Renewable energy is spreading popularize around the world

The frequent occurrence of extreme weather events in recent years has significantly increased the need for all countries to accelerate action to curb climate change. The Russia-Ukraine conflict has also reminded the world of the importance of energy security. As a result, the world is accelerating its drive for stable energy supply and decarbonization, and renewable energy is surging ahead. As Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency, put it: "It's not just climate change; the state of energy security is forcing countries to switch to clean energy."

But rapid expansion of renewable energy faces obstacles such as still inadequate infrastructure, and stronger policies should be put in place to facilitate a significant increase in investment in renewable energy.

Electricity and heating bills in the UK have doubled this year, and more and more households are installing solar panels on their roofs to cut their bills, the Guardian and other media reported. At the end of August, more than 3,000 homes a week were installing rooftop photovoltaic panels, a threefold increase on two years ago, according to the UK Solar Industry Association. Britain is not the only country where rooftop photovoltaics are blooming. Japan's Tokyo metropolitan government has decided that new homes must have photovoltaic power systems from 2025 in a bid to cut greenhouse gas emissions, national broadcaster NHK reported.

As Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported on November 28, this is just a small snapshot of the rapid spread of renewable energy around the world.

Global capacity additions from solar, wind and other renewable sources hit a new record in 2021, according to the IEA, and the trend is expected to intensify further in 2022 as governments increasingly seek to harness the security and climate benefits of renewables. The Bloomberg New Energy Finance report shows that in the first half of this year, global investment in renewable energy reached $226 billion, with China accounting for 43 percent, making it the "leader" in the global renewable energy investment sector. In addition, global solar and wind financing was $120bn and $84bn in the first half of this year, up 33 per cent and 16 per cent, respectively, from a year earlier. Solar PV installations are expected to account for 60 percent of global renewable energy growth in 2022, followed by wind and hydropower. And this year and next, the world is expected to add another record amount of solar PV capacity, reaching 200 gigawatts by 2023.

Moreover, in October, the IEA raised its forecast for renewable power generation growth in 2022 from 8% to 20%, which it announced in May. Even on current policies alone, global renewable power generation will roughly double in 2030 from 2021, with both the US and China roughly doubling their previous levels.

One important factor behind the enthusiasm for renewable energy is the relative decline in the cost of renewable energy amid high resource prices. Gas prices in Europe rose more than 20 times this year. Coal prices are also at record highs. The International Renewable Energy Agency notes that fossil fuels have become much less competitive, making solar and wind power more attractive.

In addition, expanding supply chains for key facilities and technologies, including batteries, solar PV and electrolytic cells, are also accelerating the rapid expansion of renewable energy, according to the IEA's World Energy Outlook 2022 report released on November 4.

The IEA forecast, released in October, said global carbon dioxide emissions would rise 1 percent in 2022 from last year, still rising but a significant slowdown from the 4 percent increase expected in 2021. Data from a British think tank also showed that the world saved about 230 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions from January to June 2022, thanks to growth in wind and solar power.

High fossil fuel prices and the urgency of climate change underscore the urgent need to accelerate the transition to renewable energy, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency's Global Energy Transition Outlook released in March.

However, the spread of renewable energy still faces difficulties, the Nikkei said.

First, the infrastructure for renewable energy generation is still inadequate. Vietnam, for example, is running short of power lines as renewable energy expands rapidly. The IEA believes that annual investment in transmission and distribution networks will have to more than triple to $800bn by 2030, if the world is to become carbon neutral by 2050 on schedule.

Second, fossil fuels still account for more. Global renewable power generation in 2021 has roughly quadrupled from 1985 to 28 percent of the world's total, but coal and natural gas still account for 36 percent and 23 percent, according to BP. And because renewable power generation is vulnerable to weather conditions, thermal power remains essential to regulating supply and demand.

Finally, the World Energy Outlook 2022 report points out that to achieve the Paris Agreement's goal of holding global average temperature rise to 1.5 ° C, global annual investment in renewable energy needs to reach US $4 trillion by 2030, and to do so, countries should develop stronger measures to increase investment in renewable energy. As highlighted in the IEA's previous Net Zero Emissions Roadmap to 2050, policies are needed to drive a historic surge in clean energy investment over the next decade.