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INDUSTRY NEWS

Wind and solar top 10% of global power

generation for first time

Renewables made a record contribution to global grids in 2021, but coal-fired power and emissions
jumped to new highs, according to BloombergNEF’s Power Transition Trends report.

he world’s wind and solar projects change – but bear many of its worst consequences – to make progress tackling it.”
combined to meet more than a With nearly 3000 TWh of electricity produced, wind and solar accounted for a combined
Ttenth of global electricity demand 10,5% of global 2021 generation, BNEF found in its annual Power Transition Trends report.
for the first time in 2022, according to Wind’s contribution to the global total rose to 6,8% while solar climbed to 3,7%. A decade
research company BloombergNEF (BNEF). ago, these two technologies combined accounted for well under 1% of total electricity
At the same time overall electricity production. In all, 39% of all power produced globally in 2021 was carbon free. Hydro and
demand, production from coal-fired nuclear projects met just over one quarter of the world’s electricity needs.
power plants, and emissions all surged in Every year since 2017, wind and solar have accounted for the majority of new power-
2021 as the global economy regained its generating capacity added to global grids. In 2021, they hit a record three-quarters of the
footing following the Covid-19 pandemic. 364 GW of new capacity built. Including hydro, nuclear and others, zero-carbon power
Michael R. Bloomberg, UN Secretary accounted for 85% of all new capacity added.
General’s Special Envoy for Climate “Renewables are now the default choice for most countries looking to add or even
Ambition and Solutions, and Founder replace power-generating capacity,” said Luiza Demôro, head of energy transitions at
of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg BloombergNEF. “This is no longer due to mandates or subsidies, but simply because these
Philanthropies, said: “New spikes in technologies are more often the most cost-competitive.”
coal generation are a troubling sign for Solar continued to expand at a particularly fierce pace in 2021, both in terms of new
the economy, our health, and the fight capacity additions and new markets. Solar was half of all global capacity added, at 182
against climate change. This report should GW. Its contribution to global grids topped 1000 TWh for the first time. Solar has also
be a rallying cry to leaders around the become essentially ubiquitous. In nearly half of all countries tracked by BNEF where some
world that the transition to clean energy capacity was added, solar was the top choice in terms of volume. At least 112 countries
requires bigger and bolder actions, now have at least one megawatt of solar capacity installed.
including actions that empower nations Despite the incredible inroads renewables have made, the Power Transition Trends
that have contributed the least to climate report paints a stark picture of the enormous work that remains for the power system to

Figure 1: Most popular new power-generating technology installed, 2021
(Source: BloombergNEF. Note: Map colored by which technology was most installed in 2021 alone. Depicts the percentage of nations that installed the most MW of each
technology. It is based on country-level data for 136 countries but excludes countries that have not recorded any capacity additions. Solar includes small-scale PV.)

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