According to the third annual Medium-Term Renewable Energy Market Report released by the International Energy Agency (IEA), renewable power generation from wind, solar and hydro is expected to increase by 45% between 2013 and 2020, reaching 26% of the global power mix. The growth in capacity and generation will be concentrated in non-OECD countries (70% of the growth), spurred by energy diversification needs and air quality concerns in China. However, renewables are expected to cover only 35% of new electricity needs by 2020. In OECD markets, renewables will account for 80% of new power generation but the development of new energies may be threatened by policy and market risks, such as uncertainties over the post-2020 renewable policy framework and the build-out of a pan-European grid to facilitate the integration of variable renewables.
Through 2020, investment in new renewable power capacity is seen averaging over US$230bn/year. That is lower than the around US$250bn invested in 2013. The decline is due to expectations that both unit investment costs for some technologies will fall and that global capacity growth will slow.
The roles of biofuels for transport and renewable heat are also increasing, though at slower rates than renewable electricity. Although modern renewable energy sources are expected to grow by almost 25% to 2020, their share in energy use for heat rises to only 9%, up from 8% in 2013.
Interested in Power Plants?
Enerdata has developed a market research service to screen, monitor and analyse the development of power generation assets.
Power Plant Tracker offers an interactive database and a powerful search engine covering power plants worldwide – including both installed and planned capacities for renewables and fossil fuels.