Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept.21
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
Renewable capacity additions to grow by almost 12 percent this year, the fastest pace since 2015, to reach almost 200 GW, Trend reports citing the International Energy Agency (IEA).
The organization believes that this will be achieved mostly thanks to solar PV and wind, with global solar PV additions expected to increase by over 17 percent.
After stalling last year, global capacity additions of renewable power are set to bounce back with double-digit growth in 2019, driven by solar PV’s strong performance, according to IEA.
Renewables have a major part to play in curbing global emissions and providing universal access to affordable, secure, sustainable and modern energy. Renewable capacity additions need to grow by more than 300 GW on average each year between 2018 and 2030 to reach the goals of the Paris Agreement, according to the IEA’s Sustainable Development Scenario.
The pace of acceleration in the Chinese solar PV market remains the biggest uncertainty for the IEA’s 2019 estimates. China’s policy transition from feed-in tariffs to competitive auctions resulted in relatively slow solar PV deployment in the first half of 2019. But installations in the second half of the year are expected to accelerate with the completion of the first projects linked to large-scale auctions and the emergence of projects that rely far less on incentives to compete with other power sources.
The rebound in renewables is also supported by higher onshore wind growth, which is expected to rise 15 percent to 53 GW, the largest increase since record deployment in 2015. In the United States, project developers have accelerated deployment before the phase-out of federal production tax credits. In China, lower curtailment levels have unlocked additional growth in several provinces this year, enabling faster expansion.
Offshore wind growth is expected to be stable at around 5 GW in 2019, led by the European Union and China.
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