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Renewable Energy Continues to Grow

  • Publish Date: Posted over 7 years ago

New figures from the IEA show that the market share of renewable energy is continuing to grow. Global production of green energy increased by 2.6pc in 2013-4. By year end, it had reached 1894 TOE and made up around 14pc of the total primary supply of energy, which stands at 13,700 million TOE.

Strong Growth

Ever since 1990, the growth rate of renewables has stood at an average rate of 2.2pc annually. It has been particularly strong in the wind energy and solar PV industries, at 24pc and 46pc respectively, driven forward by investment in China and OECD countries. 

Common Forms of Green Energy

The most typically used forms of green energy are solid biofuels and hydro-energy, which grew at 1.5pc and 2.5pc respectively.

Trends Across Nations

Non-OECD countries are consuming three-quarters of all renewable energy sources, particularly domestic biomass such as wood. Nearly 50pc of all energy usage in Africa is because of this. Biomass also represents 25pc of Asian energy use. In OECD countries, renewables are making up just 9.4pc of total energy supply.

Green energy now represents the second-biggest source of electricity generation across the world and represented 22pc of total generation globally in 2014, following coal at 40pc. Gas-generated energy stood at 21pc, nuclear at 10pc and oil at 4pc.

Leading Energy Technologies

Hydroelectricity is providing over 73pc of the total amount of green energy, and this equates to 16pc of the world's total electricity production. Solar, wind and geothermal are also experiencing rapid growth, along with emerging tidal industries. 

Biofuels, biogases and wind are now growing much faster than other sources of power. Wind is especially high-growth - rising to 22pc in 2015 from just 0.3pc in 1990, which is an equivalent growth rate of over 22pc.