China Is Showing the World What Renewable Energy Dominance Looks Like, Says New IEA Report

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The growth of solar energy continues to outpace forecasts and this growth, according to a report published today by the International Energy Agency, โ€œis a Chinaย story.โ€

While China today is far and away the global leader in solar generation, a decade ago, the country had just 100 megawatts of solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity installed. Thatโ€™s nothing. For reference, itโ€™s actually less than is currently installed in the city of San Antonio. By the end of 2016, China had increased its solar PV capacity by nearly 800 times, with more than 77 gigawatts currentlyย installed.

Chinaโ€™s solar dominance is only going to keep growing, according to the IEA report. As Dr. Paolo Frankl, one of the lead authors on the report, said on a call to reporters, โ€œIn one year, China will install the equivalent of the total history of solar development inย Germany.โ€

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The stunning growth trajectories reflected in the IEA report show how quickly the transition to renewables can surgeย when aggressive policies cut through the barriers toย growth.

The Renewables 2017 report takes a deep dive into renewable energy deployment across all industries and throughout the world, but the dominance of solar PV stands out. As a whole, renewables represented nearly two-thirds of new electricity capacity additions last year, far outshining coal and natural gas growth. For the very first time, solar PV additions grew faster than any other resource, surpassing coalย growth.

Put simply: the world is now building more solar than coal generation, a trend that looks to continue, regardless of any uncertainty in current American energy policy. Most new demand for electricity is being supplied by renewable resources, with solar providing theย most.

โ€œThe star is really becoming solar PV, which becomes the leader in renewable growth,โ€ saidย Frankl.

The report forecasts out the next five years of renewable energy growth, a short time-frame that is easier to project than some forecastsโ€”like, say, the Energy Information Agencyโ€”that are routinely criticized. Over the next five years, the IEA anticipates renewables growing by roughly 1,000 gigawatts. โ€œThat is half of the total capacity of coal fired power plants worldwide,โ€ said Frankl, โ€œand it has taken 80 years to build all ofย those.โ€

Did you get that? Over the next half decade, the world will install half as much renewable energy as the current entire global capacity of coalย power.

As China is proving, there is a dramatic shift in how emerging economies are powering their development. From theย report:

Along with new policies that spur competition in several other countries, this Chinese dynamic has led to record-low announced prices of solar PV and onshore wind, which are now comparable or even lower than new-built fossil fuelย alternatives.

Developing countries are now looking to renewables as engines of economic growth. This includes India, which according to this yearโ€™s forecast, will soon leap ahead of the European Union with the third largest growth in renewable capacity, after China and the United States. โ€œSoon โ€“ and, we hope, very soon โ€“ African countries may see the next wave of development supported by cheap renewable power,โ€ the IEA reportย anticipates.

Despite the clear trajectory of global energy supply towards renewables, as reflected in this IEA report, the Trump administration is currently threatening tariffs on cheaper Chinese solar panels and has just proposed a bailout for uneconomical coal plants.

โ€œWhat would the tariff accomplish?โ€ Frankl asked rhetorically. He then answered, โ€œOne thing is for sure: they would make US PV much more expensive than it is today.โ€ Because Chinese companies account for over 60% of global PV manufacturingโ€”and thus set global PV pricesโ€”and American companies produce relatively little to the global market, itโ€™s hard to project how the proposed tariff would effectively rescue the Americanย companies.

Rather, it would slow PV deployment in the U.S. at precisely the time the rest of the world is pivoting aggressively toย solar.

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Blog image: 3 MW CPV project in Golmud, China, byย Vinaykumar8687

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Ben Jervey is a Senior Fellow for DeSmog and directs the KochvsClean.com project. He is a freelance writer, editor, and researcher, specializing in climate change and energy systems and policy. Ben is also a Research Fellow at the Institute for Energy and the Environment at Vermont Law School. He was the original Environment Editor for GOOD Magazine, and wrote a longstanding weekly column titled โ€œThe New Ideal: Building the clean energy economy of the 21st Century and avoiding the worst fates of climate change.โ€ He has also contributed regularly to National Geographic News, Grist, and OnEarth Magazine. He has published three booksโ€”on eco-friendly living in New York City, an Energy 101 primer, and, most recently, โ€œThe Electric Battery: Charging Forward to a Low Carbon Future.โ€ He graduated with a BA in Environmental Studies from Middlebury College, and earned a Masterโ€™s in Energy Regulation and Law at Vermont Law School. A bicycle enthusiast, Ben has ridden across the United States and through much ofย Europe.

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