EiD welcomes that the IEA published Renewables 2023 this week. It is encouraging to see that the world added 50% more renewable capacity in 2023 than in 2022 and next 5 years will see fastest growth yet. The IEA says that the world’s capacity to generate renewable electricity is expanding faster than at any time in the last three decades, giving it a real chance of achieving the goal of tripling global capacity by 2030 that governments set at the COP28 climate change conference last month. The largest growth took place in China, which commissioned as much solar PV in 2023 as the entire world did in 2022, while China’s wind power additions rose by 66% year-on-year. The increases in renewable energy capacity in Europe, the United States and Brazil also hit all-time highs. The report said the biggest challenge to meeting the goal will be scaling up financing and deployment of renewables in most emerging and developing economies. “In the absence of any help for African and low-income countries in Asia and Latin America, they will not be able to reach their clean energy targets. That will be a fault line in reaching the 2030 goal,” Fatih Birol, executive director of the IEA, told Reuters.
Alongside the report, the IEA also released a new Renewable Energy Progress Tracker, which allows users to explore historical data and forecasts at the regional and country level, including tracking progress towards the tripling goal.
In upcoming weeks there are two important events not to miss. Later this month there is the eceee Zero Carbon Industry event. In early March there is the European Energy Efficiency Conference which is part of World Sustainable Energy Days. Check out details on the two events here.
With so many people planning to travel over the upcoming weeks, here is some useful news to help you along:
- The inews website provides Europe’s most exciting new rail routes for 2024.
- For winter walking, the Responsible Travel website gives you many interesting options.
- The EuroBikes website describes winter cycling tours.
- There is always the option of virtual tourism at the Xplore Nature Channel that EiD first promoted back in September. There are now 126 videos.
Epictetus (55-135AD), the Greek Stoic philosopher, provides a valuable message to us this week: “Nothing great is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig. I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.”
EiD welcomes your views about this week’s selection of posts on the zero-carbon energy transition:
- Transforming energy demand
- What we can learn by looking to the past as we confront an uncertain future – lessons from ancient Roman wine production
- It’s a nuclear future for France’s energy transition
- Britain’s energy transition is more complex than meets the eye
- In addressing climate change governments need to use their power to not just regulate, but incentivise innovation
- Florida community reaches LEED Zero
- Australia’s energy transition – electricity generated by solar and on-shore wind is the cheapest
- Ghana’s energy transition – Ghana’s electricity conundrum
Please send us your comments on any of the posts. Please follow us on X at @EnergyDemand and @rodjanssen. Please recommend EiD to your friends and colleagues.
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Energy in Demand - Sustainable Energy - Rod Janssen 