fossil fuels by a ratio of two-to-one. Notably, low-emission electrical energy manufacturing elevated by roughly 1,800 terawatt-hours (TWh), regardless of challenges comparable to hydro energy stagnation and nuclear energy declines within the European Union as a consequence of drought and compelled outages. Conversely, fossil fuel-based electrical energy technology noticed a extra modest development of barely lower than 850 TWh. In end-use sectors, the consumption of fresh vitality doubled that of fossil fuels.
Clear Vitality Applied sciences
A complete evaluation spanning from 2019 to 2023 reveals that the deployment of 5 pivotal clear vitality applied sciences — photo voltaic photovoltaic (PV), wind energy, nuclear energy, electrical vehicles, and warmth pumps — has resulted in substantial financial savings equal to five p.c of worldwide fossil gas demand throughout all sectors in 2023. This exceptional achievement represents almost the mixed complete vitality demand of Japan and Korea from all sources throughout the identical interval.
Particularly, the deployment of those applied sciences has averted annual fossil gas demand of roughly 25 exajoules (EJ). Notably, the averted coal demand stands at roughly 580 million tonnes of coal equal (Mtce) yearly, surpassing the precise enhance in international annual coal demand from 2019 to 2023 by 30 p.c.
Photo voltaic PV and wind energy installations in electrical energy sectors globally performed a big position, with each applied sciences collectively averting round 320 Mtce and 235 Mtce of annual coal demand respectively —equal to the mixed annual coal demand for electrical energy technology in India and Indonesia.
Moreover, the deployment of wind and photo voltaic PV, together with contributions from warmth pumps and nuclear energy, resulted within the avoidance of roughly 180 billion cubic meters (bcm) of pure fuel demand yearly. This determine is almost twice the precise enhance in international annual pure fuel demand throughout the identical interval. Notably, wind and photo voltaic PV accounted for the biggest share of averted pure fuel demand, adopted by warmth pump deployment.
By way of oil demand, the deployment of electrical vehicles performed a pivotal position, averting nearly 1 million barrels per day (mb/d) in vitality equal phrases. With out this intervention, oil demand would have surpassed pre-pandemic ranges, highlighting the crucial influence of electrical automobiles in decreasing reliance on fossil fuels.
The collective deployment of photo voltaic PV, wind energy, nuclear energy, electrical vehicles, and warmth pumps in the course of the specified interval has resulted within the avoidance of roughly 2.2 billion tonnes (Gt) of emissions yearly. This important discount has helped mitigate the rise in CO2 emissions globally, which might have in any other case been 3 times bigger.
Photo voltaic PV emerges as a very potent contributor to emission discount efforts, avoiding round 1.1 Gt of emissions yearly on the international stage — equal to Japan’s complete vitality sector emissions. In particular markets like Australia and New Zealand, photo voltaic PV deployment has a profound influence, averting CO2 emissions equal to just about 10 p.c of the area’s complete annual emissions from vitality in 2023.
Whereas wind energy, nuclear, electrical vehicles, and warmth pumps contribute to emissions discount as properly, their influence is predicted to extend within the coming years as know-how turnover raises their share in each annual new gross sales and the bigger complete inventory of kit in use.
Baburajan Kizhakedath
