The New Energy Boom Goes On

How Renewable Energy Surged In 2020, Despite The Pandemic

Robert Rapier, August 22, 2021 (Forbes)

Renewable energy was the one category that bucked the global trend of declining energy consumption in 2020. Despite the 4.5% decline of primary global energy consumption — the largest since World War II — global renewable energy consumption grew by 9.7% in 2020. That was a slight decline from its 12.2% pace the year before, but it’s remarkable given how significantly the pandemic impacted total energy demand…

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Over the past decade, renewable energy consumption has grown at an average annual rate of 13.4%...[It was] the only category of energy that grew globally at double digits…[In] 2010 the world consumed 9.6 exajoules of [wind power, solar power, biofuels, geothermal energy, and power produced from biomass]…In 2020, that had tripled to 31.7 exajoules….[Power production without biofuels] accounts for 88% of all renewable energy consumption…[Wind (50.6%) and solar (27.2%) accounted for most of the consumption…[Solar power is likely to overtake wind power] as the leading source of renewable power this decade…

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…[In 2018,] China overtook the U.S. as the world’s top consumer of renewable energy…[and] its growth rate over the past decade vastly exceeds all other members of the Top 10. Cumulatively, the Top 10 consumers accounted for 75.9% of the world’s renewable energy consumption in 2020…[W]hile renewables have helped reduce the growth of carbon dioxide emissions, global carbon emissions have grown due to the overall growth rate of fossil energy consumption…” click here for more

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